About 50% of PC World’s sales online are 'Collect Instore' @ 3% commission

[Matthew Wood]

Thought this was interesting..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...415372,00.html

Like John Lewis, DSG International, the renamed owner of Dixons, PC World and Currys, claims to be enjoying a synergy between online and bricks and mortar. “About 50% of PC World’s sales online are now based on people collecting the product from a local store. By contrast, purely e-commerce companies may be at the mercy of their distribution systems,” it said.

Bearing in mind the commission gap (3% instore collection, 6% online) what do people feel about this? good or bad?

[Lee_Owen]

Are you saying you get 3% selling it online and the customer picks it up and you get 6% for selling online when they get it delivered, so at what point do PC world claim to have done any work and the affiliate doesn't get the other 3%? What a rip off. The product is already sold.

The fact that customer is going into the store to collect actually means they should buy more goods, so why is an affiliate penalised for this?

3% of £1000 = £30, I suppose they could claim it costs £30 for a pc to be taken from the warehouse to the customer service desk and then it would take three minutes to raise a ticket, give it to the customer and see them leave. £30 is still 4/5 hours work for the shop staff though.

[drivetowin]

True, but I'd rather have 3% of a sale than 50p or whatever Argos offer for Click and Collect these days.

Bear in mind that the cost of sale of an item in-store is much higher than on-line for any business - it's not just staff, it's the cost of the premises, distribution from the warehouse to the store etc etc.

[Lee_Owen]

Originally Posted by drivetowin True, but I'd rather have 3% of a sale than 50p or whatever Argos offer for Click and Collect these days. Bear in mind that the cost of sale of an item in-store is much higher than on-line for any business - it's not just staff, it's the cost of the premises, distribution from the warehouse to the store etc etc.

Yes but they've already bought the product haven't they or do they just reserve, take a butchers and decide then? Affiliates don't get paid for the additional sales instore when they arrive to collect - hence why they get website visitors to collect, so why penalise the affiliate? I still don't get it.

And yes argos is a bit of a cheek, I don't understand that either.

[ep90]

PCWorld pay half the commision for collect in store because they do not carry out any reversals. i.e they will pay you your commision wether the punter collects the goods or not. This is why its half. It seems fair to me (provided affiliates don't abuse the system)

Keith - Argos pay 25p per collect in store.

[10k]

They swapped it over a while ago because reversals were getting ridiculous - (as there's never a guarentee that the person actually will pick up in store) The 3% covers the risk that PC World are exposed to as I imagine alot of customers don't pick up. Personally I think that it's quite generous for an unsecured transaction but just my 2p

[Lee_Owen]

So the customer doesn't actually buy anything then? well then yes, it's mighty good of them, however the collect at store with argos is bought before hand, perhaps that's changed as well. That's good of PC world though if it isn't bought beforehand. Strange though.

[10k]

I was under the impression that you just reserve the product online and pay for it instore. The problem they were having is that people were just going to the store, seeing the product they'd reserved on the shelf and picking one up.

I thought the whole collect in store was a great idea - personally I tend to thoroughly research purchases online but when it comes down to it, I'd rather go to the shop to buy it, just makes things easier. What I didn't understand was when they rebranded dixons which seems to be the complete opposite of what they did with PC World eg, the high street shop is called currys digital but there is no website. The online store is called dixons but there is no outlet? If the company sees the fact that that people research purchases onlie before buying in store as an advantage, and use it as a usp for the PC World brand, why would they have the currys digital store brand with no website? and the dixons online brand with no outlet?

[drivetowin]

Currys now has click and collect too - only on selected items at the moment though.

[pricethat]

Originally Posted by ep90 PCWorld pay half the commision for collect in store because they do not carry out any reversals.

Not yet, but i am sure people have already considered it a few times!!