In the constantly-evolving affiliate marketing world, browser extensions remain powerful tools that shape consumer behavior and drive revenue for online retailers. Despite browser extensions’ growing popularity with consumers, they can be controversial for some affiliate marketers because they are sometimes viewed as taking credit for sales that might have happened anyways or disrupting the shopping experience.
Understanding the nuances of different types of browser extensions is crucial for retailers seeking to maximize their affiliate channel's potential. In this post, we’ll explore the different types of browser extensions that affiliate marketers can leverage to drive incremental sales for their programs.
The Most Popular Category: Shopping Companion Browser Extensions
Traditional cashback and coupon extensions remain staples of the affiliate ecosystem, offering consumers compelling incentives for their online purchases. These extensions provide valuable benefits to online shoppers, such as access to exclusive discounts and cash rewards, but have also been proven to directly influence consumer behavior and contribute to affiliate channel revenue.
In fact, CJ conducted a wide-ranging, massive research project about browser extensions and their effects on shopper behavior. The entire report is well worth a read, but in essence, the report disproved many marketers’ assumptions.
Instead of cannibalizing other marketing channels, delivering discounts that were too high, or disrupting a shopper’s journey, browser extensions did the opposite! In the CJ browser extension study, they were actually proven to supercharge conversion rates and average order values.
Cryptocurrency Rewards Extensions
Beyond the familiar shopping extensions, extensions also exist that cater to niche markets and capitalize on emerging trends to offer unique value propositions. An example is Lolli, a publisher that provides shopping rewards for online shopping with bitcoin instead of cashback.
Available as a standalone app and a shopping rewards browser extension, Lolli attracts a younger, high-income demographic interested in cryptocurrency. Brands targeting this tech-savvy audience should consider partnering with cryptocurrency rewards providers like Lolli, with its potential for reaching a more trendsetting consumer base.
AI-Powered Shopping Assistants
With the rise of generative AI and the ongoing improvements of the most popular LLMs, AI shopping assistants too have proliferated. Some are standalone apps, and some are browser extensions. These AI shopping assistants employ “conversational commerce” to have a two-way dialogue with users, helping to point them in the right direction for the products they seek.
An example is Vetted.AI, which is available as an iOS or Android app, and a Chrome extension. Billed as a "personal AI shopping agent," it guides shoppers by aggregating expert reviews, findings from Reddit discussions, and user feedback to inform product recommendations.
The shift towards conversational commerce helped by AI-powered tools reflects the evolving nature of the affiliate ecosystem.
Shoppable AI-Powered Content & Extensions
Related to AI shopping assistants, Wildfire itself has launched a new platform, RevenueEngine.ai, which adds ecommerce-enabled shopping links to any AI-generated content that might include brand recommendations or products. It’s the answer to how affiliate marketing and ecommerce fits in now that AI is creating and publishing content.
RevenueEngine also offers a Chrome browser extension, which helps content creators more quickly develop content featuring brands/products (such as comparison articles). It automatically includes shoppable affiliate links in the content it generates.
To keep an eye on this growing category, online retailers should bookmark There’s An AI for That, which currently tracks over 12,000 different AI tools for different task categories including shopping assistants.
As new browser extension categories such as rewards publishers or AI shopping assistants and content creation tools launch and gain traction, affiliate marketers should remain open to working with these next-generation shopping tools and explore new partnerships.
Doing so will ensure they are strategically situated to have their brands or products mentioned, and increase the opportunity to drive incremental sales from consumers using these up-and-coming tools.
