Play.com Commission Change

[TD Nick]

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Dear Publisher,

After much consideration, forecasting and research from the comprehensive transactional data gained over the last year, Play.com will be reducing affiliates commission to 2 percent of the sale value.

Commission for consoles will remain at 0%.

In the event of a transaction taking place under the conditions of the 30 day cookie, after the 7th November then the 2% commission will also apply.

Play remain committed to the programme long term and hope to launch an improved offering to you from Q1 2006 with exclusive deals, prizes and possibly a new commission structure.

Lee Griffin
Lee.Griffin@TradeDoubler.com
020 7881 1482

[mxp]

perhaps im being cynical but that just reads to me as

We're cutting the commision rate over christmas

[maverick]

So 2.5 days notice of this change? 1 less day than Buy.at affs.

mav

[TD Nick]

Hi mxp,

I understand Play.com's marketing budget has been exhausted which is why the commission has been cut, Play are aware this will reduce the number of active affiliates on their program over this crucial period.

A lot of the larger companies have finite budget allocated to their affiliate marketing program so it's not quite as simple as "if it's making money then let it grow" unfortunately. In addition Play.com, despite offering commission on sales, would like to generate a higher ratio of "New Customer Accounts" than they currently do because their repeat purchasing is so high.

The possible plans I have seen for the program in the future are extremely encouraging and if they are agreed and signed off the program will come back even stronger.

Mav - aware that Buy.at posted this information before TradeDoubler, thank you for the contribution on this thread. TradeDoubler, like I am sure Buy.at did, were trying their uptmost over the last few weeks to maintain the 4% for affiliates like yourself - unfortunately we heard back later on our counter proposal than Buy.at.

Many thanks,

Nick

[EyeOfTheTiger]

That smacks of BS to me.

How can a marketing budget be exhausted when they are paying commission only when sales are made? So ALL sales are good.

What it does indeed seem to be is that they want to stitch us up over the christmas period which is probably their busiest time of year and why they will look at improving things in Q1 when the rush and sales period is over.

What an effective way to pi$$ off affiliates, and yeah, the 2.5 days notice thing is BS too.

Mike

[DanielCoe]

Does anybody know the avg. basket value for Play?

It seems to me like most people only buy the odd DVD or CD.

So 2% of say £14.99 - 30p

Not that great, better off pushing other retailers who give up to 5%

Dan

[TD Nick]

Hi EyeOfTheTiger,

we feel as passionately about this as you and naturally we are dissapointed at this change in commission, but, have presented these arguments, and more, to Play.com.

There are no shortages of competetively priced CD/DVD/Games advertisers, HMV, TheHut, CDWOW to name a few and all have *excellent* EPCs, also, I hear on the grapevine commissions for some will be increased very shortly.

Every cloud has a silver lining...

Kind regards,

Nick

[shopandsave]

I suggest you switch links back to amazon.co.uk or similar straight away. Their prices are virtually interchangeable with Play.com and at least you earn 4-5% rather than a derisory 2%. Play.com prices are no longer as price competitve as they once were and certainly conversion rates have dropped.

I also wonder whether the %commission paid to Tradedoubler and Buy.at was halved as well?


It reminds my of when Blackstar reneged on their lifetime shared customer programme after years building up customer numbers. Commission died over night. Ended up switching links or just concentrated on programmes where you could actually earn real money.

[drivetowin]

I also wonder whether the %commission paid to Tradedoubler and Buy.at was halved as well?

Normally the networks get an override (typically 30%) of what we get - so yes they will have been hit too (0.6% rather than 1.2%)

There are networks that play games with the commission they get and decide what to pass on but I've dealt with TD and Buy.at for long enough to be as confident as anyone can be that neither of them are one of those networks.

[MobileDealsNow]

Have to say I'm not happy with this commission change. I use Play.com regularly myself and am happy to promote them to visitors.

... but how happy can somebody be about 2%?

Time to switch merchants, me thinks.

[morleymouse]

to be fair like Keith said the networks will have taken a hit with this as well, and Nick has pointed out some other merchants that will stock similar products and have better commission rates

DanielCoe yes in some cases it is just the odd dvd and a few pence worth of commission but all depends how you pre-sell stuff, box sets are worth a go to get a bit extra stuff like that

[ian]

How can a marketing budget be exhausted when they are paying commission only when sales are made? So ALL sales are good.

Not that I'm defending this well timed decision, but this isn't how all companies are run. A marketing budget is set at the start of the year and thats that. Just imagine being on the inside (as I have) trying to explain this to 'old school' directors.

Me - "For every £1 over budget, I'll give you £10 in sales profit"

Director - "But you'll go over budget"

Me - "But you'll get more sales"

Director - "But you'll go over budget"

Me - "But you'll get a massve return on it"

Director - "But you'll go over budget"

Me - "You don't get it do you"
.....
.....
Director - "Maybe you can have a higher budget next year"

Me - "AAAARRRRHHHHHH, bye bye"

Don't assume that the companies you promote have a clue what the internet or affiliate schemes are about. Other than the few people that are close to the scheme, the rest are mainly clueless. To them, its another sales channel and has the face the same realities as all the others.

You'll have 10 sales channel managers asking for more budget, all promising more sales.

...Another £10k for posters and you'll get 1000 more sales
...Another £10k for radio and you'll get 1000 more sales
...Another £100k for TV and you'll get 5 more sales - this one normally wins

Its sad, but true. Those in charge, don't understand, and don't want to.