Lost in Translation: The Global Problem

With global e-commerce expanding 13% annually for the past 5 years, the global potential for marketing apps, music, games, books, movies and other digital or physical goods through websites, apps, and social channels is mind-blowing.

At GeoRiot, we help online marketers like you maximize your global potential and optimize your revenue. To do that, we help you overcome a major obstacle—geo-fragmentation.

Geo-fragmentation is a common issue for international e-tailers and it creates two significant challenges:

First, international brands, like the iTunes Store, the App Store and Amazon, segment their online stores into distinct region-specific storefronts with distinct product IDs. That often leads to your international visitors to an error message when they click through to the e-tailer’s site from the link in your website, app or social post.

Second, many of these storefronts have their own, independent affiliate programs that track and credit affiliate revenue. For example, iTunes and the App Store have 155 distinct regional storefronts with 45 country specific affiliate programs serving them. To ensure you’re getting full credit for your referrals, you have to sign up for the right programs, use the right links, for the right countries.

Let’s look at a real-world example.

Emma visits your website from Sydney, Australia, and finds a song she loves. She clicks the link, planning to go buy the song. Because Emma is from Australia her iTunes account is specific for the Australian iTunes Store. Problem is, the link on your website is for the US store and references a U.S. ID. This ID doesn’t match the product ID in the Australian store.

So, instead of reaching the song she wants, our Aussie friend gets a big, fat error message. She isn’t pleased. And you probably lose a sale.

But let’s say, that by some twist of fate, Emma finds the song on her own, buys it, and then goes on to buy eight other songs, five apps, two books and a movie. She’s happy. But, if you’re not signed up for the Australian affiliate program, you just missed out on the commission you should have earned for those 16 additional purchases.

Now, imagine that scenario playing out in hundreds of countries with millions of shoppers. It’s easy to see why geo-fragmentation is a real problem for online marketers.

GeoRiot solves both geo-fragmentation issues, auto-magically, faster that the blink of an eye. Every time a GeoRiot link is clicked we do instantly do three things:

First, we determine where your visitor is coming from.

Second, we localize your link to reference the right product ID in the right international store for that specific visitor. This ensures they don’t see an error and helps you close the sale.

Third, we wrap up your link with the correct affiliate tracking to ensure you get full credit for the traffic you’re sending to the e-tailer. We’ll even help you sign up for the corresponding affiliate programs to make sure the revenue you earn is the revenue you receive.

Thanks to GeoRiot, there are no busted links, no missed sales, and no commissions left on the table. Nothing is lost in translation.

Learn more about the GeoRiot service and get started today.