Question
A friend was talking about ShareASale and thought it could help my business. Could you please tell me what ShareASale does and if it can be implemented on my website?
Answer
ShareASale helps retailers do what's called affiliate marketing. Basically, they bring you, the retailer, together with people who are willing to sell your products on their website, called affiliates. These affiliates promote your products using a variety of means such as writing articles about your products or designers, blogging about your new arrivals and trends, etc. Visitors are directed from the affiliate's website to your website where they make their purchases. In return for helping you sell your products, affiliates receive a commission on the goods that are sold online.
Modern Retail can certainly help you implement ShareASale on your website. In general, there are two things that need to happen:
- Product Catalog Feed - Modern Retail needs to configure your catalog so a feed of all the items in your catalog get sent to ShareASale, say nightly.
- Tracking Code - We need to add a little piece of code to your website so ShareASale knows when a referral from one of their affiliate results in a sale on your website, often referred to as a conversion.
Please contact ShareASale to establish your account. Once you do, you'll get a Merchant ID which you'll need to give Modern Retail. You'll also receive Tracking Code that needs to be added to your website. Submit all of this in a Support Request and we'll get ShareASale configured for you. Thank you.
Product Catalog Feed Specification
Attached is a copy the feed specification for ShareASale.