The John Lewis Affiliate Program is available on Affiliate Window, and offers a commission rate of between 2-5% across all of their products, and a cookie length of 30 days.

When thinking of leading British retailers, the John Lewis Partnership is among the very elite. Founded in 1864 the group has grown to include the chain of John Lewis stores, the food retailer Waitrose and Greenbee (the company’s broker of insurance products and direct services). John Lewis has won prestigious awards, such as “Britain’s Favourite Retailer 2007″ and “Top of the Shops 2007″ (as voted by Which?), and with a turnover of more than £6.8 billion last year – they are now offering affiliates a slice of the action.

The range of products available on the website is simply staggering. There is a selection of more than 37,000 different commodities from a variety of lines including home, gifts, electrical goods, furniture, clothing and much more. These are supported by an equally appealing selection of different household name brands – most notably the likes of Adidas, Royal Worcester, Disney, Gucci and hundreds of others.

John Lewis is also one of the few department stores in the UK offering designer flowers and other plants in their online catalogue. These range from attractive bouquets to a varied selection of fair-trade greenery. The flowers are coupled with an array of good quality vases in a variety of different colours and styles.

Understandably, prices vary a great deal across the entirety of the website. You can purchase a pair of designer socks for £8.50, or pay nearly £2,000 for a leather sofa. Reflective of a designer retailer, products are priced as you would anticipate for a top brand. This of course results in a higher average basket value – particularly in the run up to Christmas – thus meaning more potential commission for suitable affiliates.

John Lewis is also running a variety of different promotions for its online catalogue. At the time of writing they are providing free standard delivery on all items, along with product-line specific guarantees (for instance a free 5-year guarantee on all televisions). This is coupled with other customer-focused services, for example, a free 90-day computer support helpline for those who have purchased desktop or laptop computers.

The retailer’s commission structure varies depending on what the buyer has purchased, however they offer a flat rate on all sales of 2%. This increases to 3% for electronics, 4% for items in their gift lines and 5% for products such as furniture, wines, textiles or children’s toys. Despite other department stores such as Marks and Spencer offering a higher commission rate of 5% – John Lewis offers a far longer cookie period of 30 days, in contrast to, for example, Marks and Spencer’s 7 days.

The affiliate program also offers a good selection of advertising creative. They provide a varied selection of both static and animated banners with a variety of different themes and focuses. Many are product-line specific, for instance there is a good selection of advertising material geared towards the Apple computing range and computer games; along with further material focused on wines, wedding gifts and branded clothing ranges. There is further creative available for seasonal promotions on the site. As an affiliate, you are able to more readily focus on a particular area best suited to your site/s – allowing you to target a campaign more effectively at one or more product lines out of more than 37,000 products.

In common with many other programs of this nature, John Lewis does not allow bidding on the brand name “John Lewis”, or misspellings (such as “Jon Lewis”) or any competitor’s names (such as “House of Fraser”) in PPC campaigns.

This affiliate opportunity is particularly appealing in the run up to Christmas when sales begin to increase but with a strong creative team and seasonal promotions throughout the year, there is never a bad time to get involved with a major online retailer such as John Lewis. Their brand reputation, a high degree of consumer confidence and the product lines and brands they carry are appealing. The commission rates on offer may not be as strong as some other department store merchants, but these factors, together with high basket values and good conversion rates should offset the lower percentage.

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