I agree that people are getting more savvy when it comes to Discount Codes, however I disagree with the line of thought that if someone is looking for COMPANY-A DISCOUNT, then gives a fairly strong indication of a purchase from COMPANY-A. It only give a strong indication that COMPANY-A stocks or is likely to stock the product they customer after.

Personally, if I wanted to buy a Karcher Jet Washer, I would not automatically think ARGOS catalogue and if I found no discounts, I would not continue to purchase the product from them. I would continue my search for a CURRYS discount, then LITTLEWOODS discount etc. The end customer is not longer bothered which merchant they use, as loyalty is going out of the window. What an end user wants is the best deal and to save some money and this is what merchants need to realise. Times are changing.

As for whether affiliates should or shouldn’t be listing websites that have no valid discount codes, this was discussed on the forums (http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55257). Some may see this as unethical, however if a visitor of mine clicks on an TESCO link that has no discount and continues to purchase anyway, then yes I should get the commission as I attarcted the customer.

Another way of looking at this, moving away from the Discount Scenario is Cash Back Sites. Is this really any different? Surely without Cash Back Sites the visitor would have gone to TESCO.com and made a purchase anyway. Again, the merchant would have obtained a sale anyway, yet the visitor chose to go via a specific link in order to get Cash Back, not a great deal different to a discount, and therefore the merchant has had to pay commission on a sale that may have come directly.

I do think merchants using discount codes as part of their online offering is a good thing. They do however have to factor in the additional affiliate commission and network override if they supply/allow affiliates to use them. Online buyers are now savvy to searching for discount codes which means margins from existing purchases are eroded and as you point out needs to be balanced by growth from new sales. Affiliates are a proven means of delivering these new sales but for some there is a fine line.

An area of concern for merchants regarding discount codes is the way some affiliate discount code sites drop cookies.

In essence an online viewer can locate a discount voucher site quite easily, on accessing the site they select a category or merchant, when this page loads, a cookie is automatically dropped.

This all occurs regardless of whether they then choose to click through to the merchant site, whether the discount code is relevant, valid or even available.

Now as far as a merchant is concerned, someone looking for their discount code, gives a fairly strong indication of a purchase. The process above means that regardless of the action of the visitor, when they purchase from the merchant site (with or without a code), then an affiliate commission will be recorded.

I appreciate that not all discount code sites operate this way and that those that do may claim they lose out on sales from visitors who merely use them for the code and do not click through to the merchant site from their links. But this is something all affiliates have to live with and adds to the transparency of our industry, free branding and awareness with cookies only being dropped on a valid click through to a merchant site.

It blurs the line of what’s appropriate and what’s not. It’s not the worst thing an affiliate can do but would merchants approve if they were aware of it?

From a merchants perspective it’s less ‘Did you drop your shopping basket?’ and more a question of ‘Did your drop a cookie?’

Cheers for the comments showing a networks point of view on this issue.

I fully understand and agree with your comments relating to the inability of merchants websites. I suspect 99.9% of times, merchants are setup and running before approaching a network and as such may not have included that in their original design spec. A bit of an oversight on their part, or lack of understanding of ecommerce maybe. Hopefully merchants will introduce this functionality to their website in future upgrades, releases or redisgns, not only for use by affiliates but general taregtting as detailed in the NMA article.

As for devaluing a brand… if I read it correctly, this isn’t necessarily your POV, but what merchants are telling networks. However, if you take a quick snapshot of companies (in an out of the affiliate industry) that offer discount and promotional codes, it becomes apparent that this is no longer an excuse.

PC World, Tesco, Virgin, HMV, La Senza, Marks & Spencers, Littlewoods… these are just a few that have offered discounts to new or existing users in the past, and some continue to do so. Never have these online specials devalued any of the above brands and neither does it devalue smaller companies such as Prezzybox, Love Honey, BeCheeky.

If Affiliate Window are presented with the argument of discount codes devaluing a brand, do you guys/girls provide examples of large well known establishments to run such deals and explain how successful they are?

I appreciate that Affiliate Window are extremely helpful in supplying regular email updates regarding discount codes, as well as highlighting these from the Affiliates homepage once logged in.

Chris

However, something we sometimes encounter is an inability from a technical perspective for advertisers to integrate these codes.

Another common theme is the idea that a discount can ‘devalue’ a brand. In this case, the network can ask ’til they’re blue in the face but to no avail. An affiliate network’s request doesn’t cut much mustard against an entire organisation’s branding policies.

There are other considerations that tend to be on a case by case basis but rest assured, it’s not through lack of asking that more voucher codes aren’t available.

Finally we do try and update affiliates as soon as we know of an on site promotion – unfortunately we don’t always receive more than a few hours notice.

We’re getting there – and if you’d like to receive the rolling discount spreadsheet we update then drop me a line – it features all the current discounts/incentives our advertisers offer.

Cheers,
Kevin