One product category saw a revenue increase of
Another category saw an increase of
Barker and Stonehouse are a leading independent furniture retailer in the UK, known for their stylish, sustainable, and high-quality home furnishings. With both physical showrooms and a strong online presence, the brand offers everything from sofas and beds to dining, storage, and garden furniture. Their long-standing reputation for design, quality, and service has made them a trusted choice for customers furnishing their homes.
Barker and Stonehouse have been a long-standing client with a mature affiliate program. With all the key partners already onboard and performing well, the challenge became how to continue driving incremental growth without simply spending more.
The program operates within a fixed annual budget, which the team strategically allocates across commissions and tenancy placements. With spend already earmarked for key trading periods, there was little room for traditional, broad CPA increases. The team needed a smarter, more targeted approach to unlock new growth opportunities while also protecting costs.
The Silverbean team proposed an innovative strategy: product-specific CPA increases.
Instead of applying uplifts across the entire program, commission increases were selectively applied to certain product categories, starting with upholstery and garden, and later expanding to beds and other bedroom furniture.
The benefits of this approach included:
The strategy began with small-scale tests. By analysing category-level performance, the team could compare uplift in sales for the incentivized products against savings made by not applying increases program-wide.
The tests were so successful that the initiative quickly evolved into a core part of the program. Today, product-specific CPA increases are now business-as-usual activity on the account, helping Barker and Stonehouse continue to see strong results without increasing total spend.
The SKU-specific CPA increases delivered impressive results across multiple partners, proving the value of a targeted approach:
TopCashback – Upholstery campaign: Increasing CPA on upholstery by 8% and 6% across all products drove:
TopCashback – Dining Chairs campaign: Offering 8% CPA on dining chairs (with the incentive only applied on purchases of four or more) resulted in:
Collinson – Garden Furniture campaign: With 8% CPA on garden furniture and 6% on all products, the campaign generated:
Reward Gateway – Garden Furniture campaign: Increasing CPA on garden furniture to 8% delivered:
Across the board, these results showed that targeted CPA uplifts on specific SKUs could drive significant revenue and category growth without inflating overall program costs.
Rapid, targeted impact: Applying CPA increases to specific SKUs delivered significant growth in just days, proving that even a mature program can achieve fast wins with focused initiatives.
High-value categories drive results: Incentivizing key areas like upholstery, dining chairs, and garden furniture encouraged partners to prioritize profitable products, maximizing ROI.
Small-scale tests reduce risk: Running short, controlled trials allowed the team to measure impact, refine strategies, and scale successful initiatives confidently.
Budget protection is possible: Narrowly targeted CPA uplifts ensured commissions were only spent where they drove the most value, preserving budget for tenancies and peak trading periods.
Innovation keeps programs growing: Even in well-established programs, thinking creatively, like using SKU-level incentives, prevents stagnation and sparks new growth opportunities.
