162 New Posts Today

[jc101]

Hmm I got some email from walmart saying they updated there banners and added new back to school banners. I think Walmart needs to come here to abestweb and ask for some help and feedback to be successful at linkshare. and of course explain why they haven't converted at all. I wish Walmart would sign up here at abestweb and focus on there affiliate program. I believe if they were totally dedicated and have better pages and products and raised there percentage to 20% they could convert great. What do others think? It seems wierd though I tested walmart, I bought a vacuum then canceled it, and it was reported Quickly at linkshare. I don't know. DO you think we are just not promoting walmart good enough to see sales. or is there something one with walmart at linkshare. What do others think here?

Jason

[Bluesx]

> What do others think here?

Ah, WalMart! well, not worth wasting my thoughts on WalMart, but I'm pretty sure Mike would have something to say here.. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

- BluesX

[WebSurfer]

Didn't someone post recently that they were trying to get commissions they earned *last year*?

[ecomcity]

My take on Walmart is that no one at Corporate has any stake in their online e-business. Their original site wasn't even operated by Walmart for the first 2 years. Some greedy scumbag merchant e-catalog service ran the site til they performed so miserably WalMart sacked the whole lot of them. Problem then was no one at Walmart knew diddly about online marketing and assumed they'd just brand their URL and tie online sales into their local storefronts. Need I say clueless advertising department subcontracted the second rebirth?

That failed miserably as they racked up the lowest conversion ratio of any major merchant due to not having a clue on landing pages -product displays, creatives or any incentive to make the program generate sales. Sales just happen ..if you drive enough traffic to the site...eyeball idiots. They then subcontract spamming buyers with specials ..try the parasites ..spend money on Durperaffiliate coupons-incent deals. Every lazy wrong move by a merchant loaded with budget suckered by the middleman wanks of this industry.

So come clean Walmart and tell us who is actually running your proggram into the ground and what you plan to do to cure it. Don't rely on LS since they employ no real e-biz marketing people.

[Tracy]

My major complaint is that they provide no way to link to individual items. My site is very specific, and I have found that people click on product links but ignore banners. If they're not going to provide product links, they could at least give us the ability to create our own.

[jc101]

Yeah it would be nice if Walmart would offer a way for us to link to specific products, I have also emailed walmart and invited them to sign up for abestweb.com. I said if they do really care about there affiliates they would take there spare time to get feedback of there affiliate program at linkshare. I doubt it though that they will sign up.. unless we all invite them.

Jason

[affiliatemakeover]

Just another merchant who underplays the affiliate potential. TD just did over 1 mil in a month in affiliate sales. Why? Well, we all know why.

Hopefully they will all get it someday. Lots of money they are missing out on.

[jimbo2002]

Walmart used to have great program (at least for me they did, everyone else here seemed to trash them). The conversion rates were high, checks arrived on time, etc.

But then they removed the product links.

[SSanf]

Is Walmart trying?

Yes! Walmart is VERY trying!

[cusimano]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by AffiliateMakeover.com:
Just another merchant who underplays the affiliate potential. TD just did over 1 mil in a month in affiliate sales. Why? Well, we all know why.

Hopefully they will all get it someday. Lots of money they are missing out on.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just to put a hypothetical $1 mil/month into perspective when referring to Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart's annual sales: $219,812,000,000 / year (source: www.fortune500.com)

Therefore, sales/month: $18,317,666,666 / month

Hypothetical affiliate sales: $1,000,000 / month

Hypothetical % of total sales generated by affiliates: 0.00546%

Yours truly,
Cusimano.Com Corporation
per: David Cusimano

[Gordon]

I agree with you on that one ssanf. From what I have read here over the last 12 months most people find them very trying.

[Bluesx]

>Hypothetical affiliate sales: $1,000,000 / month


Well said. The real figure is likely to be around $10,000/month and that is like 0.000055%

- BluesX

[ecomcity]

Your right on the money BlueX and Sam Walton is rolling over in his grave just hoping someone fires the entire internal staff and all outside management running his companies affiliate program. Someone is sucking bucks from this perfectly good affiliate enabled merchant and no one in corporate has a clue and LS sure isn't volunteering any info on the culpret.

[affiliatemakeover]

Cusimano,

I get your point. However, let me just say that I don't consider it an excuse. The best companies will tap every potential market and sales source they can.

If I ever heard a CEO say, "We just don't have time to get into this new proven sales method. Why should we, we're doing so well without it." or "It's not in our business model."

That's when I know that CEO is an idiot, and the company will never reach its full earning potential.

They have the money to do it, it's proven it can make money, so why not invest in it and make it work?

I realize that big companies have to make serious choices about what to focus on, but going half-ass into something is the wrong thing to do.

[affiliateguy]

What about other general merchandise retailers? Does anyone have data to compare success of kmart.com vs. Walmart.com? Essentially, do you think the category is suffering from overall sales volume?

I've not worked with either as an affiliate. I tend to believe the proto-typical K-mart or Walmart shopper is not going online to shop at these stores except maybe during the holidays for gifts.

Their strengths as retailers exist in breadth of product and generally low prices, not depth in product lines. This lends to an ideal and efficient physical shopping experience, where a consumer can walk through the store, quickly browse through the landscape, and pick up anything from dishwasher detergent to car tires.

On the web people shop for convenience, but Walmart.com doesn't offer that exact same 1-stop shopping convenience. You can't get that big box of Q-tips, giant sized shampoo, and box of cereal to go along with the leaf blower you need. You might as well just run on down to the local Walmart. Also, Walmart.com carries a lot of non-commodity items consumers want to physically sample (household appliances, sporting goods) before buying, which is another reason people will just go to the store.

Furthermore, if you were looking for just a leaf blower, you'd probably find a better selection and more product information at leafblower.com. Maybe if you're steadfastly loyal to Walmart, you'll go back to Walmart.com to see if they have the same model. But chances are, you won't.

I'd say if I were going to promote them, I would certainly need product links to target specific demographics and buyers, like links to DVD titles, PS2 games, etc. For the verticals that 1) sell well online and 2)they have a depth of product availability equivalent to a specialty retailer, I'd say it makes sense to promote them. Unfortunately, affiliates lack the linking tools right now to do so.

[Bluesx]

> do you think the category is suffering from overall sales volume?...On the web people shop for convenience ... non-commodity items consumers want to physically sample (household appliances, sporting goods) before buying ...

Category is not suffeing from low sales volume. When you combine all the categories walmart has, the number would be, lets say, huge! And we know very well that Overstock and Amazon are liquidating very well at very high volumes.

On the web, people will buy anything if you can sell it. People also shop for all sorts of reasons which include convenience.

People do not need to sample dishwashers or lawnmowers, or shoes, or bike helmets, or oakley sunglasses, or jansport backpacks if they are satisfied with the price and the shopping experience, they'll buy it online. This is a fact. People buy these things online.

Sorry, no more WalMart here!

- BluesX

[affiliateguy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>People do not need to sample dishwashers or lawnmowers, or shoes, or bike helmets, or oakley sunglasses, or jansport backpacks if they are satisfied with the price and the shopping experience, they'll buy it online. This is a fact. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It must be nice to have feet that fit every pair of shoes; a head that fits into every bike helmet; a face that matches every pair of sunglasses; etc.

Maybe bluesx is actually an AI bot, so therefore never needs to physically sample anything?

[obstinatedon]

Factually, WalMart has done pretty well for a number of affiliates. Since this thing came up yesterday, I made a few calls.

Once again, Webmaster Mike shows us all his failure-rate numbers with a more than ready-for-prime-time merchant, and blames it on an entity other than himself. In this particular case, number 1 in the Fortune 500.

For those of you who care, the following information is what I managed to gather.

The LS Client Services team manages the program for WalMart. I have worked with these folks before, and even though I consider myself to be fairly astute from a marketing perspective, I can't hold a candle to either of the people I spoke with.

They were not willing to share revenue numbers with me due to confidentiality, but did say that WalMart revenues through them is "in the millions per year". I thought as much frankly, but after reading this thread, wanted to make sure.

They have a new team at WalMart, and it appears that they are on the right track.

Obstinatedon

[CayasDesignsLLC]

Take it from someone who used to work at the general office. They don't care! I'm not touching them with a ten foot pole! Been there, done that. Just wait, you will eventually be required to watch 3 hours of nothing but commercials to brainwash you! Possibly through a satellite link! FYI [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[ecomcity]

Wouldn't you know that Obstinatedon would have to pop his head into a WalMart roast to defend some shady fee relationship with those who ran this program into the ground over the last 2 years. Hey It's me Don, so no need to go over to Revenews to hype your views since the place is vacant. You can loose your arguments here in front of a much more interesting crowd.

The LS client services team. Sounds like a parasite if they don't pull a paycheck from Linkshare payroll. How much they milk out of Walmart for the new improved program thta now accepts all applicant. Any of them know how to use the merchant interface -design effective banners and text category links or know the value of product displays that convert???

[ 08-01-2002: Message edited by: EcomCity.com ]

[deelz]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>WalMart has done pretty well for a number of affiliates.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can name one: DEALTIME! {pardon my french}

In other words: What could Walmart possibly want from us?

Trying to "reform" Walmart is a rather silly and digressive enterprise.

[ 08-01-2002: Message edited by: Deelz ]

[ecomcity]

Now that Obstinatedon has opened pandoras box..who is LS merchant services?? Must be some type of professional merchant/affiliate proggram management outfit like Global Sports. Do share a parasite/scumware/spammer/Duperaffiliate rolodex and pay kickbacks to LS for recruiting merchants and killing off the conversion ratio? Might be the group who charges 5K per month to weed out sales commissions to justify their rate for a 6.00/hr professional affiliate manager who plays Quake all day long.

[ecomcity]

They only way to see if the new improved managed program is anything more than hype is to see if the revisionist AM is willing to change the ZERO COOKIE DAYS to 45 days!! A totally harmless move after 2 years of FREE traffic/low conversion abuses.

[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: EcomCity.com ]