AffiliateWindow.com Change Affiliate Payment Terms
Affiliate Window change to
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the affiliate payment system:
Affiliate Window has for the last 3+ years
managed to add an additional level of protection to all of our affiliates by
guaranteeing to payout on ALL validated confirmed commissions regardless of whether a
company tries to claw back or becomes insolvent.
This has seen us swallow some significant losses on behalf of our affiliates
but allowed us to act as the financial buffer between partners easing the cash flow problems that can arise from upfront affiliate marketing costs.
More recently a proportion (and I do qualify only a proportion) of this risk has been
handled by credit insurance. However, as market conditions have changed and the credit worthiness of merchants comes under scrutiny the amount of cover being offered for certain
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partners means we have to align our payment model with other competitor networks. This
means we can no longer guarantee payment of commissions when we are unlikely to receive payment ourselves.
Each merchant’s scenario will be monitored independently and where there is plenty of headroom we will continue to pay ahead of receiving payment from the merchant. Where the levels of commission and invoices owed exceed the credit insurance threshold for a merchant we reserve the right to withhold payment until we have secured payment from the merchant.
We understand this is not an ideal scenario for affiliates but we hope you can see that our
previous stance in this current climate means absorbing a level of risk that is simply not
feasible. Rather than seeing this as a penalty move against affiliates I would ask you
all to appreciate that for the last few years we have paid out many hundreds of thousands of
pounds in commissions that we have never received.
It’s been a difficult choice but one that ensures a greater share of risk
between all parties. We will of course endeavour to tighten up
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all invoicing processes from the merchant/agency side to ensure their
payments are swift and where possible ahead of time.
These are uncertain times for many businesses and I hope the need for this change is clear.
There will always be the few who will now question the financial security of the network,
Affiliate Window remains in the strongest of financial positions and any quality credit check
will confirm this but changes are required when the payment solution offered ultimately creates a greater exposure to risk for the business. We are merely doing what many other networks have done since the beginning. I would hope to see this change as a temporary measure
and welcome a time when we can all feel more comfortable about the market.
To avoid any doubt:
If a merchant validates commission and has settled all invoices within their agreed payment period and are within their credit insurance threshold then AWin will pay commission to the affiliate as normal.
If the merchant validates commission and has not settled outstanding invoices within
their agreed payment period and are close to or over their credit insurance threshold then AWin
will not release commission until payment is secured.
If any merchant becomes insolvent AWin can
no longer guarantee payment for any validated commission unless payment is processed from the
merchant. Once commissions are validated and paid to affiliates they cannot be clawed
back, this still remains the case.
As always we remain open to your feedback and
will continually assess our system to ensure parity for all parties.
Whilst effective immediately this will not affect any affiliates until the scheduled 4th
January 2009 payment run.
Kind regards,
Mark Walters
Chief
Operating Officer
mark.walters at affiliatewindow.com
APA response:
I dont question awins own financial status and agree one of, if not the strongest aff network in the UK. I know most affiliate networks run credit checks on merchants to assess credit status anyway and affiliatewindow.com have even shown yours truly a few places to go when trying to find out more about a company (Thanks Crisna).
I would ask the question, why not move over to an escrow model where possible, this way any merchant (for what ever reason and its not always a recession that can take a company out) that falls over, affiliatewindow.com don’t get burnt to badly and affiliates still get paid, just a suggestion.
Obviously, this cant have been an easy decision but from an affiliates perspective only, I wonder if this will not create a bottle neck in terms of affiliate payment cash flow?
Also hats off to you Mark, that was not an easy email to write, but I gotta ask the question, some thing triggered this so are things looking shaky out there? We have seen and heard a few things, like banks calling in loans on some of the bigger brands out there.
APA has never been busier so, early indicators are that merchants are cutting costs re their media buys but turning to affiliate marketing due to transparency and performance based advertising. So what is your prediction?
Jess 🙂
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