Hello folks,

Just a heads up to tell everyone to check out the new A4UExpo site - it rocks!!

Not only is the site an advert for the Expo itself, but in my opinion it gives a masterclass in online marketing and highlights all of the social and viral marketing tools that any online marketeer worth his (or her salt) should be using.

I mean - check out this cool banner and the cool functionality that allows you to toggle the sound on and off - it’s really impressive…

Well done Matt and the team. I’m convinced that this years Expo will be an even bigger success than last years!!

Toodle pip.

TBW.

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Do you think I’ll get off?

Further a telephone conversation with one of your representatives I’m writing with regards to Penalty Charge Notice BM40473618.

Last Saturday I parked my Car at Aston Villa Football Club to watch the aforementioned Club in a lack luster performance against Sunderland AFC. At this point I feel it is pertinent to point out  that Sunderland have won an impressive zero away games all season and are competing with Birmingham City in a relegation dog fight to maintain survival in the Premier Division. I wish them well. I also feel at this early stage in my correspondence it makes sense to point out that my automobile was parked on a grass verge along with at least 100 other miserable supporters whom – like me – I would suggest part their car in the same vicinity on a regular basis.

I returned to my car after what was a pitiful performance by the Claret and Blue boys in a dreary, nah, shambolic defeat against who are ordinarily one of the leagues whipping boys. Not only was it the coldest day on record for the year – I had to bring out the emergency spare socks - but it was also bucketing it down. You can imagine my joy. I also took my nephew to his second ever game (the first being a 0-0 bore draw with the usually entertaining Liverpool) so wasn’t in the most jovial of moods. In fact I see my nephew as a jinx on Villa’s performances and he’ll need top seriously buck his ideas up if he is to join me on my travels to Aston B6 for future games. However, I digress.

To my absolute delight on arriving back at my automobile (note the irony) I found a parking ticket had been delicately placed on my car. Imagine my initial surprise at receiving such a fine – especially when you consider I, along with at least 100 other Villa fans – or should they now be called “Financial Contributors to Birmingham’s Highways Department” – have parked on the same piece of grass for approximately the last 6 years (or to be more precise, 114 games, or 10,260 minutes – plus drinking time).

My initial surmising were that this was either a hoax, or had been placed on my motor vehicle by some Villa despising Bobby from the Blue half of the City. I quickly dismissed this line of thought as a) Police Officers are stood opposite my parking space every week and therefore have failed to “nab” me for the previous 10,170 minutes and b) it’s highly unlikely that a member of Her Majesty’s Police Force – whom I assume need to establish a certain level of IQ and integrity – support the driveling low life’s from Small Heath. Further investigation was therefore required. 

So, on this course of further investigation, it transpired that I had been issued with the ticket as my car was “Stopped on a Red Route” (46N Stopped where prohibited). Now, forgive me for being cynical, but I do believe that a grass verge situated at a 45 degree angle, separated from the road by a 5 ft wide pavement does not constitute any route – be it Red or otherwise.

I therefore took it upon myself to speak to one of your representative in person at the Council Offices to see if I could a) clarify which of the particular blades of grass I had parked on constituted a red route, and b) manage to appeal to their better nature and erase the Penalty Charge. After several minutes being kept on hold and being notified in a dulcet Brummy tone that “my call is important” and “we are experiencing a high level of traffic” (who knows – maybe it was the veritable cornucopia of Villa fans who had been suckered - I mean – penalized) I was informed that I’d need to contact an alternative number. Smashing.

After round two of the telephone waiting game, I managed to speak to a nice Gentleman whom – although empathizing – informed me that parking on a grass verge, no matter how far from the road, was still classed as a Red Route. When asked why I’d not be penalized for parking there for the previous 2190 days, he surmised that “maybe some of the local residents may have complained”. Now, again forgive me for being a cynic, and I apologise if you are not familiar with Aston Hall Road, Aston, but I don’t feel that the illegal occupants of the derelict houses on the road a) really give a rats behind whether I park on the grass verge or not and b) being tenants of the “non paying kind” (I think you get my drift) aren’t really in any position to be complaining about activities of the illegal type. The words kettle and pot and black would spring to mind. 

I am therefore writing to your good selves to lodge my appeal against this Penalty Charge Notice and to argue, nah insist, that you quash the notice on the grounds that not only is it unfair, it is completely unfounded, as I was parked further than 10 foot from the road.

If however, I am found to be in breach of the regulations and am forced to pay the fine and  – as your telephone operative pointed out – the grass verge is actually classed as being part of the  ‘red route’ does that mean I can drive along it futuristically? If this is the case then can you please clarify this in writing as that will save me a great deal of time traveling to work in the future as I’ll be legitimately able to travel to work on the special designated “grass verge red routes” and off-road it whilst other those other ‘suckers’ wait on the highway.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to receiving your decision.

Kind regards,
Zak Edwards. 

6 Comments »

Hello folks,

I hope you are well.

Whilst talking to Julia from AWIN today, we found ourselves talking about the length of time that it takes for some merchants to validate commission. (For the record we validate commission every 8 days which I think is probably slower than some merchants, who do it daily but quicker than others).

So why don’t we validate orders quicker?

It quickly dawned on me that (probably) nobody has explained WHY we don’t do it quicker, so I thought I’d post a little blog posting on TBW and explain our stance…

Because we have a lot of automated and manual fraud screening we (fingers firmly crossed) don’t get a lot of fraudulent orders, so this isn’t the reason why we don’t validate quicker. However, I can understand why some companies who sell high end expensive gadgets like digital cameras and camcorders, take a while longer to validate orders as they are more prone to fraudulent orders.

With us, the primary reason for not validating orders quicker is returns. Under certain legislation (Distance Selling Regulations predominantly) and also through goodwill, we have an obligation to accept back returned products - up to a period of 30 days. Obviously then we have to fully refund the customer.

So potentially, if we validate orders too quickly, we may be paying commission on an order that has actually been returned to us and consequently we’ve received no money on. I don’t mind this if the commission is only a few quid, but if the commission is on a £500 football table then it gets a little hot beneath the collar.

But then that got me thinking. What about PPC affiliates? Do they factor in returns in to the equation and thus none payment of (in their eyes) legitimate commission? Is it fair to not pay commission on returned items?

Thankfully this doesn’t happen very often with Prezzybox as I’m pleased to report that our current approval rate is 99.76%, but it’s definitely an issue which needs bringing to the public arena.

Toodle pip.

TBW.

4 Comments »

Hello folks,

There’s been a lot written of late about how some merchants (including some MASSIVE ones) seem to make an absolute pigs ear of Affiliate Marketing. Now, I’m not an Affiliate Guru - far from it - but Prezzybox always seem to do OK within the Affiliate Marketing arena. Why? Coz it’s not chuffin rocket science that’s why!!!

So, with it not being rocket science, here’s some basic tips which we adhere to which seem to work pretty well for us…

1. Provide Affiliates with all the tools/information/data they require to sell your products.
2. Do this early - not like the competitor of ours who sent out their Fathers Day creative on the Friday before Fathers day.
3. Pay people for stuff they deserve. If the Affiliate has driven a sale or lead to your site then they deserve some credit for it , right. So for example when somebody purchased 50 hammocks on Prezzybox through an affiliate link we were happy to pay the affiliate £500 commission.
4. Don’t do stooopid things which would be annoying if they happened to you. Reducing Commission/not paying commission during key selling periods on key lines/leakage on your site are all no-no’s. Affiliates are like elephants. They have lllloooonnnngggg memories.
5. Work with your affiliates. It’s an ‘us and us’ situation, NOT an ‘us and them’ scenario. I’ve heard sooooo many merchants (and affiliates) berating the other side.
6. Own up to your mistakes. If you’ve made a cock up, own up to it. Affiliates are humans too you know (even if some of them don’t look it!). Tell them if you’ve made a mistake and work through it with them. Honesty is the best policy.

I reckon that’s about it. 6 easy steps to running a half decent Affiliate programme.

One other thing. If you are looking to close your affiliate programme then do it honourably. Tell affiliates that your programme is closing in X days (making sure X is longer than 3 nanoseconds!!) so they can manage the changeover. I can understand ‘in principle’ why some big companies - who have to answer to a big board of Directors/Shareholders - close their programme, but surely it can be done with a modicum of professionalism.

Anyhoo. until next time…

TBW

14 Comments »

Hello folks,

Bear with me on this one… It is going somewhere.  

One of my functions at PB.HQ is to merchandise our product categories. Without going into too much detail I basically have to ensure that all of our best selling, newest, most popular and most heavily stocked products are well represented on the website.

Alongside this we also have to consider seasonal peaks and troughs (personalised calendars sell better in November and December for obvious reasons), as well as promoting aspirational products - such as this £27k king kong climbing frame. Finally Supplier sweeteners… erm… I mean… incentives are taken into consideration when positioning products in our site.

Now, this may sound easy, but it is actually massively time consuming and involves all sorts of considerations, algorithms, reports and statistics.

Anyhoo here’s my point, or moreover my question. After ploughing through and positioning endless products - from mini winnies to croquet sets - it dawned on me…

What is Prezzybox.com? And are we any good?

The simple answer I normally sprout out when people ask is that we are a gift retailer selling a veritable array of gifts and goodies ranging from tiny r.c. helicopters, through to rocking horses and racing car days.

But is that all we are?

Others - including some of my colleagues - feel that because of the breadth of our product range - we are an online department store.

But then are we guilty of trying to be all things to all men? Is this to our detriment?

In some ways I think it’s great that we’ve got stacks of product categories as we can ordinarily cater for any body’s gift buying needs be it a gift for their granny or their half cousins, brothers mother. It also means we can populate most searches on our now legendary gift wizard. But part of me does envy the likes of Firebox who it would appear have a distinct demographic customer base and thus a clear idea as to the types of products that will fit well and be adored by their loyal followers, as not only does this assist the buyers in what sort of products to offer, but it also makes it easier to do marketing, write product copy, find promotional partners inter Alia.  For us, it’s a little difficult. Like most websites we sort of “fell into” our current offering as in the early days we literally bought from the few companies who were prepared to supply us and categorised them accordingly. Consequently this has shaped the website and our product offering as we are today.

So, my final question is…

Should we continue to offer as wide a product range as we do or should we have a mass clear out of products, narrow our range and focus on specific customer demographics?

It’s a ‘tuffy!’ Answers on a postcard please.

TBW.

6 Comments »