Nick Robertson’s ASOS Clanger

Posted on 8 Mar 2007 in Merchants, Networks | 0 comments

“Next year we’ll reintroduce affiliate marketing but as it should be, as opposed to affiliates as they were” said Nick Robertson, ASOS CEO. “(There’ll be) no silly commissions being paid to grubby little people in grubby studios growing income at our expense, getting in the way of genuine sales” - NewMediaAge

What an absolute classic! So, in theory what Nick Robertson is saying is, that us Affiliates who once had a fantastic working relationship with ASOS.com and helped build them into a massive, successful business, are now being branded “grubby little people in grubby studios” who got got in their way!

Lets take a look at the business model that ASOS introduced. The income genereated by an affiliate was performance related, so every bit of income that an affiliate generated was done so by way of a genuine sale! How therefore can affiliates get in the way of genuine sales?

This has really ruffled a lot of feathers in the UK Affiliate Marketing world, and I truely feel that if Nick Robertson plans to re-introduce an affiliate program, he will find that not many UK Affiliates are willing to touch their program. Infact, there are calls for ALL networks to stand together on this issues, and reject any proposal they offer to manage or accept an affiliate program from ASOS.com

Fantastic quote, almost as good as Doing a Ratner ;)