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Online companies continue to seek new business strategies in e-commerce to meet consumers' needs. Several studies regard the affiliate program as today's new business model in e-commerce in order to strengthen profitability.
Affiliate program, in a broad sense, refers to any type of revenue sharing program where an affiliate web site receives a portion of income for delivering sales, leads, or traffic to a merchant web site. Although there is no online apparel company on the outstanding stage doing affiliate programs, affiliate marketing is gaining more importance in apparel business. Affiliate marketing includes the notion of e-commerce, online marketing, and relationship marketing.
The purpose of this study was to provide insights into and comprehension of affiliate networking and its overall importance to e-commerce. This exploratory research was conducted with both qualitative and quantitative methods on apparel and accessories related to online shopping sites. Content analysis of online affiliate contracts and statistical analysis of the key components of the contracts was used to seek a better understanding of affiliate programs.
Findings and discussion of the study provide implications for theoretical researchers, e-commerce educators in the textiles and apparel industry, and practical marketers for all affiliate networking companies.