In July 2008 Qudico, one of the UK’s largest cash back sites, made the announcement that it was ending its relationship with Affiliate Window. Reports at the time suggested this was due to disagreements over Quidco’s sure shop scheme, essentially this scheme was an agreement between networks and Qudico designed to guarantee that networks resolve any Quidco members transaction queries within 28 days or they would be auto-approved. This didnt really offer much in the way of protection for the merchants and would mean in many cases  merchants would have been paying for sales that were not valid. Quite rightly Affiliate Window couldn’t agree to these terms as it had a duty to its merchants and other affiliates so they ended the working relathionship.

This was big news in the affiliate industry at the time and sparked huge debate about the future of many programmes as no doubt account manager up and down the land were tearing their hair out at the thoughts of losing one of their biggest affiliates.

Today it has been announced that Quidco have again resumed their relationship with Affiliate Window. Read the official Affiliate Window statement here.

Now over the last 12 months the game has changed slightly. The whole cash back and voucher code sites adding incrementality has come in to play and we have seen merchants pull out of this space all together. We also haven’t really seen the mass exodus of merchants away from Affiliate Window as some suggested at the time, suggesting that merchants will not be strong armed despite the size of the affiliate. I also think a lot of lessons have been learned from this decision by merchants, account mangers and agencies over the last 12 months. Eggs and basket spring to mind.

What ever happens in the future I think it goes to show how much Affiliate Window value its affiliates and merchants.