Every sixth euro turned over in online retail is due to affiliate marketing
According to the German Retail Association (HDE), online retail in Germany generated 44 billion euros in sales last year—7.6 billion euros of which came from affiliate marketing transactions alone.
Compared to 2015 (6.98 billion euros), this corresponds to an increase of nine percent. "Affiliate marketing is one of the most important components in the marketing mix and is an important driver of online commerce - the current survey finally provides objective proof of this," says Dino Leupold von Löwenthal (Affilinet), Chairman of the Affiliate Marketing Focus Group at BVDW. "We have actually succeeded in convincing the majority of the market to take part in the survey and we can make a very precise statement on order value on this basis."
Shift to mobile in affiliate marketing too
Sales in affiliate marketing are also shifting towards mobile use: compared to the previous year (2015: EUR 0.88 billion), sales attributable to mobile transactions rose by 38% to EUR 1.21 billion in 2016. "This is analogous to the development in practically all areas of online marketing: mobile is driving growth and usage is shifting a little," explains Dino Leopold von Löwenthal. The travel category generates by far the largest volume of stationary sales, followed by telecommunications and fashion. The most important category in mobile, however, is fashion - travel and finance follow in second and third place, according to von Löwenthal.
About the survey
The market figure published by the Affiliate Marketing Focus Group is based on a survey of the affiliate networks organized in the BVDW. These have reported the respective key figures to an auditor, who has made these reports available to the BVDW in aggregated form - it is not possible to draw conclusions about the figures of individual companies. The market share of the companies participating in the survey is 60 percent.
