Over the Xmas break some high-profile influencers released content showing how the coupon browser extension ‘Join Honey’ is overwriting influencer affiliate sales and causing partners to miss out on earning valuable commission. Affiliates overwriting other affiliates is not new news, as the last-click nature of the channel can make this common. The problem with Honey is where it sits in the consumer journey and how it claims a sale (more importantly the perceived value of the work they have done in converting that customer).
But who is Honey?
Honey is a browser extension meaning a customer downloads the software to sit on their preferred browser. Then if the customer shops around and adds something to the basket, once in the basket Honey will pop up. Honey asks the customer if they want to check if they have the best deal by running its voucher verification tool, Honey then checks active coupons in the voucher box to see if it finds one that works. If it works the customer gets their extra money off and Honey gets a commission. If the voucher doesn’t work… Honey also gets a commission as they say they have provided a service for that user in trying to find a genuine code.
As well as coupons, Honey also offers ‘Honey Gold’ which is a form of cashback to shop so if a coupon isn’t found Honey will often state the Honey Gold points available.
Why do influencers care?
Influencers are raising the issue as they often go to great lengths to create content and drive traffic to a retailer site to try to earn commission. If that traffic they drive gets overwritten by Honey in the basket, then they miss out on their commission and the effort they put into creating content was not worthwhile. It has especially caused issues when a valid code wasn’t even found and Honey still claimed the sale!
Help! I have Honey on my programme driving loads of revenue what do I do?
Firstly it is important to remember Honey is a genuine affiliate that is now Paypal owned, whilst you may not be comfortable with their promotional methods they are on 100s of programmes and a large partner with lots of users. However, it is Genie Goals' opinion that this type of partner is unlikely very incremental and will not add huge amounts of value to your affiliate programme. They can become a very large partner in a short space of time, so once they are on a programme it can be challenging to remove. The concern over losing that direct in-channel revenue, especially if you are an affiliate manager with in-channel targets can be hard to navigate.
Here are some key things to know and do:
The conclusion?
There has been a lot of noise about this, but it is important to remember that as a brand you have a choice who you work with. So if you check Honey out as above and decide it isn’t for your brand then remove them! If you decide to keep Honey then check the cookie hierarchy with your network, maybe review your commission structure for this partner and monitor closely the codes promoted, especially influencers. If you work with a network that does not have them on a soft click, we would say do not work with them as they are potentially damaging your other affiliate partners' tracked performance and rewards.
Our policy is to not onboard them onto our programmes, as for the clients we work with they typically are not adding the value we need or want. Where they are on a legacy programme we have we will work with the brand to educate them on Honey’s business model and typically look to reduce their size on a programme or we remove them.
Healthy affiliate programs in our opinion are a mix of partners across the funnel and working with affiliates that we believe can be optimised as part of an ongoing partnership. Yes - you could optimise Honey with an exclusive code, but we don’t believe that is incremental (think about where that customer already is in their purchase journey!). We choose to actively work with partners where there is more opportunity for growth aligned with our brand KPIs.
