Merchant Directory

[Confuscius]

I would like to see the development of a Merchant Directory based on the Merchant Categories already found within the normal AW datafeed section(NOT Product Categories). This could follow a similar structure to the Category List i.e. the development of a merchant.php with a corresponding merchant.tpl and a merchant_tree.tpl. This would lead to a merchant_display_list.tpl which would include information about each merchant. This merchant info could then be linked to from various places! For example, under each featured merchant listing a link could be provided providing basic info on the merchant. The display list would then link back into the normal product display listing to show all products from that merchant accross all categories. Thoughts?

[madstock]

I have pestered a few networks for years to introduce something similar to this, although I thought that perhaps an XML feed would be appropriate - something along the lines of

<merchants>
<merchant>
<name>Merchant Name</name>
<AffURL>Basic Affiliate URL</AffURL>
<DisplayURL>Display URL</DisplayURL>
<Description>Basic Details about the Merchant*</Description>
<120x60>Button Image URL</120x60>
<468x60>Banner Image URL</468x60>
<category1>Category</category1>
<category2>Category</category2>
<category3>Category</category3>
<epc>EPC (for the purpose of sorting merchants where appropriate)</epc>
<offers>Any "time limited" offers/vouchers that are appropriate for the merchant</offers>
</merchant>
.
etc...
.
</merchants>

The benefits to the affiliate are obvious - fresh, automatically updated content with current banners, links and offers, which should lead to more commissions, or at least a site without out-of-date creative and dodgy-links. (If a merchant is suspended/removed from the network they would be removed from the XML feed, and as such there would be no "dead links".)

For the network, there would be obviously a greater override commission, less chasing round after "affiliate X" who was displaying creative from Xmas 2004, and the potential to lead to even greater incremental sales through affiliates sorting by EPC. There would also be the added bonus that where merchants have legal requirements (e.g. financial merchants regulated by the FSA), there will be no problems with affiliates "misrepresenting" their service, as the descriptions would be legally sound.

For the merchants there are all of the above bonus-points, plus exposure to more sites, as there would not even the need for affiliates to add a banner, as it would be automatically done.

*If this could be "user-editable" within the Awin control panel (i.e. the Affiliate could add their own description, which could be subject to Merchant approval if necessary), even better, as the duplicate-content filters at Google etc. wouldn't have a fit.

An even easier way of doing this would be for the feeds to be generated by category (e.g. ladieswear merchants, merchants with an EPC of over £X, merchants beginning with the letter C etc.) - this would mean no real reliance on accessing an API as such, merely parsing the XML.

Alas in every network survey I have filled out for a long, long time I have requested the above, but to no great avail. (Other than one particular financial network who have ran this for a while).

Here endeth the rant, apologies for going a little off-topic!

[Confuscius]

Thanks for contributing to the thread - carry on ranting! Personally, I see this latest AW offering as having great potential to address many 'sufferings' from the past. I think it reasonable that if we, as affiliates are doing our best to promote a Merchant and their offerings then the least that WE should expect is for merchants to contribute 'their bits' to the process. I am interested in people using MY site and what it has to offer them on a REGULAR basis and NOT in getting the visitor off site as fast as possible with the cookie set, so a longer term view should be taken. I also believe that there may be new opportunities for affiliates to work collaboratively with each other rather than against each other.

Whenever we get a visitor, if all they see is a jumbled mess of merchant feeds, many with little or no product descriptions, images of all qualities, sizes or none at all then the only conclusion that I can draw is that the success of this product will depend largely upon the QUALITY of what the merchants feed into it and to be quite blunt, if a merchant can't even be bothered to describe their produucts properly why do they deserve any space on my site and why should I be the one trying to flog a dead horse ( I could probably flog a dead horse if I had a decent picture and a good honest description and it was at a good price and came with good after sales support!).

I just hope that AW do not miss this glorious opportunity to 'join' together the efforts of both Merchants and affiliates. The more information that we have and the better quality that information is then the better the chances of producing something worthwhile for the visitor and the better the chance of securing a sale.

My rant over!

Paul

Just a thought - but I would love to know what a 'merchant'' thinks of this new development - could AW get a couple to put their perspectives forward here?

[kert01]

Hi Paul

As a merchant, I approve of ShopWindow (although I haven't had any sales through it that I know of). But since I designed our programme to be affiliate friendly and have a completely up to date datafeed with pictures and descriptions, I would :D

I hope that the visibility it gives datafeeds might convince other merchants of the value of having them current and with the best possible content, as it benefits everyone.

Cheers,