Do you want to grow your online sales? It could be an affordable approach to expand your network and drive more sales through referral links. I became interested in how this approach may work for small businesses starting out, and started to explore what other E-commerce platforms were offering to customers this realm. One Ecommerce shop provider had options to install third party Affiliate program apps, which may have some benefits like a network of affiliate partners, and also drawbacks like added cost and data divergence. We are experimenting with a super simple solution in house to track shopping carts and whom in your network is responsible for getting you that sale. Then, rewarding them so you both get paid, and further expand your outreach.

Let's take a look at one business operating on SBO's platform, and how adding an affiliate program to may help to grow online sales. Let's have a look at the throwback themed, splendidly simple affiliate feature in a screenshot here below.

Figure 1: Screenshot sample of the affiliate program in the backend of SBO's platform. Here we can view statistics like conversion rate, and all requests from their link.

Let's imagine for a second we are a candle business selling candles and knowing there is room and opportunities to increase our online sales by networking with other businesses who can benefit along with us. It may be wise for us to seek out businesses such as wedding planners who often require candle vendors for table placements or gifts for guests. If they are to keep a vendors list or add our affiliate links within their content and online existence, we could offer them an affiliate commission of say, 10%, or really whatever deal, percentage or. agreement we dream up.

It could even behoove us to connect with bloggers online who are reviewing candles, and offering affiliate links to grow exposure and back-links to our candle business website. Meanwhile, it is pretty easy for a person or company to make some extra cash while improving their service offering to the customers they serve. Please let us know what you think of this setup, what you like or don't like about it and whatever else you'd like to share.