The Marks and Spencer affiliate program is with Affiliate Window, and comprises a 5% commission on all lines and a cookie length of 7 days.

Marks and Spencer are currently offering a promising affiliate opportunity with their popular online catalogue (to be found at their website www.marksandspencer.com.) Marks and Spencer are a leading retail brand not only in the UK but in over 30 countries worldwide, making them an international firm with a broad ranging reputation and brand appeal. Posted revenues exceeded £9 billion last year and the company has a workforce of more than 70,000 staff. As more than 21 million people enter their stores each week, they are certainly a major force in British retail.

The Marks and Spencer website offers a good range of products, many of which you would find in their stores. This includes a wide range of their women’s clothing (following their TV advertising campaign in the U.K), menswear, children’s clothes and toys, footwear, home furnishings, electronics, gifts and food. They also offer some direct services, such as a travel insurance policy – all of which are commission-bearing in the affiliate program. There are around 20,000 or so items on offer in total across all the ranges, which is on par with other department store websites of this nature.

Some products are only exclusively available on the Marks and Spencer Online website. This is seen mainly throughout the more expensive ranges of electronics (portable media players, IPOD accessories etc) and home furnishings (for instance furniture and household appliances etc). The website also allows those who may not be a practical distance from a larger Marks and Spencer store to purchase items that would otherwise not be available in their locality. As an example, much of the luggage range cannot be found in many smaller Marks and Spencer stores but the complete range is available for anyone to purchase online.

The site also continually runs promotions based on the time of year, together with offers specific to product lines. Examples include 33% off Australian Wines, and 30% off selected fabric upholstery, along with free delivery on all standard orders.

Prices range a great deal on the website, with much of the adult clothing being priced at between £25 and £40 and home furnishings along with many appliances being priced around the £100 mark. Electrical goods and games consoles remain relatively competitively priced, however, these could be easily found cheaper elsewhere. It is possible to pay from £2 for some male deodorant through to nearly £2,000 for a leather sofa.

The program does not provide details on average basket values, however, it is a reasonable assumption that with the popularity of the website and the M&S brand reputation, they would compare favourably with other online retailers of this genre (e.g. House of Fraser etc).

Marks and Spencer do, however, insist on a code of practice when using any PPC / Paid Search or similar campaigns. They require the use of a landing-page instead of direct forwarding. Your landing page is not to appear to be part of the Marks and Spencer Company and the words “official” and “TM” are explicitly banned from the page. Most of you will be familiar with similar branding and PPC constraints from other programmes. Keyword restrictions are also in place, including bidding on misspelt brand names (“Mrks and Spencer” etc) or competitor brand names in PPC campaigns.

The affiliate program also provides a good selection of advertising creative for use. This consists mainly of static banners — no flash components are supplied. New advertisements are released on a regular basis in accordance with new product lines and promotions. As an example, there are banners available at the time of writing for the new Halloween ranges of toys and foods. Advertisements are also often split into target audiences with many being separated into “male” and “female” products, particularly surrounding clothing ranges.

The affiliate program seems to be a good option for an affiliate looking for a new revenue stream in the run up to Christmas. Perhaps one small disappointment is the short cookie length of 7 days – which in comparison to other affiliates – is below par. Clearly the requirement to create a landing page for any PPC campaign creates more work if you are looking to promote this program but this is to be expected with a major brand. However, this is more than compensated for with a strong flat commission rate of 5% on all items and lines in the context of such a well known retailer.

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