In the last few days, Google has rolled out its GoogleCheckout service to UK merchants. On the face of things, it’s a great deal for UK E-commerce sites. It offers great fraud protection and promises to reduce costs by fighting chargebacks on behalf of the merchant and increasing conversion rates. It’s even offering consumers £10 off all purchases over £30 when they use the system for their purchases.
What’s the problem then?
A vast proportion of sales originating from affiliate links will simply not be tracked.
The checkout system works on the basis of approved tracking providers. If your network hasn’t jumped through Google’s hoops to qualify for inclusion in this new checkout system, you won’t be paid your commissions. Merchants with concerns about affiliate tracking have found that Google Checkout is an all or nothing gig. The big G won’t allow them to revert to another checkout system for sales originating from affiliate links.
What are networks doing about it?
Networks have reported that there has been no contact from anyone at Google other than in the form of those standardised e-mails that we all know and love. This is fairly disappointing considering there are only a relatively small number of networks to actually communicate these issues with. There have also been some real concerns from networks about the data that Google will gain access to with the integration of the Google Checkout system.
I’d love to be able to say that this lack of responsiveness and unyielding attitude are surprising, but it is something we have come to expect from Google in its dealings with the affiliate industry.
Many merchants have put the new system live without even considering the effects on affiliate tracking, so I’m incredibly concerned that if sluggish progress with network approval continues, affiliates will feel the pinch as more and more merchants pick up Google’s offer. Lets face it, the £10 discount is a compelling hook to get merchants on board.
What can affiliates do about it?
Here’s the list of approved 3rd party tracking applications on Google Checkout: -
http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=55005
And here’s the list of merchants who are using Google Checkout: https://checkout.google.com/buyer/merchants.html?hl=en_GB
It seems the networks are doing all they can at this stage. All we can do as affiliates is check our merchants on networks not yet approved and have a good long look at whether we want to continue promoting any merchants using the new system.
This is doubly disgusting considering that Google were more than aware this would affect affiliates after their December rollout in the USA.
http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com
On the other side of the coin, there will be some scope for affiliates to promote these Google Checkout discounts on programmes we know will track. So in conclusion, that’s two lines of good news, and several paragraphs of affiliate outrage. So whats new, hey?!
April 19th, 2008 at 8:52 am
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