There’s a touch of irony that in the week one merchant was caught out increasing prices when a user clicked an affiliate link that another launched an innovative system to sort out some of the many discount code issues. Red Letter Days have come up with a clever way of dealing with discounts and promotional code boxes whilst holiday firm Vivastay have possibly got themselves in a bit of a pickle.

In fact Vivastay could have trumped Red Letter Days had they just reversed what ever system they had in place. According to this post on Affiliates4U when an affiliate went to the site direct the prices shown were cheaper than if they went via an affiliate link. Not a good practice at all and potentially damaging to the industry. Having done some tests this morning it does seem this issue may be fixed. A price check on Barcelona’s NN 1898 on different computers and clicks all gave the same price. Good news if true.

Possibly better news for affiliates is the innovation that Red Letter Days have introduced. They have come up with a multitude of clever coding that means if a user clicks from an affiliate site a discount is applied if that affiliate has one and an add discount box is removed if they don’t (full details). There are also some fail safe systems in place so that Affiliate X can’t nick Affiliate Y’s code either. Codes can also be applied site wide or to specific products.

For example if a customer wanting to buy a relaxing eco break in Wales and they head to Red Letter Days via an affiliate without a discount code they get this…

However, if the customer goes via an affiliate site who have an agreed discount promotion with Red Letter Days, say 10%, they get this…

The idea is to try and get the consumer to not go wondering off in search of codes and discounts – something many affiliates are concerned about, especially when a prompt is made at the checkout stage to complete a discount code box. It’s a massive step forward and Red Letter Days, Affiliate Window and Affilinet should be congratulated for making this a reality.

It does away for the need for codes, the pesky promo box won’t be seen and a consumer can see straightaway the price they’re paying.

But new innovation always brings questions!

Firstly how much difference will it actually make? If Red Letter Days affiliates were losing a fair proportion of sales at the checkout stage then removing the code option is a significant step forward. The data from this innovative step could be the catalyst for other merchants to adopt a similar approach.

A slightly bigger concern though comes in the light of the Vivastay issue and that’s the public perception of affiliates and pricing. Even if one customer says “I get charged more clicking from your site than if I click from another” an affiliate (who hasn’t got a discount in place) may quickly lose the trust and goodwill of their users.

This means how discounts are reported at the merchant site is incredibly important. Whilst I appreciate it’s early days, the line through the price (above) perhaps isn’t quite enough for me. Although I guess drawing further interest to the price differential (e.g. “special offer” or “exclusive deal”) may not be favourable either.

Anyway all minor quibbles and shouldn’t disguise the fact that a massive step forward has been taken. For more details and examples about RLD’s innovation head on over to Affiliates4U. The affiliate managers are on hand to answer any questions.