BrandSwap – Brand to Brand Partnerships
How to Use Brand-to-Brand Partnerships for a Peak Season Boost
Retail’s annual peak season presents a major opportunity to raise sales volumes, capture new customers, and end the year on a high.
October – December is historically retail’s busiest quarter as crowds of shoppers head online and offline to snap up their must-haves over events like Black Friday and the holidays.
Understandably, the heightened interest from consumers breeds intense competition among retailers. You must think differently to stand out or risk fading into the background.
That’s where brand-to-brand partnerships come in.
Retailers have found that by teaming up with like-minded brands, they can structure their offers to be more compelling and profitable.
How brand-to-brand partnerships can power your peak season
Brand-to-brand partnerships usually involve a retailer offering a gift from a brand partner in exchange for an action from their customers. Each time a gift is redeemed, the retailer is paid a commission.
It’s a situation where everyone wins. Retailers generate revenue from sharing brand partner rewards. Customers get extra value for their money. Meanwhile, the brand partners usually leverage the reward to acquire the customer themselves, through a subscription or similar.
There are many reasons to use brand partnerships in peak season. Here are some obvious ones:
- Extra value: Customers love getting value for money over events like Black Friday. Brand partner rewards could either be the pre-purchase incentive they’re looking for, or the post-purchase icing on the cake.
- A different approach: Many customers experience discount fatigue in Q4 after being overwhelmed by incessant price cuts. Brand partner rewards offer something unique amid the chaos.
- Margin retention: Using a brand partner reward to incentivise an action (i.e. a sale) means retailers protect their margin. It’s a big plus, considering two-thirds of retailers see events like Black Friday as unprofitable due to the pressure to discount their own products.
Brand-to-brand partnership strategies for peak season
Now we’ve outlined how brand-to-brand partnerships can contribute to Q4 success, let’s go into some ways of using them.
Gift with purchase
‘Gift with purchase’ – or GWP – is the perfect tactic for retailers looking to preserve their margin in Q4.
In this highly popular strategy, a retailer offers a ‘gift’ from a brand partner to incentivise a sale. The reward can take many forms, although you can expect lots of brands to team up with subscription-based businesses and offer a free month of their service.
When the customer redeems the gift, the retailer is also paid a commission for referring them, delivering two results from one strategy.
Offering deep discounts over events like Black Friday can make it difficult to turn a profit. GWP offers the rare benefit of driving a conversion at full price.
Target AOV
Increasing your average order value (AOV) might be a challenge over Q4. After all, customers generally expect value for money.
One way of optimising your GWP campaigns is to offer a brand partner reward in exchange for a higher level of spend. Here, a customer is asked to spend above a certain amount to qualify for a free gift.
It’s a bold strategy, but a strong reward can justify a bigger order.
Consider seasonality
The biggest brand partner won’t always be the most popular. Consider which advertiser might enjoy a bigger audience over the holidays and apply a seasonal focus.
Recently, electrical leader Currys tasked BrandSwap with assessing preferences for brand partner rewards at different times of the year. Craft beer and wine subscriptions performed particularly well as customers embraced the festivities. Post-December, meal kit subscriptions saw a spike as customers looked to embrace healthy habits.
The challenge is how to present these offers. As Coca-Cola will confirm, marketing around the holidays is all about positioning and playing on festive themes.
Find your own top performers and see how rewards can play a much bigger part in your peak plans.
Act post-purchase
We’ll finish on a post-peak season strategy to help you maintain the Q4 momentum.
When someone makes a purchase, it’s important to have a follow-up action. Brand partner rewards are crucial in this instance.
Firstly, they create a chance to drive a second purchase without using a discount. Secondly, you can use purchase data to propose a higher level of commission.
Imagine you’re an electronics retailer that’s sold a heap of TVs over Q4. That audience of new TV buyers could be highly valuable to streaming services, audio equipment suppliers, and more.
Acting post-purchase can unlock revenue in places you never knew it existed, helping you make peak season the best yet.
Next steps
Follow in the footsteps of retail leaders by incentivising your customers through brand-to-brand partnerships.
Get in touch with our team to find out more.
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