Every time Apple launches the next iPhone model, the world scrambles to get hold of the shiny new product. Every retailer is desperate to get ahead of the competition and get their stock listed first at a competitive price. And our Affiliate Marketing client, Three Mobile, is no different.  In 2022, they turned to the team at Summit and Productcaster tech to ensure that their products beat the competition. 

The Challenge

Over the years, Three has relied on our Affiliate team and our proprietary tech FeedManager tool to help them be first to market. Being the first retailer to list the new iPhone has a huge impact on sales. For example, when the iPhone 12 was released in October 2020, Summit got Three first listing on Uswitch and visible on Affiliate channels within 5 minutes, leading to a 125% increase in YOY sales. 

This achievement doesn’t come without its challenges. In particular, Apple’s strict timescales on releasing any information only gives a limited amount of time to organise and act. So, when the 1pm deadline was reached, the Productcaster team sprang into action for the third year in a row. 

The Approach

The team worked seamlessly with colleagues at Three in the run up to the launch to make sure that the product feed was up-to-date and published on FeedManager immediately as soon as the embargo lifted. The tool is incredibly quick and pushes the feeds faster than most other technologies, which is vital in such a competitive launch situation.  

Whereas some providers have limitations on how often they can publish feeds. FeedManager can be updated every hour, with the capacity to create a manual push when needed. The technology is designed to ensure that any changes you make are done quickly, ensuring your products can be seen first. ​ 

The Results

This approach and usage of FeedManager meant that Three's offers for the new iPhone were featured before any other providers. As people like to be "first" when buying new phones like these, appearing first in comparison sites makes a big difference to the amount of sales you can generate from a phone launch 

In short 

  • Three’s Apple iPhone 14’s was the first to appear on Uswitch with the feed updated and released in under 30 seconds. ​ 
  • Week-on-week handset sales up 120%.​ 
  • 22% increase in traffic 

“The team at Summit were highly instrumental in the success of our iPhone launch, with the speed and efficiency of both the people and the product feeds allowing us to appear on key partner sites before any of our competitors. This allowed us to gain momentum and take hold of the #1 positions which are so important for sales on price comparison websites. 

A big thank you to the team at Summit for their efforts!” 

Iain Davidson – Lead Affiliate Manager at Three UK 

Visit our FeedManager pages to find out how optimising your feed could help you drive more sales. You could even be eligible for a FeedCheck report, helping your understand the health of your product feed (and how you can improve).