Merchants plastering free phone numbers on their pages

[Elaine]

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Not surprisingly my top search is paddling pools, so I thought I'd check if anyone's sold out yet.

Flaming annoyed to find one merchant has a great big flashing free phone number under each individual product - no wonder I don't seem to do much with them - just about to remove all their links and have contacted the network to find out if they try to verify which affiliate sent them the business - but I think not.

Some merchants think we're offering a free advertising service - shouldn't the networks make a point of including a condition that free phone numbers shouldn't be displayed so prominently on affiliate landing pages.

I know this has been flagged before - but, honestly, I get more bl**dy annoyed about this than I do spyware etc. Some merchants are just taking the proverbial.

[loquax]

Do people actually phone up though... are that many sales lost?

Yes it's a factor, but does anyone have any concrete info about the effect of phone numbers?

Jason

[Stuart]

Hi,

It probably varies from merchant to merchant but our experience is removing the phone number from the front page does not effect sales, people will find the phone number if they really want to call you.

Hope that helps

[Elaine]

Yes I think they do - when the number is soooo prominently displayed and inviting its just too easy to ring and find out if the item is in stock and when it can be delivered. These merchants aren't going to let on though, are they??

I don't have a problem with any merchant who displays their contact details, including telephone number, it shows professionalism, but to some merchants just don't play the game.

A similar site, similar price and with a tp number discreetly displayed at the top of the page does 10 times more than this blackguard.

I shall name and shame when I get a response from the network.

[gareth]

Have you approached the merchant about this?

Maybe they don't appreciate the impact that their prominent phone number has on affiliate sales.

When we started our affiliate programme we had our phone number displayed prominently on our homepage - until one of our affiliates pointed out how potentially bad it is for them. Now we just have our number on our contact page, so customers can still find it, but it's not so obvious.

[Qui Gon Jinn]

It depends on the product, for example package holidays, about 80 to 90% of sales are made offline via the displayed telephone so there is significant leakage. There is possibly more leakage in higher ticket items. It would be interesting to know the average basket order or an offline and online order.

What is required is off line tracking solutions, albeit it could be expensive to allocated one number per affiliate. There are possible ways around this to ease the loss of commission to the affiliate.

But, an alternative is that a different number is displayed if a visitior arrives at the site during the cookie period of an ANY affiliate. That way the merchant can analyse what proprotion of sales ( in terms of product value, not volume) is generated via buying online or telephoning the order.

When a visitor arrives outside the cookie duration then the normal number is prominent.

If it found to be 50/50 then the merchant should double the commission to reflect the stats and pay the affiliate accordingly. Otherwise it just a branding exercise at the affiliates expense.

Alternatively. these commissions can go into a pot and are distributed proportionally amongst affiliates accordingly to total sales amount made by affiliates.

The solutions are there, but in most instances not enough thought goes into it.

[renegade]

My mate who sells trampolines online sells around 75% via telephone and only 25% via the online shopping cart.
The site does have prominently displayed telephone number and he reckons once he has people on the phone most people buy.

[NaturalInstinct]

I think it makes little difference. We only have a number on our contact page but people are quick to find it if their order is late. They never phone up to buy stuff though, why bother when you can just tap your details into the website ?

[justnozy]

I spent over 20k last year on flights & hotels - all initial enquiries via the web ( I did not know what aff marketing was then - probably still dont !!! ).
On a few occasions ( Air France springs to mind ) I needed to telephone eg one passenger wanted biz class others economy.
Not once was I asked about aff's even though in most cases they knew I had not got the quoted prices from their web site. Inevitably they answered my queries & matched the prices.

So I would say on "difficult" items, travel, expensive elect equip etc the leakage must be quite high.

[Elaine]

There's a world of difference between displaying a telephone number for information and one saying

'dont bother typing anything in just ring us'

and providing a huge flashing telephone number directly beneath the item





(hopefull there is an image above this to show what I mean)

[loquax]

Was working on a site last night and found this gem from Slow Dating (on Affiliate Future) on their events booking page

"Call our booking hotline on 0870 224 2828 (no phone booking surcharge) Mon-Fri 9am-6pm

or

Book online (via our fully secure server) - in 3 easy steps"

Surely the networks educate the merchants before accepting the cash off them.... (ha ha ha ha)

Jason

[goforbroke]

Needed a quote for some business insurance the other day, so phoned LTSB for one after checking the aff web site and finding no appropriate app forms. There was a code on the web page which said please quote. Was never asked for it, and had to actually say to the bloke, "Oh yes, I have a code to quote. Do you want it?"