#Iconomy perms software
#Iconomy perms plus

Amazon boasts 430,000 affiliates-the most of any online store-which comes to about $200 million in sales. But the content sites give up only a 3% to 12% slice of a retail sale in affiliate deals they give up more like 95%.Īffiliate deals account for $5 billion in annual sales, or 13% of Web retail commerce.

#Iconomy perms plus

The catch: an up-front development fee of $10,000 to $100,000, plus a cut of sales. Iconomy and firms like it assume all the hassle.

#Iconomy perms software

Then the content site had to deal with the universal headaches of retailing: handling returns and complaints, negotiating distribution agreements with manufacturers and shipping companies, correcting software snafus.

Previously a content site's only alternative to diverting its users to online stores was to build its own retail outlet, which can take up to a year and cost as much as $10 million. Autobytel recently ran an article on safe driving, with an Iconomy link to let readers buy safety flares. His clients include Ediets and Autobytel, the car-buying site. Iconomy's store lets sites control what they sell and where they sell it. 'If you're a content or community site, you're focused on building your brand and increasing site 'stickiness.' The affiliate model is contrary to that,' says Aaron Day, chief of Iconomy in Cambridge, Mass.ĭay, 24, started his firm as an online retailer with its own affiliate program before morphing it into Iconomy in 1998. Vcommerce and firms such as Vitessa, Iconomy and Escalate will build and run your Web storefront, handling merchandising, inventory and shipping.

That's why some sites are throwing in with a new creature: the commerce service provider. If redirected users don't make a purchase, it has given away its traffic for nothing. But it is bittersweet: The small outlet risks sending away a visitor who never returns. The affiliate deal has long been a staple of the Web, letting a small site refer its users to an online retailer in exchange for a 5% to 7% cut of any sale.