Declined by over 400 merchants

[Leeky]

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Just looked at our US CJ account and it reports our US site is declined by over 400 US merchants.

Before you say this is down to being a voucher site, the figures quoted are just declines from merchants which appear under the 'Coupon' filter.

Is this just a US thing which declines afffiliates just because they are based in the UK even though the online business is targetted towards the US?.. If so can you explain the logic in this?

Lee

[Grounded Vertigo]

Found that a US site I own seems to be automatically rejected from merchants in the US. Disappointing if it is just because we're tied to the UK as the site, which is content driven, could be a really good match for some of these merchants!

[John Jupp]

The answer Lee is a big YES.

Many US merchants, especially self-managed by the retailer, do not understand that a company can be outside the US and still deliver traffic.

There are also tax considerations now that there is effectively an affiliate sales tax in half the States and that a Federal tax may be pending with international ramifications.

My advice is to do as others have done. Such as Coupons, Coupon Codes, Discount Codes & Free Online Coupons | Promotional Codes & Deals for Online Stores | CouponCodes4u!

Here you see a separate entity under Mark's business clearly demonstrating an international angle with emphasis on the US market, for which he has a dedicated team solely operating to that market. Although it clearly shows that the business is UK based, the emphasis here has been a direct focus on US consumers.

However in addition it should be noted that there has been a move away from just offering codes and discounts with sites like Get the latest celebrity hair style, gossip, fashion, celebrity style and news first. which concentrates on a high end niche and again which can incorporate offers. This is of more benefit to a retailer than just a simple code site. It offers alternatives.

Now surely if you intend to apply but have a doubt as to your suitability wouldn't it make sense to contact them first before applying? How can you jump into an affiliate relationship when a merchant solely sees your application but knows nothing about you?

Introductions as you know can go a long way towards building a potential relationship.

[Leeky]

Thanks for the replies, and I thought it would have been simply down to us being based ni the UK.

it's comlpetely out of the question to contact each rejected merchant individually, there are far too many merchants to contact for that, and loads of merchants join and leave networks daily, I wouldn't get anything else done!

Our US site is also seperate to the UK site, diffierent URL, different email address, and 100% US targetted so that can't be the reason.

I wouldn't say they know nothing about me, when we sign up to networks they usually have to fill in a section to explain what we do, which is basically to provide feeds of coupons / deals and merchant text links to subscribing affiliates. The merchant also knows the web address so all they have to do is click it and see it's a US site targetting US affiliates to promote US merchants.

I have contacted the odd few (around 10) for an explanation as to the rejection or removal and they ALL say the same thing... "We don't ship to the UK", (and thats after explaining that apart from where I sleep, it has nothing to do with the UK)...that just shows the level of intelligence.

Lee