Waitrose enter Dominos league

[drivetowin]

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Just got this from Waitrose Entertaining:

Dear Affiliate,

We are writing to announce the temporary suspension of the WaitroseEntertaining affiliate programme. The programme has been incredibly successful over the course of this year and we have been delighted with the results. However, we need to suspend the service in favour of our in store Marketing activity as we move into the Christmas period.

We ask that you remove all of your links and banners to WaitroseEntertaining by COB Tuesday 24th October at the very latest. Sales from cookies dropped before that date will be honoured during the cookie duration of 60-days, but no new cookies or sales will be paid out.

We hope to resume the programme early in the new year and we would like to thank you for your continued support.

If you have any queries, please contact client.services.team@tradedoubler.com

Kind regards,

WaitroseEntertaining

______________________

Errm, now let me think, party food, busiest time of year, party season.....

Cynical..............moi.............?

[Lee_Owen]

It is the one and only reason, Christmas, they said so above. I think they'll find it hard coming back after they suspend their program though - or at least I hope they will. Affiliates might want to teach them a lesson, I don't use them, well can't now, I wonder if they did hampers... haha

[Bob Saver]

That is absolutely shocking. Just how stupid do these people think affiliates are??? I could go on to outline all the ways in which this is unethical, greedy and bordering on the criminal but I can't bring myself to write the words.

I hope all the affiliates that these sh-amateurs are shafting are going to write to TD and tell them exactly what they think.

[Mogga]

What happened to dominos?
They've finished altogether?

I know I added some links to other pizza places to replace theirs.

[purple]

all gone i think on affiliate side what alternatives u using I picked up some prog on CJ but made no sales, make more from adsense now than i did with dominos!!

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Very poor show .. so those who have promoted all year lose out on the benefits of christmas sales .. one prize turkey every christmas.

I hope all the affiliates that these sh-amateurs are shafting are going to write to TD and tell them exactly what they think.

Do we really think either party (network or merchant) will take much notice or are that bothered?

[Supercod]

They should be booted out of TD and never allowed to open up on another Network ever again, but we know that won't happen as they think Affiliates are suckers and guess what, there are enough suckers that will let them away with it.

Will TD do the right thing and set the example here? No future for industry if this kind of thing is allowed to happen.

[Shane]

LMAO

"thanks for a well worked year guys but haymaking time is our baby.. we'll call you back when it's died off and you can then get stuck in again"

so funny I'd laugh if it wasn't outragious.... sure they can do what they like with their scheme but to do it and be niave enough to expect affiliates to go sleep in their baskets till January.. mistake.. huge mistake

One thing I like merchants to think of when they get bouts of meglomania :

"if an affiliate isn't pushing you, then they are pushing your competitor.. "

guess waitrose will reap what they sow

[Supercod]

I hope more of the Affiliate Blogs pick up on this story, as the blogs in effect our newspapers online and more people that cover this story and why it's so bad for Affiliate Marketing to have anything to do with this kind of practice the better, it may just ward off anyone else trying this type of thing.

http://www.affiliateblog.co.uk/good-...-merchant.html

[Bob Saver]

The funny think is that Waitrose are a very ethical company and in-store have never been anything but 10/10. You've got to wonder what kind of advice they are getting here.

From their Affiliate Info on TD:

"Waitrose is one of the UK's leading supermarkets with a reputation for quality. They are welcoming affiliates to their WaitroseEntertaining service, offering 5% commission per sale" - but not a reputation for loyalty!

Greedy beggars.

[drivetowin]

And from the John Lewis website (Waitrose Entertaining is part of the John Lewis partnership)

Our Constitution states that we aim to conduct all our business relationships "with integrity and courtesy, and scrupulously to honour every business agreement".

[km8]

Not really Dominos league - a whole new league of their own.
At least Dominos tried to put some spin on their cynical move.
These jokers just came right out and said "thanks for helping when it was tough. Piss of now for the good times and we'll se you again when it gets tough".

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Any updates?

[Bob Saver]

Where are the great comments from QGJ and the person pointing out the deafening silence from TradeDoubler? Have the TD thought police got to you??

[TD Nick]

Hi all,

It is unfortunate Waitrose has been forced taken this decision but the online team had no budget left to see the program through to Christmas - this can and does happen with large brands which need to use their marketing budget (finite) not their sales budget (typically infinite) to fund their affiliate program.

For what is Waitrose's very first, and clearly successful, year in affiliate marketing I do understand why the budget allocated to online at the start of the relationship was not as much as we would have hoped, and, at the same time relate to our affiliates who have invested time, resource and capital developing the program - and most likely Christmas plans - to where it is now.

Waitrose are planning to relaunch early next year (new budgets), and a real positive which should be taken is Waitrose EPC has performed far above and beyond expectations so definitely a program we should all look forward to. TradeDoubler will be working closely to help the Waitrose online marketing team to convince their managers to invest more budget and focus in online.

Kind regards,

Nick