Next – APA summery
The whole Next saga kicked off as APA were undergoing the new site changes. Now thats done, Id like to have a bit of a catch up on this subject.
After a much heated debate over at affiliates4u regarding the online store called NEXT, Ill not revisit the story you can go explore it all here follow the crumb trail.
We, at APA have surmised that the Next third party agency that was used to give good advice to Next re their affiliate program, either succumbed to “the client is always right” in which case I would be advising the agency to drop Next, as if this is the case, why did Next bother with consultancy in the first place if they were just going to go against “expert” advice? Or if the Agency advised Next, every step of the way and Next were ignorant of the particulars, Id be looking for a new agency. If it was a bit of both, then this is a shining example of how not to run an affiliate program, but more then that and I think this is what gnaws at me the most, is the way some affiliates were treated, am I surprised? sadly no not really.
It was noted that the affiliate networks usual hollering about their network’s uniqueness and better then their competitors and major sucking up to affiliates… fell unusually silent when it came to their big brand client’s program and poor Fiona was left to do battle all by herself. I take my hat off to Fiona for entering the lions den and having the guts to try an put their side of the story across. Fiona girl… well done to you! Im sure the comment about affiliates polluting the waters was an oversight and upon reflection, Im sure it was not meant in the way it unfortunately came across. You may not have won the battle, but you got my respect for doing something that I would not have envied and credit where due.
Even Chris, Elaine and QGJ must concede that at least the dialogue was opened up.
Too little too late? No I don’t think so. It’s never too late to turn a negative experience into a positive one, just depends on who is listening and if any lessons have been learnt?
The message is very loud and clear to affiliates that had promoted NEXT, that they were seen as a herd of sheep, some were kept on and some were slaughtered, a clear signal and heads up those affiliates are cheap labour and disposable and worthless. Its clear that Next wanted affiliate traffic but did not want to pay for it and by offering an insulting 1% commission for sales during the Next post Christmas sale and a staggering default commission of 2% out of sale for new customer acquisition, customer retention and lifting brand awareness and a cookie date that I can only think that the collective powers that be, were on something funny, was a tad insulting.
Reading between the lines, Next white label goods, which we know carry smaller margins, could be the reason why the commissions were so low, but if this was the case, POR, Awin, Affut and TD, well most aff networks are able to offer multi-tier commission based on product category. Example, Next sell clothes, margins are going to be higher, affiliates could easily get 8% commission without blinking twice. Next offer washing machines, which carry lower margins and 2% commission whilst a little low on the commission side of things, would not have been too much of an issue as we know the Next site converts, so volume of sales vs lower commission would, I suspect be acceptable. Having a multi- tiered commission affiliate program is nothing new. So perhaps Next could not split out the reporting? Well in this scenario and it is possible, what you would need to do is look at taking a hit on some margins in order to acquire a new customer, did we all forget that metric? What is the life time value of a Next customer?
Apparently Buy.at and Next are going to introduce a multi-tiered commission affiliate program, I have to ask the question why Next did not do this in the first place? If the technology was not there from Next’s end, there are so many people that can help do what we call, work arounds. An irony of this whole episode is that the very people NEXT or Next Agency swatted like a fly are the same people that could have helped you. Nothing is impossible re technology and writing scripts to pull off reporting its easy when you know who and how.
Any way it’s a shame the whole thing became such a mess and Im still not convinced that a public virtual slap is the way to go, it does little to promote the industry but in the same breath we have to value and financially remunerate what is the only kind of advertising where by you only ever pay on results. Do we need to keep reminding merchants about this and all the free stuff you get before you even make a sale or generate a lead? How can we even think about trying to exploit affiliates. Imagine if they all moved to a cpc model or tenancy or worse CPM, then what would you do? The writing is on the wall, lean times ahead, that word that keeps being banded about called recession. No… I do not wish to alienate the bread and butter of my client’s business, in the next few years affiliates may actually help you ride out some stormy weather a head, food for thought!
PS what’s this all about?
Next.com and next.co.uk, oh please….
www.next.com and www.next.co.uk
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Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Jason Rakowski