Bambino Direct : UK Affiliate Program Focus

Baby products is a massive online market with lots of potential for affiliates. Today's UK affiliate program focus features Bambino Direct whose affiliate program is on the Paid on Results network. The merchant profile reveals that Bambino Direct has an average basket value of £168 and offers affiliates a commission of 5% to 6% on each sale, depending on sales volume. The average commission is around £8.74 and the sites average conversion rate is 4.82%. So while the commission of 5% is quite low, the high conversion rate and the high average sale means that you can potentially earn around £42 for every 100 visitors you send to their site. Good potential there which illustrates the point that the commission rate is not the only factor to consider when choosing an affiliate program - the conversion ratio and average sale amount are important too!

Well, that's the theory anyway! Of course in reality your results will depend on how targetted your traffic is and how well you presell the visitor, etc etc. Well targetted 'buyer' keywords from a pay per click campaign, leading to a landing page with user reviews of the products should result in an even higher conversion rate, while obviously less targetted traffic (perhaps from a text ad or banner on a baby related site) are likely to have a lower conversion. However if you have a blog or website which covers topics like parenting, pregnancy, baby care or any website with a demographic which includes parents to be or current parents of babies and young children then this affiliate program would be a good fit.

Keywords for the baby and nursery products market: A quick look at the Google Adwords keyword tool shows the following phrases followed by the number of UK searches last month:
"baby safety" 165,000
"baby monitor" 201,000
"baby carrier" 135,000
"baby bedding" 90,500
"baby gear" 60,500
"baby products" 33,100
"nursery bedding" 450,000
"nursery furniture" 135,000
etc - so clearly lots of potential buyers out there.

So let's take a look at the Bambino Direct website... Nice, clean design. Lots of big name brands which means lots of potential keywords for ppc (pay per click) or seo (search engine optimization of your pages). Product categories include Pushchairs & Prams, Car Seats, Nursery Furniture, High Chairs, Gifts and Clothing - so again lots of potential for different ad campaigns using pay per click (to your own landing pages to avoid competing with the merchant) and for getting free traffic (from the 'natural' search engine results) to your website.
This is a merchant that could work well for a review site or blog with user submitted reviews of the products (to 'add value' for the visitor).

The featured products section of the site displays some 'high ticket' (high priced items) ranging from just under £500 to over £700 - so a nice potential commission for a sale there. The site also has free delivery on orders over £75; a special offers section and a clearance section (everybody loves a bargain!) and a 'price match promise' - all good selling points. Cookie length is a reasonable 90 days and a product datafeed and voucher codes are available for affiliates to use.

If you are interested in signing up as an affiliate of Bambino Direct you just need to join Paid on Results and apply. If the Bambino Direct affiliate program doesn't appeal to you then they have over 130 other affiliate programs to choose from.

Related UK affiliate programs:

Baby etc - aimed at first time Mums and Dads and sells high quality baby goods at competitive prices. The site offers advice for potential purchasers and information such as a shopping list for newborns. The product range includes baby clothing, nursery equipment, feeding equipment through to weaning plus really useful stuff when travelling with baby. Pays a decent 10% commission to affiliates. You can sign up at Affiliate Future.

Kiddies Kingdom - in the baby industry for over 17 years, they offer an extensive range of nursery goods and speedy next day delivery. Their range includes prams and pushchairs, cots & cotbeds, baby walkers, baby swings, highchairs, bouncers and travel cots. The site has a conversion rate of 2.64% and pays affiliates a commission of 4.50% to 7.50% per sale (depending on sales volume). Cookie length is 60 days and they have a product data feed for affiliates. You can join their affiliate program at Paid on Results.

Mothercare - Well known high street retailer in the baby/parenting sector with a wide range of clothing, pushchairs, nursery furniture and toys for mothers-to-be and pre-school children. Their website offers a commission of 4% to 5% to affiliates (again, depending on the volume of sales you send them) and you can sign up to be an affiliate at Buy.at.