One of the most common objections we get from manufacturers who are not ready to link to their retailer partners is the proverbial 'we are about to change our site.' Last week I met with Gus Brito of Tiger Direct and Gus had a good idea. 'Instead of trying to do product-specific links right away,' said Gus, 'manufacturers should do retailer-specific links.' Good idea Gus.
We call those Dealer Links and here is a good example. I know I talked about retailer-specific links a couple of weeks ago and I said I wasn't sure anyone shopped that way. But if a manufacturer is delaying an implementation then retailer-specific links are better than nothing. At least with these kinds of links the manufacturer gets reported sales and click through data.
Now, I'll always be a proponent of manufacturers getting product-specific links in place as soon as possible. A site re-design should not be a reason to delay product-specific links. In fact, it should be a reason to get them in place. If you get the links up before the re-design you can do some A/B testing and measure the effectiveness of your new design. Installing product-specific links is also a simple change. I know, everyone who wants you to update your site tells you it will be a simple change. 'Hey Bob, you should install all of those SAP modules this week. It's a simple change!' Eighteen months later...
However, a couple of lines of javascript placed in a template is pretty easy. So don't delay your implementation. But if you must, then consider linking from the single page where you have all of your retailers listed.
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