Zyra.org.uk //// ASDA //// Customer comment about Asda //// corked //// Site Index

What happened to ASDA's affiliate program ?!

Some time ago, the famous UK supermarket ASDA had an affiliate program. This was good news here, as Zyra's website does quite well on affiliate programs. One of the notable things about Zyra's site is that it doesn't just have "advertising" and the typical hype that is given out. Instead, there's often a commentary, a piece of free speech about the subject. Whether it's a book or a movie or a supermarket, it tends to get reviewed. This is good for the affiliate business, because customers recognise it's free comment by someone, rather than being just the party line.

In the case of ASDA, there were two notable main pages about the place, one being the dedicated page about Asda, and the other being the page "Asda comment". These pages have, between them, done well for this site and for Asda. Customers like them, and Asda shouldn't grumble as the whole thing has brought plenty of business their way.

Everything was going well here on the Asda affiliate program until Buy.at , the affiliate marketing company entrusted with looking after Asda's affiliate program, was taken over by AOL. Shortly after the takeover, the new variant of Buy.at imposed a new Buy.at contract, and the presumption must have been that all affiliates would sign it. However, that didn't happen. Some affiliates actually read the contract, and some didn't sign it. I refused to sign the contract.

The new variant of Buy.at , now "Platform A's Buy.at", seemed to take quite a hard-line on this and sent out a message giving notice to expel any affiliates who didn't submit to the new rules. Well, this sort of thing doesn't win any Public Relations, and so it looked like being a disaster.

I did point out at the time to the people at Buy.at "Who's going to tell the merchants that you're expelling some of the most successful affiliates?".

At the time of the Buy.at problem, Zyra's website had over two hundred companies being promoted via the Buy.at network, listed at the Buy.at merchants page at Zyra.eu , but many of these were relatively easily migrated to other affiliate networks. Just as most cars carry a spare tyre, most companies bigger than a particular size have more than one affiliate program, thus saving them from the terrible problems associated with having an exclusive affiliate program. Some companies, whilst not having an exclusive affiliate program, had nevertheless ONLY ONE affiliate program, which is a lesser problem, probably only as bad as having only one fire exit.

It's important to realise in these things, it's not the fault of ASDA that they had lost their links. It may have been slightly naive of Asda to rely on a single network and to assume they'd not be bought out, but they did not expect it, and they could not have predicted that they were abseiling with old rope, as it had been sold to them as a reliable product.

Even with the Buy.at problem, the page about Asda and the Asda Comment page continued, as it was always hoped they would resume being good for business in the long term. As surely as there are many supermarkets which all compete keenly to attract customers, there are many affiliate marketing companies keen to attract businesses to be promoted.

Affiliates are usually with many different networks. Zyra is with about twenty different affiliate marketing companies, which is a deliberate business choice to keep the balance of power rather than letting any single network get a monopoly and misuse it. When you look around the Shopping Portal and the Famous Names, you'll see the companies are with a variety of different affiliate program providers.

If you're reading this wondering "what's all this affiliate stuff?", if you're interested it's all explained here at the guide to affiliate marketing, which of the same ilk as how to run your own business

During the time of the missing Asda links, this page about Asda also mentioned the web address which was www.asda.co.uk and, there was a link to ASDA supermarket via Asda at Stamp Demon!

Of course, other supermarkets are available, and this is a website that promotes a wide variety of places. Asda was one of the better-featured places here, but not the only one. There's also much other commercialism at the Shopping Portal and the Famous Names, but there are also a great many shops and online outlets including many of the small places, listed by category and in the greater site index. So, there's always been scope for having a look around!

Meanwhile, even during the 12 months of the AOL Buy.at problem, the people at ASDA could have been cheerful that we still had pages for Asda Car Insurance , Asda Home Insurance and Asda Pet Insurance , which were still live with a different network.

Now, in 2010, there is news: Buy.at has been bought out by Digital Window (Affiliate Window), and they are much more reasonable and sensible about contracts. So, the promotion of Asda will now be resumed! That page, and the other page "Asda comment" are now both back in business. Good for business

So, if you'd like to visit Asda, here's the link to the page: ASDA