If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, you know that I’m constantly on the lookout for new and unique technologies in affiliate marketing.

It hit me the other day that there is an unparalleled technology used by AvantLink that I haven’t really heard much about even though it has been around for 5 years already! They call it Affiliate Link Syndication, and it essentially allows affiliates to offer deals-oriented consumers an RSS subscription to AvantLink-powered dynamic deal feeds (which may be focused on one or multiple merchants); so that any time the customer clicks a link from their feed reader, the affiliate gets a new cookie set.

They also blogged about it last year:

…did you know that in addition to publishing promotional-related (dynamically updated) content on your sites, you can also promote RSS subscriptions to those feeds? Think about that for a second. If you’re site visitors subscribe to one of these RSS feeds from AvantLink that you promote, then your tracking details are embedded in all links within that feed … for the life of that feed subscription!

Fast forward months later, and to that RSS feed sitting in someone’s reader or live bookmarks after the 60 day cookie from the click is long expired. The shopper you enticed to subscribe sees a killer deal from one of our retailers, clicks the link directly from their RSS reader or live bookmark, and there you have it; your Affiliate cookie is set again for another 60 days (or whatever cookie life the particular merchant offers).

This development really does spell out a different level of customer engagement and ownership — one that goes beyond what the standard “click-on-a-website-link -> cookie” path does, as the clicks then come from someone’s personal RSS subscriptions (which they themselves took the time to set up and configure).

I don’t believe there is another affiliate network who offers affiliate tracking-embedded RSS feeds that can be promoted as subscriptions. Belated kudos to AvantLink on this development. I hope it inspires other affiliate networks and/or external tool creators too. After all, competition should breed improvement.

Not sure how many of you are following @GoogleRetail on Twitter, and saw their below tweet, and the post it is linked to, but I believe it is an extremely important one to miss:

The blog post that appeared on Google Retail Blog earlier this month (and the one that they’re linking to from the above tweet) quoted the Google/OTX Consumer Intentions for Holiday 2009 report which projected:

• 62% of consumers will still shop after the holidays
• 10% “won’t even begin purchasing until after the holidays have ended”

I must admit, I fall into the 62%, waiting until after Christmas to buy a couple of items too. The 10% that don’t plan on shopping “until after the holidays” is interesting data.

MediaPost has just reported that Wal-Mart is already actively preparing for the post-holiday shopping creating “plenty of motivational bargains” in forms of bargains and deeper discounts.

Affiliates and merchants, are you getting ready to entertain the post-holiday deal-seeking consumers?

A few days ago in their “Black Friday Anti-Deals: What Not To Buy” post Gizmodo wrote:

…many of these “deals” really aren’t deals at all. Often, Black Friday sale products are priced differently between stores, or they are priced at or above deals you can find elsewhere any day of the week. You might see a particularly juicy deal in a flier on a big ticket item like an HDTV, only to discover that the store only had a few units to sell. The bottom line is that you need to do your homework…

And they were spot on!

One of the things that I’ve been wanting to buy for some time has been a home theater system. Being a huge fan of Sony; I got immediately excited to see the following Bravia system on a Black Friday sale at BestBuy.com, only to be disappointed half a second later when seeing the “sold out online” note:

I looked through their other deals for home theater systems, but the ones that caught my eye were either sold out, or not available for the mandatory in-store pick up in nearby stores. So I just went to shopping.google.com, and searched for the Sony Bravia system that I thought I have missed. And here’s what I saw:

The first link was dead, but the second one was working, and I’ve placed my order with TheNerds.net. Spent only $9.97 more (essentially, the cost of shipping), but don’t have to drive anywhere, and got a good deal.

TheNerds know exactly what they’re doing (marking their prices down the way they do):

* Those “Compare” buttons are actually linked to their competitors’ sites! Amazing, isn’t it?

I’ve also compared several other Black Friday “deals” from other online merchants, and registered very similar situations: you can get these prices through comparison shopping sites pretty much any time. Interesting.

Recalling the “Black Friday by the Numbers” info-graphic that Permuto published last week, today I have decided to go back to the list of online retailers that have seen the best 2007 to 2008 growth in Black Friday audience reach, and see which of them are waiting until the actual Friday comes, and which are taking advantage of people’s holiday shopping mood, and their day off on Thursday (by the way, Happy Thanksgiving, America!).

It is this part of the Permuto’s graph that I’m referring to:

I’ve excluded two e-tailers: eBay because they are not your regular retailer (but mostly an auction platform), and CircuitCity (on obvious reasons). Out of the remaining eight, I’ve arrived at two lists: retailers that have made their Black Friday deals available on the Thanksgiving Thursday, and those that are waiting for the actual Friday to come.

Black Friday Deals Available on Thursday

• Amazon — “You shouldn’t have to stand in a long line to get a great deal”

• BestBuy — You can come to the store “at 5 am on Friday, Nov. 27… or, start shopping” online on Thursday!

• JCPenney — Black Friday “online screenbusters” (by analogy with “in-store doorbusters”) available on the Thanksgiving Day

• Sears – “Black Friday pricing available NOW on sears.com only”

Black Friday Deals Available on Friday (online or in-store only)

• Dell
• Kohl’s
• Target
• Walmart

Most of the retailers that tie the deals to the actual Friday, do run some “Thanksgiving deals” online, but shopping around and doing some price comparison, they are not even close to the markdowns that I see at the online stores of the merchants in the first group above.

Why would a merchant with an online storefront wait until 4 or 5 am of Friday morning, and not take advantage of the Thursday? I don’t know.

The pre-Christmas shopping season is gaining speed and volume every day, and it seems appropriate to look into what seems to be the best converting, and most demanded holiday offer.

Many consumers will be looking for coupons, but merchants that cannot offer these can still offer something for their affiliates to market aggressively. I am referring to what seems to be the most beloved Christmas offer from a consumer’s standpoint — the free shipping offer. It will be especially actively sought for over the next few weeks, and it is one proven way to increase conversions.

Hitwise Intelligence has published some statistical data which shows that the “the sharpest increase” in free shipping demand historically occurs “at the end of the year for the holiday shopping season”:

It is also interesting to note that since 2006 the “search breadth” for the “free shipping” key phrase “has been accelerating earlier each year” reaching its pinnacle “is the first week of the New Year, as online buyers look for post-holiday sale items” [more here].

A few days back the Internet Retailer has also published an article with stats and patterns that the top 100 e-tailers follow in regards to deals, discounts, and free shipping. Here are some of the key points that have been made about the subject of this post:

• The number of e-tailers who offer free shipping this year has grown from 61 to 63
• 44% of them attach the free shipping deal to a minimum order value
• Minimum order value ranges from $30 to $699, but in most cases the bracket is $30-$75

If you are not yet offering free shipping through your affiliate program (and/or any other online marketing channels), now is the time to do it!