New Auto-Validation

[CMG]

Just received this merchant newsletter:

Dear Merchant, Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who was affected by our regrettable error last Thursday for their patience, hard work and good humour in righting what was, after all, our mistake. We are fortunate to have such a loyal and co-operative client base and we hold you in ever higher esteem. Secondly, I would like to announce a change in the way we handle pending commissions. As you know, Affiliate Window has never introduced a system of auto-validation of pending commissions. In the past, we have preferred to leave the approval and the declining of commissions to you. However, we have been asked by a number of you to introduce a system of auto-validation so that you can pre-set the number of days after the transaction takes place when the commission would be automatically approved. We have also been asked by your affiliates for such a system, as a small minority of Merchants have commissions dating back many months. This obviously makes it very difficult for affiliates to run their businesses, plan their cash flow and work out the return on investment for their ppc campaigns. Hence, from the 1st August you will be able to set the number of days after the transaction date that commissions will automatically be confirmed. The default will be 42 days, and all commissions not declined 42 days after the transaction date will be automatically confirmed and will appear on your next invoice. You will need to determine the number of days you wish to set for your own programme. Factors which could influence this are returns policy, credit card refund timings etc. We will be communicating a more detailed explanation on how it works in the near future. Thirdly, after some months of detailed work by our development team, Affiliate Window will launch two reconfigured parts to our website on Thursday. The public access area, and the affiliate area have both been substantially reworked to provide more information for anyone new to affiliate marketing, and much more sophisticated tools and reporting for affiliates. We plan to start work on the new Merchant area in August. Finally, I would like to apologise once again for the mishap last week, and to thank you all for your support. Best regards, Robert Glasgow Managing Director AffiliateWindow Ltd Office 5C2, Juniper House Seager Buildings Brookmill Rd London SE8 4JT

[Darren]

Great to see another leap forward from AWN.

I've got transactions from one particular merchant on AWIN who all but promised to validating pending leads fortnightly, but has failed to validate anything since 18th April, so I welcome this change with wide open arms

Thanks Robert and all the team

[drivetowin]

Default is 42 days - does this mean though that a merchant could set it to 9999 days if they wanted to?

[kevinbrown]

Hi
Merchant will only be able to set the validation period of 42 or less.
There will be a number of set periods after the sale the sale can be validated. This will probably be on the lines of this;

-Instant Validation
-3 Days Validation
-5 Days Validation
-14 Days Validation
-28 Days Validation
-42 Days Validation

We will be incentivesing merchants to move to the shortest period that works for them. Affiliates will be informed of the validation period and merchants with quicker auto-validation periods will be promoted more predominantly.

Hope this is helpful

Kevin

[drivetowin]

Kevin

Thanks for the reply - that's excellent news

Can you confirm AWs policy on payments - i.e. if a transaction is validated today when is payment to the affiliate guaranteed to happen - or is it dependant on when the merchant pays their invoice.

If it is dependant on invoice payment are you confident that your credit control department will be able to enforce this - i.e.. that we ensure the problem does not simply move from sales not being validated to commissions not being paid.

[kevinbrown]

Our payment system has always and will continue to operate on the validation of sales not on invoice payment.

Kevin

[Sofas-Direct]

Hi Guys,

Not being one to rock the bottom but here goes..........

I have tried to seek clarification from AW if the default of 42 day is a ceiling because it will cause my business some serious issues. Reading the last couple of posts I have come to that conclusion.

The problem for me lies in the fact that our products are all made to order on 5 - 7 week lead time with a 14 day home approval thereafter. So from point of order to point of validation can be between 49 and 63 days.

The response I have received was not to worry about it and perhaps I am unduly worried about it but when you cannot get a direct answer from a direct question it makes me feel very uneasy.

I have asked it privately so now I will ask it publicly.

Is the 42 days auto-validation a maximum ceiling?

Would appreciate a direct answer from the guys at AW.

Many thanks

Simon

[Sofas-Direct]

Hi Guys,

Hats off to AW.

Within a couple of minutes of posting........I have just received a call from Kevin. Many thanks for the reassurance.

Kind Regards

[matbennett]

[deleted by mat, because it all sounded wrong]

[darrenw]

Does the autovalidation apply to pendings from the past? I've still got lots of pendings going back to the 15th April (and I know that other affiliates have pendings outstanding from much further back than this!).

Also, I've had some transactions today that have instantly been confirmed - I presume the merchant in question has set their validation period to "now"? Does this mean that this confirmation is now guaranteed?

[kevinbrown]

1. Auto-Validation does not go live until 1 Aug so the confirmation you speak of are simply a merchant who confirming quickly.

2. All previous pendings will be validated after the specific number of days the merchant has chosen to validate after has elapsed after the 1st Aug.
So, if a merchant has set a period of 5 Days Autovalidation ALL old pendings will be auto validated by the end of the 5th Aug.


Kevin