LinkShare MerchandiserTM Program
Introducing the LinkShare MerchandiserTM Program
Do you offer price shopping comparison tools to your consumers? Would you like to receive a data feed of merchant products? If so, then the LinkShare MerchandiserTM Program (Merchandiser) may be right for you!
Merchandiser facilitates the distribution and updating of individual product links for affiliates that require access to a complete and dynamic inventory of a merchant's products as part of their business model - shopping comparison, price comparison, and product search engine sites. Merchandiser allows you to integrate individual product links on your website without having to manually create links to each product that is carried by a merchant - an impossible task for affiliates that want to carry hundreds of thousand, even millions, products.
Advantages of Participating in Merchandiser
- Retrieve product files for multiple merchants in a consistent format in one place.
- Keep traffic between your site and the merchant's in context by linking to pages that complement each other.
- Post product level data and links, relevant to your site's content, which is automatically kept current.
- Increase value, or stickiness, of your website by providing consumers a merchandising tool.
How Merchandiser Works
A Merchandiser merchant will send LinkShare an updated product file containing product information for their inventory. LinkShare will process that file, converting all product links into LinkShare tracking URLs containing your affiliate ID. You can then retrieve your standardized product files via FTP on a daily basis to ensure that your merchant links and product data are always up-to-date.
The Merchandiser program is targeted toward affiliates who can support a database of product links that are updated on a daily basis. The Merchandiser program should not be used for a one-time download of product links that will be hard-coded and displayed as a static link on a website.
Merchandiser Product Information
There are 28 available fields, 8 of which are required to be provided by the merchant. Required fields include:
- Product ID
- Product Name
- SKU Number
- Primary Category
- Product URL (converted into LinkShare tracking URLs with your ID)
- Product Image URL
- Short Product Description
- Retail Price
Merchandiser files will be in pipe-delimited and XML format, and zipped before they are published to your affiliate FTP account. Click here to view a sample of a product file.
Participating Merchandiser Merchants
There are currently over 100 merchants participating in Merchandiser, including: Macys.com, Walmart.com, KBToys.com, and Overstock.com. Click here for a full list of currently participating merchants. Watch for more merchants to come!
How to Participate
To participate in the Merchandiser program and receive merchant product files, your site must meet the following requirements:
- Have a registered and verified legal entity with LinkShare.
- Be an active affiliate account in the LinkShare Network, with a valid email address.
- Require access to updated product information.
- Can retrieve product files on a daily basis via FTP account.
- Have access to a static IP address or proprietary IP address range.
- Be approved by each merchant whose product file you would like to receive.
Investment
There is no set up fee if you meet the following criteria*:
- You have been active in the Network for at least 3 months, AND
- You have generated at least 50 orders in the most recent calendar month
If you do not meet the above criteria, there is a one-time, upfront investment of $250 to cover the set-up and ongoing maintenance of your individual and secure LinkShare Merchandiser FTP account. The cost covers any IP changes that you may need to make to your account in the future - once we have established your account, you may receive all merchants feeds for which you are approved.
*Once approved, if you generate less than 50 orders in any given month, LinkShare reserves the right to charge a one-time maintenance fee of $250 or discontinue access to the Merchandiser product.
Join the LinkShare MerchandiserTM Program Today!
If you would like to participate in the LinkShare Merchandiser Program, please complete a Request for Participation form. We will review your request and send you the Affiliate Merchandiser Implementation Guidelines to review upon approval. Contact us with questions at merchandiser-a@linkshare.com.
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