Awin Validation Week (Nov)

**billaffiliate** · 27-11-03

Just my 2p's worth, getting cheesed off with the number of rejected sales on AW. Even excluding duplicates, rejecteds exceed confirmed . This is not the case with other networks. Why is it just happening with AW? I think you need to tighten up on your validation system, Marc.
As I said, this is just my observation and 2p's worth.

**Frisky Travelle** · 27-11-03

and while you are at it can you have a word with Bet-At-Home Sportsbook who have changed the goalposts. I joined their program on the basis of 'leads' but have recently been informed that it is infact 'sales' we are paid for. I worked hard at promoting them and had inexcess of 30 signups only for them to inform me that there were certain 'conditions' which were not explained prior or during the sign up process. It may not come as a surprise that I have dropped them completely rather concentrating on more credible online betting organtisations. FT

**bulbo** · 27-11-03

Going back to the Top 20 Fast Validators thing. I think it's a great idea but I would concur with what someone else said on the subject... it would be more valuable to include ALL merchants in the table.

I don't think any of us Affiliates particularly want sales validated within a day or two every time. We appreciate the possibility of returned goods and if pressure is brought to bear on merchants to validate before their returns policy has expired then we are running the risk of ruining a merchant's business - a scenario none of us want to see.

I have always said that 30 days is a fair maximum.

Depending on the returns policy of the company (if applicable) then ALL commissions should be validated between 15-30 days.

The merchants who take 35-90+ days to validate are just taking the proverbial imho and merchants who regularly slip into this category should be exposed.

**bulbo** · 27-11-03

And on another note....

I appreciate that during this hectic Xmas period, validating commissions may not be at the top of a Merchant's priorities!

**getvisible** · 27-11-03

just my 2p's worth (all I got left until my pendings are validated)

I can handle deletions if I'm given a valid reason. I am naturally dubious and inquisitive when it comes to rejections. So on Awin can we have a collumn that says why a sale is delted - just as AF do (another area where AF beats AWin! - I know I'm not making any friends saying it - but it's true)

Furthermore, would it possible for a list of the rejection rate per merchant for the previous month to be given? Not net figures i.e. 432 rejections but a %??

just ideas trying to improve the lot of affiliates and make networks strive for our business.

**matbennett** · 28-11-03

So on Awin can we have a collumn that says why a sale is delted

I'd like this as a merchant too. My plan is to always contact the affiliate to explain why a rejection has occurred, unless it is an obvious duplicate. If this could be done through the system all the better as I plan to be busy.

I'd still also like a "third option". There is a nice sized pending commission with one of my affiliates that is most likely fraudulent at the moment. I don't want to delete this, as there is a (admittedly small) chance that the customer will get back to us and answer our checks, but likewise I don't want to leave it hanging about and getting someone's hopes up. It would be great to be able to immediately mark kosher sales as "Validated pending returns period", and leave the suspect ones aside, or alternatively to mark the suspect ones as "Queried". This would at least give the affiliate a better idea of how much they will be getting.

**Marc Gear** · 28-11-03

Just to answer a number of things here:

I take it Hattons from 31st Oct are too early to be validated due to the returns period?

I really couldn't say, and would advise contacting the merchant directly to ask when you can expect the commissions to be validated (as this is an exceptionally powerful reminder to merchants when affiliates contact them about it).

getting cheesed off with the number of rejected sales on AW. Even excluding duplicates, rejecteds exceed confirmed .

As I've said earlier we have made changes to the system to reduce the number of duplicates appearing recently, which should drasticly cut the number of rejected commissions. We will be making tweaks to this to make sure it is working the best way it can.

We have no way of checking that a commission should be paid or not, we dont know if the order was completed, cancelled, returned or purchased fraudulently, we, as you do, rely on the honesty of the merchant to validate commissions which are valid, and reject that which is not.

while you are at it can you have a word with Bet-At-Home Sportsbook who have changed the goalposts.

This is a separate issue from this thread and I dont want to address it here. I was not aware of any change to the Bet-At-Home programme, and affiliates should have been made aware of any change to thier programme.

Detailing the exect requirements for commission is somethign that many merchants need to improve upon and this is something we are working on.

I think it's a great idea but I would concur with what someone else said on the subject... it would be more valuable to include ALL merchants in the table.

I agree,
but we have over 400 merchant on the network and I wasn't about to post them all in the newsletter. I will attempt to generate a wider report of this information and make it availiable to affiliates.

Bear in mind that many merchants do operate on a pre-order basis. For instance, you could order Harry Potter 5 months before it was availiable, in order for the affiliate to be credited for this, the merchant would have to leave the commission pending for some time, thus increasing thier overall pending time. I know of some merchants who have to operate in this way, and thier pending time is quite high, even though they validate commissions every day.

To me, regular validation is important, as an affiliate i would not mind when a merchant validates the sale, just as long as I know that they do validate sales, but they validate every first sunday of the month, or only 30 days after the order took place. I dont want merchants to suffer because of elements which are outside of thier control.

I appreciate that during this hectic Xmas period, validating commissions may not be at the top of a Merchant's priorities!

As we pointed out to merchants recently. If a commission is not validated before monday, the earliest affiliates will recieve the commission is January 31st. If that is for a sale which took place in september, then thats 5 months between the sale taking place, and the affiliate being paid for the advertising they have done to generate the sale.

We do understand though that Xmas is a busy period for all (i'm rushed off my feet) and so we do give merchants a little more leeway at the moment.

So on Awin can we have a collumn that says why a sale is delted - just as AF do

I agree that this would be nice - only problem would be is getting merchants to fill it in correctly. This is something I will suggest next time we are making changes to the commission validation process.

Furthermore, would it possible for a list of the rejection rate per merchant for the previous month to be given? Not net figures i.e. 432 rejections but a %??

It is possible (most things are) but I am unsure that I would want this statistic availiable in all cases. Often there is a perfectly valid reason for sale rejection precentages being high (say one affiliate attempting to defraud the merchant, or the merchants goods are something which fraudsters try it on with a lot, like jewellery or mobile phones, peahaps the merchant has placed the call-back code before the final sale process) and I would be hesitant to do anything that would mean these merchants got promoted negatively.

I'm beginning to formulate an idea for rating merchants based on performance - looking at affiliate earnings per visitor, commission validatation times, validation regularity, quality of communication with affiliates etc... therefore looking at an overal picture rather than one single statistic, which can easily be misinterpreted.

**billaffiliate** · 28-11-03

Glad to see you're taking points on board, really need stats to help us. Believe the CJ style of system could be good on AW regarding validations/reasons for rejections as there is most definitely a trust issue here and it's a pain to keep chasing merchants for every rejected sale. I'm willing to bet a £1 that if AW hired a guy who just checked trackings/ sales figures and stats AW would get more than double the hire fee back every month.

**matbennett** · 28-11-03

I agree that this would be nice - only problem would be is getting merchants to fill it in correctly

hey, we're not all stoopid you know.

**getvisible** · 28-11-03

just like to say that validations this month on Awin were an absolute joke! I can handle P'ssing people off because it's been six weeks since a sale on 7dayshop and it hasn't been validated. I've also done shed loads for them since.

Also Loanmakers over a month and Hatton Gardens just over a month. That's great - I send them a sale on 11th October and I won't get paid for it at the end of Febuary next year (if they validate next month).

On the other hand DGM have done a sterling job on their validations 10/10.

**bulbo** · 28-11-03

I think it's a great idea but I would concur with what someone else said on the subject... it would be more valuable to include ALL merchants in the table.

I agree,
but we have over 400 merchant on the network and I wasn't about to post them all in the newsletter. I will attempt to generate a wider report of this information and make it availiable to affiliates.

I wasn't particularly thinking of including this in the newsletter. More of having it as a section on the site itself which we can check and get up-to-date stats as required.

Personally, I don't like emailing merchants because a commission has been pending for a while. I appreciate that if everyone did this all the time then it would probably only cause further delays because the Merchant is spending yet more time answering emails!

If there was a chart and it said that Merchant X has an average Validation of 15 days and I had a Pending going back 40 days then I would probably think, "Hmm, maybe this one has 'slipped the net' somehow?... I'll drop them an email."

Bear in mind that many merchants do operate on a pre-order basis.

Good point and I WILL bear that in mind in future (although to be fair, CD-WOW are one of the fastest Validators in my experience!).

**Marc Gear** · 28-11-03

Good point and I WILL bear that in mind in future (although to be fair, CD-WOW are one of the fastest Validators in my experience!).

at an average validation time of 1.956 Days CD-WOW, they are one of the fastest on Awin (18th in fact, based on last three months)

Validation, Stats Reporting and Support are probably the three areas which i'd like to see the biggest improvement from Awin and the areas which i'm working hardest to improve.