6 Comments

Take THAT Google! Digital River Makes Fireclick Data Public

Jul 28, 2005
by

Here’s an interesting development in the Web analytics space. Digital River has decided to let the e-tailers and e-marketers benchmark themselves by making “key metrics data” from its Fireclick subsidiary publicly accessible within various categories such as catalogers involved in e-commerce. Take THAT Urchin (now owned by Google). I’ve got to think that this move was intentional – to beat Google (the Kingpin of making sense of and providing useful data) to the punch.

The First?
Am I behind on my reading (probably!) or is Digital River/Fireclick the first in its space to put such an index out there?

Benchmark Your Affiliate Program!
Now here’s where it gets interesting. Today, we can learn from the index that catalogers who use affiliate programs (and track them) are seeing a 1.5% aggregate affiliate conversion rate. Week-to-week growth is measured but the tool reports flat growth.

The electronics sector is seeing a strong (18%) decline in affiliate’s ability to close the sale while outdoor and sports affiliates are getting the job done better this week at 1.1%, a 38% increase. Anyone out there remember a company that moved to provide similar data only to be quashed by an affiliate network?

About Jeff Molander

Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell and corporate trainer to small businesses and global corporations like IBM and Brazil’s energy company, Petrobras. He’s an accomplished entrepreneur, having co-founded what is today the Google Affiliate Network. He’s adjunct digital marketing professor at Loyola University’s school of business and author of Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You.

Website: JeffMolander.com

Blog: Off the Hook Blog

Answers: AskJeffMolander.com

You can find Jeff on Twitter @jeffreymolander.

Filed under: Online Marketing
  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Quick- someone sue these people for making useful data public!

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Wow Great find Jeff. This is useful stuff and smart.

    Take anonymous, aggregate data and use it to provide useful benchmarks. I like the idea.

  • http://NoCookie Dan Leeds

    I've done some work with a usability/metrics company called NetConversions (now owned by Atlas) who provide a similar anonymous benchmarking service. It's a great side business for any metrics provider with enough penetration to have statistical relevance. You never really know what your metrics mean in the absolute without that level-setter.

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Dan,

    Do they have a public URL?

  • http://NoCookie Dan Leeds
  • http://NoCookie Jonathan Miller

    The FireClick stats are a great benchmark – I'd love to know how many participants they've got in each segment to see if it's a statistically relevant number.

    Shopping cart abandonment is a whopper – seems like the average is from 70% to 85%. I wonder if that metric is based on people trying to purchase or just never purchasing.