I actually held a small shares position in Next which I closed out yesterday following the publication of a good set of results.. just as well, because statements like “this has meant that we have had to stop working with some affiliate partners who drive great business for Next” sets alarm bells ringing for me with my investor hat on!

@David lol, rather you than me – they crave attention as it is!

Interesting post as ever but I just wanted to comment on the stuff about Next. Whilst I can’t comment about what happened previously as it was before my time, I do know what has gone on this time and wish to respond.

We have not kicked affiliates off because “we have run out of budget”. We work to a fixed budget and therefore have taken this tricky decision to ensure that we’re working with the right partners who are going to drive the greatest results for Next, not just in terms of volume but in terms of profitability and new customer ratios. I appreciate that this is a small difference in the argument but feel I should clarify nevertheless.

In terms of why we work to a fixed budget I have a few thoughts on this that I would like to share, as is my wont! This widespread belief that affiliate marketing is a no-risk channel only holds true if there is no unethical or unprofitable activity on the account. If there are “dodgy” affiliates or there are affiliates who are merely intercepting sales that were already on the way to the merchant whilst adding no value, then it is not a no risk channel. In fact there is a very real risk that the merchant is paying more than once for each sale. This is the case no matter how much thought goes in at the start of the campaign in setting up commission levels.

Whilst I firmly believe that the vast majority of affiliate activity does not pose a risk to a merchant, unfortunately Next have been stung a few times in the past and are therefore cautious about the channel. Therefore they take the decision to impose a cap on the budget and this is something that we have to work towards. Unfortunately this has meant that we have had to stop working with some affiliate partners who drive great business for Next.

We have put a great deal of thought into which affiliates we should work with going forward and a lot of data has been taken into consideration when making these decisions.

Our aim moving forward is to get the campaign into a state where we can demonstrate that all of the sales driven are beneficial to Next then we can begin to ramp up the levels of budget. At that point we can then begin to work with more affiliates again, although I appreciate that like in any situation it is up to an affiliate which merchants they work with and there will be certain affiliates who do not wish to work with us.

As ever, at i-level we are more than happy to discuss any of this on a one to one basis and so please contact us on nextaffiliates@i-level.com