[Vanns.com]

Hello everyone -

I just wanted to let you know that we launched a new sale just a few minutes ago.

Practically the entire site is on sale right now. We've got some great pricing that should help to drive some serious traffic for everyone.

Don't forget to mention our sale on your site. The event ends on 11/20/02.

Happy Selling!

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[xpbargains]

thanks for the info. i just added a post for vanns.com.

Tech Deals & Coupons at: http://www.xpbargains.com
Tech & Family Coupons: http://www.xpcoupons.com
Best Credit Card Offers: http://www.best-card.com

[ecomcity]

What good will a clearence sale item be if we can't get paid a commission. I just looked at all my links to VANNs clearance items and all categories have the same problym ....no BUY BUTTON. Only way to purchase at the discounted price is to a 800# call center!

_____________________
Regular Price: $599.88

Clearance: $299.77

Great condition and complete customer return

Item Code: 1028239115


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Call 800-769-5668 To Order. Please have the item clearance code above handy when you call.

WebMaster Mike

[ecomcity]

I see a smart webmaster designed their site to bypass out of stock issues. This topic comes up with many of my own e-commerce clients. Their shopping cart/e-catalog program has realtime inventory tracking. OOS items -returns or closeouts are auto triggered to not display the "buy button". Instead they trigger an e-mail alert me field, 800# sales help message and also a link to non-commissionable clearence item if one exists. This helps capture the online consumer, but doesn zip for the commissioned affiliate.

Only cure is to raise the commission on completed sales to offset the consumer oriented diversion.

WebMaster Mike

[Trust]

Well? What about those clearance links with no buy button and a 1800#

[Vanns.com]

The Clearance Center -

Our Clearance Center was designed around giving the customer all the information we could. Due to the fact that we have very little space within which to communicate the status for each clearance item we opted to have the customer call in. This way we have the opportunity to make sure the customer understands that if they are purchasing an item from the Clearance Center they are purchasing an item that has been previously opened, on display, etc...

Currently we have not devised a way for affililates to receive a commission for Clearance Center Items. However, we are looking into the possibility of allowing these items to be purchased on line or potential other ways for an affiliate to receive a commission.

We offered these links as a way to offer all customers everything we could. Not every customer out there is looking for the brand new top of the line item and is really searching long and hard for a bargain. By offering as many choices as possible we become a destination that is accessible to more than just one select group of customers. So, if you choose to use links to our Clearance Center you're doing your customer a favor by providing them as many choices as possible. And they may choose to thank you by continuing to shop with you and purchase other commission earning items.

I am looking into this issue as I stated earlier and when we've come to decision on what direction to move in you'll all be the first to know.

I certainly would understand if any or all of you choose not to link to items that are in the Clearance Center or even to items that are both new(commission earning) and that also are in the Clearance Center. However, it is one more option for your customers...one more reason to come back to your site.

Thanks -

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[Vanns.com]

Regarding Out of Stock Items:

Here is a copy of the email that we send back out to customers that request a stock notification:

On 10/26/2002 you asked us to notify you when the Onkyo HT-S755DVC became available. The Onkyo HT-S755DVC are now in-stock at Vanns.com. To purchase this item now click the following link:
http://www.vanns.com/jmp.dna?ref=notify&sku=501999444

Because stock may be limited, we encourage you to visit our site soon. We would like to thank you for this opportunity to earn your business.

Sincerely,
Your Vanns.com Customer Service Team

As you can see, we direct the customer back to our site rather than emailing us or calling us to place the order. So, the affiliate can still get a commission provided that the item comes back into stock within the period of time that the tracking cookie is still active.

Thank you -

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[JJJay]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Currently we have not devised a way for affililates to receive a commission for Clearance Center Items. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was just wondering why you could come to this affiliate board and ask people to link to the "Clearance Center" when you know FULLY that the affiliates won't get ANY commission.

Haiko its about time you moderate the moderators posts /infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

[ShoreMark]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Vanns.com - Matt:

Currently we have not devised a way for affililates to receive a commission for Clearance Center Items. However, we are looking into the possibility of allowing these items to be purchased on line or potential other ways for an affiliate to receive a commission.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Would it be possible for the routine to include the usual "add to cart," thus ensuring affiliate commission, with a notation at that cart level for the customer to call if they wanted to know more about the particulars of a given clearance item before hitting proceed with order?

I can certainly understand a curiosity as to whether it's simply an open box item, or if there are any other details about it that may affect their wanting it or not, but that wouldn't seem to preclude paying the commission to the affiliate that actually made it possible for you to dump, err, unload, err offer them the deal. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Vanns.com]

Here's my thoughts on this:

We provided the links to our Clearance Center in an effort to provide the best customer service that we could and in an effort to give each affiliate the opportunity to give each customer as many options as possible.

Vanns.com is giving it's best effort to give customers the best value possible. By providing customers as many options as possible in the category that they are searching in we feel that we are offering the customer great customer service.

It's about the customer. The more that we
(Vanns.com and all our affiliates) all offer our customers and the better we serve them, the more likely we are to retain them.

As I stated in the previous posting:

I certainly would understand if any or all of you choose not to link to items that are in the Clearance Center or even to items that are both new(commission earning) and that also are in the Clearance Center. However, it is one more option for your customers...one more reason to come back to your site.

We are trying to find a way that you can earn a commission on these Clearance items and I'll let you know as soon as that happens.

Please know that we are offering these items as a savings opportunity for our customers. We give away free shipping on these items and sell them at a loss all the time. We are by no means making a profit on the Clearance Center.

I feel that the Clearance Center is a value added proposition. It gives a deal to those people who want or need one and offers all of us the opportunity to draw more traffic to our sites. The more each of us has to offer to a customer the better job we can do in servicing their needs and retaining their business.

At the same time, I fully understand wanting to earn a commission and not giving away your customers and traffic. That's why we're looking into making this happen in the Clearance Center. I don't want to give away our customers or our products either...But we do if the ends justify the means. For innstance, we auction a good deal of our goods on Ebay. Most of the goods we auction on Ebay sell very close to or below the cost we paid for them, then if you add in labor, etc...they all pretty much are auctioned at a loss. However, lots of people see the auctions and learn about our company and remember us when they are out shopping. We give away a lot of items on Ebay at a loss but we get a return, we get people who remember us and become a potential customer. the Clearance Center can act in the same way...if you have more to offer than the next guy, why would someone shop at a lesser featured store with fewer options? And if he/she did, why would he/she return in the future to the lesser featured store if he/she remembered that lesser featured store didn't have everything they wanted or needed? But they had seen your site that has everything they want or need and they come once and then again because they remembered that you had satisfied all their needs or wants the first time and now you have a repeat customer.

If you don't want to list any links to our Clearance Center I completely understand. But if you do, it may benfit your customers and in turn benefit you because they'll remember you had all their bases covered.

I'll keep working on a way to get a commission structure set up for the Clearance Center.

Thanks for your questions. If for any reason I haven't answered them completely or to your satisfaction please let me know.

Thank you -

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[Vanns.com]

Shoremark -

That's a great idea and one that we are exploring to a degree. We would still at this point need for the customer to call in (due to our current support system). But we could potentially track the sale by carting it and attributing the commission to the correct affiliate. Setting up the method of payment in CJ would ba another stumbling block though...perhaps it could be a lead program. I am working on this as I know it's definitely an issue that needs to be resolved.

Thanks and keep the suggestions coming!

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[ecomcity]

Matt is just going over what I said above in more detail. have your people study what TigerDirect does with OOS product links and they covert even those at an average of 1 sale per 40 clicks.

I just made the mistake of putting up OOS items and links, as usual for all my merchants, to your clearance center.

QUOTE: "However, it is one more option for your customers...one more reason to come back to your site."

It would be easy to setup a HTML link back to the referring site on the clearance center landing page or an OOS page. All traffic from affiliate links and even your eBay auctions lead to vanns.com. Vann's doesn't really expect me to believe that I get a hidden benefit from a referral who calls in a 800# order -gets a e-mail return to stock notice -or bookmarks your pages. Just raise the commission on sales to compensate for the leakage.

WebMaster Mike

[huron]

Web Master Mike;

What! you don't want to offer free advertising and exposure to one of your merchants, and assist them in building up their customer base, at your expense, shame on you.

This thread has been a revelation, I wish more merchants would come out of the woodwork and share their thinking with us, I'm sure their statements would convince me to get that day job.

This merchant, like Graffiti Online,Zappos and a few others make you wonder if they actually believe we're all thick.

Keep the faith, The battle continues.

[Sam Bay]

Thank you very much, Matt. You've been great help with this thread. /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

[JJJay]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> It's about the customer. The more that we
(Vanns.com and all our affiliates) all offer our customers and the better we serve them, the more likely we are to retain them. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What is your CJ cookie setting, keep=yes or keep=no?

[Vanns.com]

The Cookie duration for Vanns.com is 45 days.

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[JJJay]

Thanks but I asked if you CJ cookie is set to either keep=yes or keep=no

[Vanns.com]

Okay, I would like to say a few things about this thread...because it feels to me like we're working against one another instead of with each other.

We are currently working on a way for you all to get commissions on Clearance Center Items. We know it's a big draw for customers. We also feel that you deserve a commission for any traffic you send there. I'm sorry that there currently isn't a method in place for this to happen.

Due to our Vendor agreements we need to negotiate with several companies in order to have a final method in place. Several of our larger accounts refuse to allow us to shopping cart Clearance Center items currently.

I don't expecct any of you to send us free traffic. If I were a Publisher I don't know if I would put any links up to the Vanns.com Clearance Center currently. Although, I may because it would be a service to my customers but I would have a difficult time with the fact that I was doing something for nothing.

We are currently in the process of revamping our site for an updated launch after the new year. We are working to resolve this issue and launch it at that time.

A lot of you have been doing affiliate programs much longer than we have and I've gotten some great suggestions on how to improve our program from you. Thank you. Please keep them coming.

The more that we (Vanns.com and all our affiliates) all work together and learn from each other the more successful we'll all be.

I'll let you all know as soon as we have a commission structure set up for clearance items. I'll look into what we can do to improve the Out-of-Stock items issues as well.

Thank you for your time, your comments, your suggestions and for your criticism. I hope that we can all find a way to make this an outstanding program.

Thanks for working with Vanns.com.

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[JJJay]

What is your CJ cookie setting, keep=yes or keep=no?

[Vanns.com]

JJJay -

In all honesty I'm not sure what you are referring to. Our cookie duration is set for 45 days. There is no setting for keep = yes or no in CJ that I can find. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place though.

Could you explain what your asking a little further.

Thanks -

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[JJJay]

I'm not a CJ merchant so I'm not familiar with the merchant page setup. There is a cookie setting which the merchant can turn on or off.

The cookie setting keep=yes credits affiliates with all sales made during the cookie duration. The cookie setting keep=no credits affiliates with only the first sale, then deletes/renders the cookie useless, regardless of how many sales the affiliate makes during the cookie duration they will only get credited with the first sale.

Hope this explains things.

[Vanns.com]

Thanks for the further explanation. Yes, the Publisher will continue to receive credit for any purchases within the cookie duration. Not just the first purchase. So if a customer clicks through from your site and buys something one day and then comes back 30 days later us and buys something again you still get the credit. Providing of course that the customer hasn't cleared his cookies out for some reason.

So the simple answer is "Yes"

Thanks for the question and the extra explanation.

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[JJJay]

Thanks for your answer, thats a plus in my books /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Vanns.com]

Hey Gang,

We've got a great deal that we want you all to know about.

We've got a Sony DVD Player for $99.88 (Great Brand, Great Price)! Plus this DVD Player also qualifies for a FREE DVD OFFER from Sony. So your customers can get a Sony DVD Player plus one of the following DVDs for only $99.88!

The DVD's are:

Men In Black II
Black Hawk Down
Panic Room
Mr. Deeds
Stuart Little 2

This is a great Holiday Offer that should drive some serious traffic!

The DVD player is the Sony DVP-PQ1. This unit has a non-traditional form factor that may not suit every customer so the NEW BANNER that we have detailing this offer links to a "Spot Light" page. This "Spot Light" page has a total of Nine DVD Players on it at some great prices....the best part: Only this banner links to this page! So you can drive traffic to a part of our site that no one else but affiliates have access to.

So, Go get the New Banner and promote the heck out of this deal....I can tell you that these DVD Players have been selling like crazy at $120 or more so an offer for $99.88 plus a free DVD is going to drive serious traffic. We ordered plenty to support all of you so take advantage of this to help bolster your holiday sales.

This offer will last until we are out of stock or the Free DVD Promotion ends.

Thanks!

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net

[Vanns.com]

Hey everyone,

There is also a new text link for the Sony DVD Offer mentioned above.

Thanks -

Matt Ranta
Vanns.com
netProfits Affiliate Program
Manager
netprofits@vanns.net