"Due to an unprecedented & unforeseen situation concerning the use of Figleaves discount voucher codes, and the rapid take up of these voucher codes by UK consumers, we have been forced to implement a short term change to our commission structures.
The situation is thus; with up to 75% of affiliate generated customers using a Figleaves 20% off voucher code, in combination with the percentage revenue commission paid to affiliates, most customers generated by the affiliate programme are unprofitable for Figleaves. Clearly this is an unsustainable situation for Figleaves in the long run. Therefore, we are taking the short term approach of reducing commissions paid to voucher, cash back, loyalty and point?s scheme affiliates to a flat rate of 2%. The commission level paid to all other types of affiliate will be a flat rate of 8%. The stated changes will take place as of 11.00am (05.12.08) tomorrow morning and continue until further notice.
We appreciate this will have a significant impact on affiliate activity and Figleaves competitiveness in the affiliate market, and understand that many of you will be forced to downgrade your activity for Figleaves. However, we are working hard to understand how to remedy this situation and are undertaking an in-depth analysis of customer profitability and long term sustainable commission levels. This will allow us to create new, more sophisticated commission levels that will drive long term profitability for the Figleaves business.
Finally, we understand that for many of you this is an unwelcome and frustrating change to what has historically been a mutually successful relationship. Please accept our apologies for any difficulties this causes in the short term; however, rest assured we are working very hard to develop new commission structures that reflect the Figleaves business model and the increased use by consumers of voucher codes. In the long run this will be to the benefit of Figleaves and its affiliates.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the team at TradeDoubler."
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Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
Ya Kireon, It is really annoying. The drop in the affiliate commissions for the scheme affiliates just to 2% and for other types of affiliates is 8% is really bad. This would certainly affect the affiliate marketers to an extent. I hope this would affect even Figleaves a lot.
These cut in the affiliate commissions by the Figleaves will affect most of the affiliates a lot. Since the drop is too high, for a scheme affiliate it is flat 2% and the other types of affiliates it is 8%. I am feeling really bad about it.
Can’t understand the drop in the ‘non-voucher-code’ commission. If 75% of their customers are using a discount code, you’d think they’d be willing to pay more for affiliates who pass them “full price” traffic?
and this is on top of not paying commissions on sales from their clearance site
Sorry, but you are talking absolute crap.
Personally I think Figleaves should be paying no commission whatsoever to any affiliate who is giving details of a voucher code not meant for the affiliate channel.
Figleaves have shown naievity with regard to the dishonest way many/most voucher code sites operate. But why the hell should a merchant ‘accept’ that codes distributed through their own channels are open house to be used by unscrupulous affiliates.
You couldnt be more wrong.
As I say – dont pay any commission to an affiliate site found to be detailing codes not provided to them. ie no commissions to myvouchercodes and similar sites.
To give an example of something you have railed about before on this forum …
If you set up a blog putting yourself up as some sort of affiliate guru – dont rant and rave when some idiot copies one of your sites……something you have in the past.
People in glass houses and all that..
Luke
The hardest thing for retailers must be accurately tracking performance of codes. For example if you place a code in a specific magazine and try to track the effectiveness of the advertising, it must be hard if every “Tom, Dick or Harry” picks it up from a voucher site and has never seen the original magazine/publication.
Not a specific comment to the retailer in this post, just a general one.
20% off voucher seems very, very risky and it’s this that must be criticised.. What’s their margin?
On the other hand, you’re tacitly admitting that retailers now have to choose between offering voucher codes aimed at free traffic and having affiliates. According to your logic it’s no longer possible for a merchant to give Joe Public a voucher that wouldn’t work commercially if Joe Public happened to have an affiliate cookie set. In effect, “affiliates exist so give up on vouchers that could have worked before we did”. The only other option is to have T&Cs that disallow commission for orders where a code (or an outside code) has been used – turn off the promo code box in your cart for affiliate traffic?
Did you see Duncan Jennings on voucher codes in the latest e-consultancy newsletter? He seemed to make a lot of salient points.
Also the fact that the 20% off vouchers were spammed, sorry distributed by their own staff as part of a competition must be taken into account….
Luke – thanks for your comments. I must point out however that I have not “put myself up” as any kind of affiliate guru. I am an affiliate who has a blog, that’s it.
Your comment about idiots who copies my sites is a bit bizarre too. I thought the topic of this blog post was about Figleaves and voucher codes?? But to answer your comment, just because I have a blog and I’m forthcoming in publishing the URL’s of some of my sites, does that mean I deserve to have them copied? And what any of this has to do with glass houses is totally beyond me. I’m very confused.
It’s also worth pointing out that the voucher code sites are a big business. If you release a voucher code into the public domain via a newspaper ad, a forum, blog post, radio, TV ad or mention it on your own site then it WILL be picked up by voucher code sites more often than not those odd people.
Personally I think the ‘this will take place as of tomorrow’ part is the worst. It gives affiliates no time to look into how the changes are going to affect them and how to limit the amount of damage that is going to be done.