How to Make Your Affiliate Programme Profitable | #680

Mareile Osthus runs 500 to 700 mystery shops a week. What surprises her most is when the basics don’t work.Mareile led buying at Zalando and THE ICONIC before founding Humii, which sends real mystery shoppers through online stores from search to refund. Humii’s data now powers the Online CX Index with Inside Retail.In this episode:Functionality, transparency, expectations - the three things behind every great online experienceChatbot obstruction - why bots now cause 7% of site abandonment, up from 3%Click your own links - the basics to check before Black FridayPlanning your holiday trading? Grab Shopify’s Holiday Retail 2026 report. Read the report | Download the Australian versionConnect with Mareile Osthus Explore HumiiSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Modibodi cut its affiliate commission from 14% to 6% and almost tripled revenue. The partners doing the real work came out earning more.This Playbook is anchored by Annabel Gray, VP of APAC at Silverbean, who has spent 15 years helping brands stop getting ripped off in affiliate. Her warning: set-and-forget cashback just mops up demand you already had.In this playbook, we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about making an affiliate programme profitable:Pay the partner who introduced the customer, not whoever clicked lastSet commission for the value each partner brings inCheck the growth is real before you push harderMoving off Salesforce Commerce Cloud? Get Convert Digital’s migration guide.Connect with Annabel Gray Explore SilverbeanSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Forever New has been dressing Australian women for 20 years and now trades in more than 25 countries. In this exclusive, CIO Robert Lupone and Convert Digital founder Andrew Waite unpack how they moved four markets off Magento and onto Shopify in nine months.The standout moment: the guiding rule was to build as little as possible, and Forever New’s cancellation rates are now the lowest they’ve ever been.In this episode:Protect the customer experience - why the brief wasn’t a feature listNative first - use Shopify out of the box, partner where needed, and only build what sets you apartGo global in stages - four markets rolled out a week apart, with Australia lastIf you’re weighing up a move off an ageing platform, Convert Digital has led Shopify migrations for brands like Chemist Warehouse, Showpo and Lorna Jane. Talk to Convert Digital here.Connect with Robert Lupone and Andrew Waite Explore Forever New and Convert DigitalSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Utility is about being chosen. Discovery is about being remembered. That’s how Mark Mansour sees retail splitting as AI agents start doing the shopping.Mark has spent 20 years on the platform side of retail, from PayPal and eBay to building retail media, loyalty and marketplace businesses inside one of Australia’s biggest retailers. This episode lands on his first day as Managing Director APAC at QSIC.In this episode:Utility versus discovery - why some purchases go to agents and others still need inspirationDon’t become inventory - what happens to brands that lose the direct relationshipFish where the fish are - how to think about marketplaces without being everywhereConnect with Mark Mansour Explore QSICSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Customers have got very good at spotting fake urgency. And the cart is the worst place to lose their trust.This Playbook is anchored by Sylvie Wilson, co-founder of Unicorn Cart, which runs the cart on more than 400 stores. Her data shows carts with a gift with purchase convert 23.7% higher, because the offer is real and it runs out.In this playbook, we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about creating urgency in ecommerce:Point urgency at a real limit on stock or timeTreat fake urgency as a trust cost that follows customers to checkoutBuild the urgency into the offer, not the pageConnect with Sylvie Wilson Explore Unicorn CartSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Dorry Kordahi called Swanky Socks a hobby when he bought half of it. It had been running for three years and turned over $40,000 a year.Dorry built DKM Blue from his parents’ garage, then used that B2B know-how to turn Swanky Socks into a retail brand corporates want their logo on. Swanky has now sold nearly 4 million pairs of Australian merino and bamboo socks in more than 30 countries.In this episode:Retail brand, B2B engine - why corporates pay for a sock with a $29.95 retail valueHolding the price - why constant discounting trains customers to wait for the saleKnow your numbers - why Dorry pulled back on Google when his agency wanted him to double itMoving from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify? Get Convert Digital’s migration guide.Connect with Dorry Kordahi Explore Swanky SocksSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Most of Conni’s customers wish they never had to buy its products. By the time they do, they probably needed them four weeks ago.This Playbook is anchored by Norm Douglas, CEO of Conni, which has made reusable absorbent products in North Geelong for around 25 years. His team talks about pee and poo as plainly as sizing, because it’s a normal part of life.In this playbook, we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about marketing awkward products:Design for the moment the need arrives, not the moment you want to sellSay it plainly, using the words your customers actually usePlan for the ad platforms that will flag you, and lean on the channels you ownConnect with Norm Douglas Explore ConniSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Nakisah Williams’ first embroidery attempt was so bad she hid it in a drawer. Years later, it became the reason every Craft Club kit is built to be fail-proof.Nakisah launched Craft Club in 2021 with six cross-stitch designs. It now sells kits across a long list of crafts, ships worldwide and has its own community app with more than 8,000 members.In this episode:Category of one - why Craft Club grows fastest in crafts nobody else is sellingTesting without the risk - preorders and a Shenzhen warehouse that turns stock back into cash in weeksOwning the community - why Craft Club built its own app instead of relying on FacebookConnect with Nakisah Williams Explore Craft ClubSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Plenty of brands have tried AI ads and given up. It’s usually not the tool’s fault. The output doesn’t look like the brand, and fixing one thing breaks three others.This Playbook is anchored by Sam Kroonenburg, who sold A Cloud Guru for just over $2 billion and now runs Cuttable, an AI ad platform. Before building it, his team sat down with 50 to 70 brands to work out why AI creative wasn’t working.In this playbook, we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about briefing AI so it doesn’t make slop:Start with the shoot assets you already own, and keep feeding the libraryWrite the rules before you hand over the keys, like True Classic’s ten-page decision fileDefine what on brand means, because only a human can decide thatConnect with Sam Kroonenburg | Explore CuttableSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Courtney Ray built Daily Blooms so she'd never need a flower shop. Now she's opening one.Eight years in finance showed her the problem with florists. High rent and a shop full of stock that dies in days. So in 2014 she sold one bouquet a day online and stopped when it sold out. More than a million customers later, Daily Blooms is opening a store in Fitzroy. In Add To Cart episode #672, Courtney explains why it sits in the marketing budget.Today, we're discussing:The working capital problem behind the one-bouquet-a-day model Why the new store is treated as marketing spend The friendship index and how Klaviyo segmentation puts it to work Why Valentine's Day is capped at 10x a normal day Connect with Courtney | Explore Daily BloomsSubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community