ReveNews
BargainBetty.com and MSN, a new partnership is formed.
In this industry, many of us have gone from one side of the fence to the other, affiliate manager to affiliate and vice versa. JP Werlin of BargainBetty.com is no different. A year or so ago he started BargainBetty.com and recently they announced a partnership that is raising the heart rates, and forecasts, of more than a few merchants. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing and occasionally working with Mr. Werlin for a number of years. I was able to pin him down for a conversation regarding this new partnership and ask him a few questions.
I met JP through a networking group on Yahoo (I think) while he was working on Overstock.com’s affiliate program and I was at Coldwater Creek. Prior to starting out on his own as an affiliate, he also spent some time at GSI Commerce running Online Marketing including managing their affiliate programs. “I felt it was time I jumped the fence and became an Affiliate. I ran into an old business colleague and after some time (and money) Bargainbetty.com was developed. The impetus behind Bargainbetty.com was to provide a female friendly, customizable cash back and coupons site. Bargainbetty is managed by Kristyn and Kerry, two sisters who are shopaholics and are always looking for a deal. K&K know how to shop online - and more importantly, know how to shop online AND save money. All merchandising, product and coupon decisions are made by them - they have complete control. I know my place as a guy when it comes to shopping and that is to get out of the way of the professionals. Bargainbetty.com has been flying under the radar for about a year now and the excitement of the MSN Shopping relationship has put us on a great trajectory.”
What’s that? A partnership with MSN Shopping? Now that sounds something worth learning a little more about, especially as a merchant looking for new ways to reach new customers. At first I interpreted this new partnership as one with MSN Search. But don’t make that mistake, it isn’t. It is a partnership with MSN Shopping. You can see the MSN Shopping Coupon page provided by BargainBetty here http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctid=8018. “In its current form, the implementation is on the periphery of Search for the foreseeable future as MSN Shopping only provides coupons in the Sales & Deals section of MSN Shopping”, JP cleared it up for me. I’ll let him get in more depth for you: “Currently I am not aware of any integration (or plans of integration) into Search. So unlike the Yahoo deal which is arguably negative for Merchants as it devalues the Merchant’s brand in Yahoo! Search, MSN provides a Merchant-centric solution. Customers have to seek out the coupons and Merchants have the ability to request not to participate in the program. In addition, Bargainbetty and MSN have set the bar very high for what qualifies as a coupon and have given extra weight on exclusive coupons from Merchants for MSN Shoppers.”
A high bar for coupons? I had to get more information on that. “Exclusives get extra promotion on MSN. We do not consider site-wide offers regularly available to regular Merchant site visitors as a true coupon worthy of MSN Shopping. A good way to think about it is in the physical world. A coupon really isn’t a coupon if a shopper accidentally walks into a store on the day of a sale. A coupon is an active promotion that a shopper seeks out, clips, and then goes to the store to use. Coupons were invented to modify or to encourage behavior that was not going to occur on its own - in other words generate incremental sales. Many Merchants today have lost sight of the coupon as a true marketing tool and think all discounting is bad. Would you rather have 90% of a sale or 100% of no sale? Yes, there are bargain hunters, but there are far more people who might need some extra motivation to purchase from a new Merchant or to return to a Merchant after not purchasing for 6 months or more. One other note, Merchants tend to be wary of coupons because of their own poor lifetime value metrics and tracking. If a Merchant new the true value of each customer or segment, they could adjust their coupon usage to influence behavior in an objective, as opposed to emotional, manner.”
“The same goes for MSN Shopping - the action is a click on the URL or the entery of a coupon code at time of checkout. Exclusive or not, true coupons will make it in the directory, but the more exclusive the better. And, the coupon has to pass muster with K&K, the shopaholics. Our aim is to provide a reason for every online shopper to check MSN Shopping first to see if there is a coupon for a particular Merchant available NOW.”
That makes sense. MSN only wants to showcase quality coupons in this new coupon section and you have to get your coupon through the team at BargainBetty.com. Got it.
I’ve worked with MSN Shopping personally in the past. With several different merchants I’ve run advertising campaigns on the site. I remember that they were a few things, expensive, expensive and expensive (at least from an affiliate program mindset). This partnership is essentially allowing those merchants, big and small, that have or have not been able to make the financial commitment to advertise on the MSN Shopping network to get some exposure or more exposure in front of those customers. Even test the waters so to speak. “For many smaller Merchants who can’t get on MSN Shopping as part of a straight shopping arrangement, this deal allows MSN Shopping users to be introduced to hundreds of new online Merchants. This provides a rich shopping experience for the MSN Shopper and allows Merchants to be found on MSN Shopping on a revenue share.”
I was fortunate enough to get the chance to ask MSN Shopping a few questions as well, thinking that maybe those merchants who had large spends on the portal may not be as happy as other merchants at this new real estate, but was told “No - quite the opposite! We’ve received interest from MSN Shopping merchants that would like to participate in the program that weren’t already affiliated with Bargain Betty. This has been a benefit we’ve been able to bring to this partnership.” According to MSN Shopping, coupons will add a strong feature to MSN Shopping, especially as we head into the holidays. “Research shows that finding deals is the No. 1 reason why people shop online and in September alone, more than 18.2M total unique visitors flocked to coupon sites on the web. This encourages our users to check back daily to see what new coupons are now available.” That’s good news for participating merchants.
Let’s take a quick walk through the MSN Shopping Coupon section. The most coveted placements are the ones on the coupons homepage for truly exclusive and exciting coupons.
http://shopping.msn.com/content/shp/?ctid=8018
You’ll see three 125×125 banners across the top and the lower exclusive coupons are some featured, high performing spots. You can also look for coupons by store and by category on the left hand side. You also have the MSN Shopping Homepage with its promotion of the coupon section on the top nav and in the body of the page.
http://shopping.msn.com/default/shp/?ptnrid=193,ptnrdata=100001
There is also some exposure to the coupon section on the MSN.com main homepage in the Shopping Module right now with a text link reading: Huge savings with online coupons which, when clicked will land the user on the MSN Coupons Homepage.
BargainBetty has been in the major networks for around a year and not all the networks are taking notice yet. “Linkshare has been most supportive followed closely by Performics. Linkshare has really seen the opportunity for what it is and has been a true supporter of their affiliate - Bargainbetty.com. I can tell you that the sales performance for the Merchants is directly related to the involvement of their respective Affiliate Network. For some reason, the line has been dead with CJ, but for their Merchant’s sake we hope to hear back from CJ soon. Bargainbetty.com was a bottom or non-performer for a year in all networks. However, I learned long ago at Overstock.com as an Affiliate Manager, you never know who your next super affiliate is going to be when you wake up in the morning. I am a firm believer that the internet business models of tomorrow are proved out in the Affiliate landscape - paramount examples are the $800M+ of market cap recently realized by two companies who started out as affiliates - Shopping.com and Shopzilla.” Very true. Every affiliate manager should read those words again. You never now when or who the next big affiliate partner is going to be. Maybe BargainBetty?
With every new revenue share development and with every new affiliate that pushes the envelope, there sometimes can be a backlash. We’ve seen some new comers do some pretty horrible stuff as well as some really show us all how the web is changing. I thought I’d get JP’s take on this and see if there were any downsides to this deal. “As an Affiliate I think it is important for them to think big. Not everyone can be a Tim Storm or a Connie Berg - they are very smart, savvy and hardworking folks. Affiliates need to remember that they can use their size and technology to find seams of opportunity. The Internet is about innovation and the Affiliates are often the ones leading that innovation - in both good and bad ways. On the Merchant side, as an Affiliate Manager, there really is no downside. I know from experience that some more conservative brands will manifest some undue concern. I would guess these concerns would manifest in this deal as it being an “affiliate” relationship (yes, affiliates are from time to time still considered second class citizens) and maybe effecting parts of a larger portal deal. I would argue that not everyone uses coupons or takes the time to do pre-purchase research. This goes back to metrics-based marketing and measuring your customer’s value and each marketing channel’s profitability It may be surprising to some Merchants, but people who shop Bargainbetty.com direct also shop MSN. Convergence is upon us, it is just a question if the Merchant wants to acknowledge reality.”
As an affiliate manager, I am always looking for a new idea, a new way to reach my customers (my clients’ customers). As Revenews blogger, I’d like to be able to bring more examples of new affiliates to you here in the future. New distribution models appear every year and this seems like one that merchants may want to get involved in. It seems like an especially good way for smaller merchants who aren’t able to throw around large advertising budgets to get a little piece of the traffic from this shopping portal. Nice work JP for bringing the affiliate model into another venue that has historically not embraced the affiliate world.
Now I’ll let you guys debate the pros and cons. I’m sure JP would love to chime in as well. If you do want to get involved, just email the shopaholics at Kristyn@bargainbetty.com.
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