The interesting thing about what technology e-commerce websites use to track affiliate sales is that it has remained fairly stagnant. The components that go into tracking sales made from clicks on an affiliate link are quite old. While some bells and whistles have changed, the underlying core of the technology has remained fairly constant.
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This is a great opportunity because this Web 1.0 era technology can use can overhaul. At the very least, it needs a major reinvention because we are now living in the mobile age. An increasing number of clicks generated to websites come from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately, a lot of the affiliate tracking technology hasn’t really kept up with the times. This of course opens up a lot of opportunities for fraud and traffic manipulation.
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Moreover, outside of fraud, there might be missed sales opportunity here. We’re living in the age of mobile and there’s a lot of location-specific selling that’s not being done. A lot of online merchants are leaving a lot of money on the table.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if your mobile phone only showed ads that are relevant to the set of circumstances surrounding you? We’re not just talking about your location. Your search history as well as app usage history sets a personal context. This personal context can then influence the ads being sent to you. The whole point is to capture the mind frame of the prospect and provide contextual ads that speak and are directly relevant to the context of the prospect. There should also be emotional triggers to the ads being sent.
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Moreover, since mobile phones are so dynamic and video-friendly, the ads can take the form of audio or even videos. There’s a lot of progress that can be made with affiliate sales technology and this isn’t being done. At the very least, make the message personal and relevant by fully exploiting the full range of features packed into a typical mobile device.