Amazon is a popular choice for affiliate marketers but when it comes to the baby products, the giant isn’t the only marketplace to dominate this niche. In today’s review, we’ll be exploring the Buy Buy Baby affiliate program to see what kind of opportunities you can tap into. Is it better than Amazon? Let’s find out.
Buy Buy Baby Quick Facts
Founded in 1996, Buy Buy Baby is a retail company that sells toddler and young children’s products in the US. It’s home to hundreds of brands that specialize in the following categories;
- Strollers
- Car seats
- Gear and Travel
- Furniture
- Bedding and Decor
- Nursing and Feeding
- Bath and Potty
- Health and Safety
- Toys and Learning
- Clothing and Accessories
- Maternity
- Gifts and Personalization
Besides physical items, the company also provides nursery design services and credit card rewards. The online store currently ranked 11th in its market category and average about 4.75 million visitors per month.
Its affiliate program which is available through CJ Affiliate pays 1% commission for gift cards, 3% for qualified orders and $6 for every customer that creates a new registry. It’s worth noting that the company scores 5/5 in terms of network earning despite its short cookie period of 1 day.
Who Should Sign Up for The Program
Parents who’re interested in reviewing baby products online are great candidates for this program. Granted you need to have a blog beforehand because that’s the main criteria required by the advertiser. However, if social media is more of your thing, you can also leverage social channels like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to do your promotion. More on this later.
The Benefits of Buy Buy Baby Affiliate Program
By affiliating with this company, there are two major things you can benefit from – the store features and the ever-growing demand of the baby niche.
(1) If you take a few minutes to browse through the store, it’s undeniable that the interface provides a good shopping experience, whether one is using a desktop or mobile. The layout is more organized whereas, on Amazon, things are more overcrowded. Every product is supported with good quality images/video demonstrations and customer reviews which makes reviewing them a lot easier.
(2) Unlike on Amazon where there are risks of buying counterfeit, low-quality products that are sometimes dangerous for young children, Buy Buy Baby only sells original products that meet the safety standards. This speaks volumes in terms of honesty and reliability. You certainly don’t want to promote something useless for the customers.
(3) Even though no one can really match Amazon’s enormous inventory, Buy Buy Baby still carries a large number of products. Over 50K and counting, that’s a decent variety to offer customers and also to keep you busy with reviews.
(4) A feature that really stands out with this company is their approach with baby registries. There are plenty of online resources and tools to help new parents shop for the right item. When the total value purchased from the registry exceeds $1500, customers can enjoy unlimited free standard shipping throughout the baby’s first year.
They can also book an appointment with an in-store registry consultant and receive goodie bags containing samples, coupons, and a complimentary guide. With Amazon, you certainly won’t get any goodie bags and the bounty for baby registries is only $3 per lead.
And guess what? Baby registry attracts a lot of discussions especially amongst first-time parents and it’s a great sub-niche to blog about. Here are some targeted keywords to help you get started;
- what to buy for a baby shower gift
- inexpensive baby shower gift ideas
- personalized baby shower gifts for boys
- how to create a baby registry on Amazon
- how to create a baby registry on Target
- rocking chair for baby room
- newborn baby girl sleepers
- how to choose a baby sling
- baby monitor with screen and wifi
- earth-friendly baby gifts
(5) For social media aficionado, here’s the good news. Instead of the Buy Buy Baby affiliate program, you can join as an influencer by sharing photos or videos of your children with the company’s products on your favorite social channels.
Sign up as an ambassador and a tracking link will be given to you. The conversion for this is 5% which is a lot higher than the original affiliate commission. Advertisers don’t usually approve of social postings so it’s great that the company made an exception and actually reward such activities.
Definitely something worth considering for moms who want to earn money on the side, but don’t have the time to blog.
The Downsides of The Program
(1) The major disadvantage here is clearly the short cookie duration and low commission rate. A short referral period doesn’t favor conversion especially for higher-priced items where customers may need a longer time to decide on their purchases.
While the same situation applies to Amazon sales, Amazon associates get paid more at 4.5% commission for baby product orders. The difference isn’t a lot but your profit margin can fall short cumulatively if you’re promoting the same item which people can also buy from Amazon, plus all the perks they get as Prime members.
(2) The second disadvantage is that Buy Buy Baby doesn’t sell exclusively online. It has hundreds of retail stores across the nation where customers can shop from even after reading something interesting on your blog.
When that happens, you won’t be credited with any commissions because the purchase isn’t made through your affiliate links. That would be a bummer though but there’s nothing you can do about it.
Is Buy Buy Baby Affiliate Program Worth Joining?
The company has a very strong presence in the baby niche and I think it’s worth adding to your blog as an alternate choice to Amazon. If they also ace in personalization and customer service, then their products are definitely worth promoting.
I know – the lower commission rate can be a deterring factor, but as an affiliate marketer, I think providing values for customers should come first. When your blog is geared towards that, getting conversion through Buy Buy Baby (or other baby product brands, for that matter) would be a lot easier.
Here are some blogging tips you can apply while working your way through the program;
- Use a self-hosted WordPress site to run your blog. It adapts better to the changes in SEO, ranks articles higher on the search engines and helps get more eyeballs to your offers. If you have no experience building one OR not satisfied with your current hosting performance, use this powerful WordPress platform instead.
- Baby products are a broad niche so be more specific with your offers. If the company’s forte is the baby registry and free shipping, focus your content on those and you’ll have higher chances of attracting targeted traffic to your blog. Hint – use those long-tail keywords mentioned earlier in this post.
- Write reviews based on your personal experience as often as you can. Unboxing, product features, brand comparison, and personal ratings are some of the things readers will want to know in detail so be generous, candid and transparent with the information. Use Google Trend to find out what topics are worth writing and what you should avoid.
- Share on social media all the time. Baby topics are extremely popular on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram so select one or two of these channels to boost social traffic coming to your blog. This can improve your overall search engine rankings.
I hope with all these tips, you’re much better prepared to become a Buy Buy Baby affiliate, if you choose to become one. Let me know in the comment below if you’ve anything else to add. Meanwhile, check my recommended training to learn more about how to run a successful affiliate business.
Creators Hub says
Hi, Cathy. So glad to have found your blog today.
I am a “single” father of 3 amazing boys and I love shopping for my kids. The Buy Buy Baby affiliate program can easily be merged in a blog with selected Amazon baby products and a very unique service can be created from the collection.
Like you rightly put it, offering more values to the audience would definitely culminate in more income and the trust created would guarantee a repeat sale and long term client base. I am definitely gonna take advantage of the baby niche.
Hey, can you recommend other good marketplaces for baby brands? Thanks a bunch!
Cathy says
So glad you benefited from this article. It’s your lucky day because I’ve just finished compiling a long list of 11 baby products affiliate programs. Hope you will find some inspirations from those brands there.
Stephanie says
I’m glad I came across this article because I haven’t really seen any baby affiliate programs around (with the exception of Amazon). The diversity of products that they offer is huge and from what I’ve seen from the price range, it is quite affordable.
A mother always wants what’s best for her child and purchasing something that you know will not harm your baby and that it is a safe product for them, and finding a store like this can be extremely helpful.