QuidCo - Making affiliates work for the consumer
Affiliate marketing is a very powerful online advertising technique. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s basically a way of earing commission by referring a customer to an online retailer, you get paid an agreed amount when the customer buys something on the site you referred them to. The amount that can be made by a referral can be fairly significant, for instance some financial services companies will pay over £100 for a customer that buys car insurance or an ISA from them.
As an online marketer, affiliates are a great tool for generating sales but as a consumer it is slightly annoying that I am paying for these commissions through increased prices.
Quidco is a surprisingly altruistic site that gives all the commission back to consumers if they use the site to refer themselves to retailers. So if you sign up to Sky Digital you get a £130 kickback from the commission that is paid to Quidco for that referral.
It’s also a good way for marketers to target savvy consumers with discounts and incentives that don’t cost them any more than their existing affiliate scheme. For instance Virgin Media only give a £55 kickback as opposed to Sky’s £130 - for some consumers that might push them towards taking Sky.
