Client Success Story: Cowshed & Accelerate

We understand that our clients are being asked to do more with less. They need to find new customers, expand into new markets, increase revenue and maximise their affiliate campaigns. Via Rakuten Advertising’s Accelerate service brands can do just do this.

Accelerate reduces the amount of resource brands need to dedicate to their affiliate program by having their Rakuten Advertising account team oversee the day-to-day tasks and long-term partner and publisher strategies to boost success. Additionally, Accelerate runs on a business model completely unique to affiliate that generates revenue quickly and effectively.

This week, we speak to Harry Melsom, Head of Digital Marketing – Retail at Soho House & Co about Cowshed’s experience with Accelerate.

What appealed to you most about Rakuten Advertising’s Accelerate Offering?

The revenue growth potential and launching the channel in the US. Also, of huge significance for us was the expertise brought on to the account from a reporting, revenue tracking, feed implementation and legal perspective.

I know its early days still but what changes have you observed on your account since launching on accelerate?
In the case of Cowshed, we’ve seen Year-on-Year revenue double. A significant portion of growth has come from newly on-boarded publishers and an advertiser profile which reflects the brand.

What benefits have these had on your overall business?
The main benefit besides revenue has been the time saving, which after re-platforming two websites and launching a new collection for Autumn-Winter, we’ve been very grateful for.

How does performance compare to affiliate campaigns prior to using accelerate?
Cowshed’s Year-on-Year revenue growth has doubled, and we’re very excited about what the future holds for Soho Home.

As part of the accelerate program, your account manager now runs all aspects of your Affiliate program, how has this decision benefited your performance and the ROAS you’re seeing?
The ROAS has halved but remains extremely positive. We adore our account manager and we trust her fully to make the right calls to manage an outlay for affiliates which, intuitively, we believe has far more potential than what we were able to make of it pre-accelerate.

How do sales driven by the affiliate channel compare to those driven via other digital channels?
Taken as a mean average across the year, AOV is higher than other advertising “push” channels, but lower than demand fulfilment channels. Affiliates Sales tend to reflect top sellers that we have elsewhere and UPT is in line with other channels. Relative to other channels, Affiliates sees a higher performance boost when we’re running promotions, so I think it will serve us well for end of season clearance before a product goes to discount wholesale.

What advice would you give to an Advertiser considering launching on Accelerate?
It’s called accelerate. But don’t run before you can walk. Focus on a core objective of revenue and track key things like revenue share from newly recruited publishers before focusing on some of the “cleverer” aspects of Rakuten Advertising’s partnership like dynamic commission.

Above all and apologies if this sounds bleeding obvious, but I’d advise the advertiser to set clear revenue expectations you have from the channel broken down by week. This way all parties can stay focused on a clear goal and see how performance is tracking vs. that expectation.

To find out how your brand can utilise Rakuten Advertising’s Accelerate service visit www.rakutenadvertising.com to speak to one of our experts.