Got a message from a client this morning:
I’d like to disapprove this affiliate for illegal use of coupons. I don’t know how they get proprietary coupons but Next Jump is a private program. Another is for cart abandonment. The other two are expired…
Went to the affiliate’s site, took a screen shot:
Dear affiliates who are stealing coupons from fellow-affiliates, this is the surest way to either get your account suspended on the network level, or, at the very least, to be kicked out of the merchant’s affiliate program.
Dear affiliate networks, please borrow buy.at’s idea to help fighting the use of other affiliate’s exclusive coupons by unauthorized parties. The only party that will lose from an implementation of such a technology will be the unethical affiliate.
Hi Geno
I don’t think that affiliate should be banned from “using – stealing” coupons because merchants will profit from the sale anyway, as he gets extra exposure on other websites. The solution I see is to give to super affiliates dedicated discount code which whenever used would credit their account only, even though the visitor would come from other website.
Q: Do current affiliate systems and shopping carts allow assigning dedicated coupon codes?
In case with this particular affiliate, it is not the first time we’re catching him doing it. So, terminating him was the right thing to do. He skews reporting, and hurts the merchant’s relationship with the affiliate who’s coupon he has stolen.
Yes, the solution is exactly the one that you have mentioned, and as far as I know there is only one affiliate network that currently offers such a functionality, and I blogged about it here.