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Back in 2020 PayPal bought Honey, the largest coupon extension, for $4 billion in cash, their biggest acquisition to date. The incorporation took the marketing world by a storm as two e-commerce monoliths, dominating the payment platform and shopping extension spheres, joined forces. Honey has been a top partner at Advertise Purple for years. The majority of our clients are integrated with Honey because the platform drives profitability through connecting high intent shoppers with the right brands and products to suit their needs and providing them with an incentive to act now. PayPal capitalized on this by implementing a new PayPal rewards program at the end of last year that gives its 435 million users access to discounts on hundreds of thousands of products through Honey. It also links existing Honey users with their previous rewards points and allows them to continue to build their point balance and redeem them for cash or exclusive promos.
What does PayPal Honey X PayPal Rewards mean for Honey advertisers?
Nothing! Rest assured, Honey’s acquisition doesn’t affect any current or future advertisers ability to connect with millions of shoppers on a monthly basis. Despite the new name and branding, PayPal Honey works the same as when it was just Honey. Users can still browse thousands of products and brand storefronts in search of the best deals. They can enable price trackers for certain products to get notified when the item goes on sale and see the pricing history. The only difference is that the user’s reward points are now in a combined rewards bank of Honey and PayPal purchases. (Oh and since joining PayPal, Honey’s user base just got about 20x bigger meaning a bigger audience for advertisers!)
Why was Honey worth $4 billion to PayPal?
$4 billion seems like a lot of money to shell out on a software that’s actually helping users pay less for a product than it’s listed for. It seems counterintuitive. Isn’t the goal to make as much as you can off of each sale? Well in theory that sounds great, but we can tell you from over a decade working with brands and affiliates that incentives are the single biggest factor in driving conversions. Over 90% of consumers search for coupons for their online purchases and about 2/3 say that price is the biggest determinant in a purchase decision. Promotions significantly impact consumer’s purchasing behavior because it increases the value proposition. They might look at a product they weren’t necessarily going to purchase right then and there, but if they see that there’s a promotion running for 15% off and free shipping today only, they’re likely to feel a lot more pressure to purchase now because of the imminent deadline for the deal. And it’s not just me who thinks like this. Most shoppers find themselves searching for a deal before buying and/or influenced to buy something because of a deal they came across. Since Honey’s a browser extension it constantly scours the internet for relevant promotions for whatever website you’re on, finding deals for you even when you aren’t looking. And it’s exactly this that makes it such a great affiliate! It connects millions of people daily with rewards and promotions on all their shopping needs, ultimately making people buy more than they otherwise would without any incentives.
PayPal Honey X Advertise Purple
Advertise Purple recognized Honey’s effectiveness from it’s start and continues to work closely with the affiliate on thousands of client accounts to build unique promotional strategies to drive traffic and conversions for client programs through incentives that increase the product’s value for their customers. With a decade long business relationship, Advertise Purple uses their leverage to secure front and center promotions on the Honey website which prove incredibly effective for client campaigns. Shopping and discount sites are some of the best affiliates when looking at performance and conversion rates, and Honey is the best of the best. We’re looking forward to seeing the growth Honey experiences through its integration with PayPal and to discover what partnership opportunities come out of it!
