RevShare Corp., the per-inquiry direct response television company, is opening its 800webmall platform to any DRTV company that wants in for free – as long as it agrees to share revenue from online purchases.
The 800webmall platform aggregates As Seen On TV products from its affiliates – Internet, DRTV, broadcasters and cable companies – into one site, dubbed 800webmall.com. Each affiliate site is co-branded with the affiliate’s and 800webmall’s logos.
The affiliate profits from every product sold on its site regardless of the product’s maker. The DRTV company would earn an average commission per sale of 30 percent to 40 percent.
“Many companies want to charge as much as $100,000 to develop an Internet site for a DRTV company,” said Joseph Gray, CEO of RevShare, Murrieta, CA. “We will provide for Web site development, product inventory, customer service and a co-branded site that includes all the products that they want to be featured from our 800webmall platform.”
Any new company joining the affiliate program can choose which products from other companies it wants to be on the co-branded site.
For instance, if a company selling primarily garden tools through DRTV joins, RevShare will create its site without featuring any competing garden products made by another affiliate.
With more than 100 products available on 800webmall.com, Gray said smaller DRTV companies could also profit by increasing their number of product offerings in areas where they do not currently sell.
RevShare’s e-commerce engine – which does not feature a shopping cart and conducts up-sells only after a product has been purchased by delivering an e-mail with a price total that includes up-sells – is one of the strongest selling points of being an affiliate, Gray said.
“We are actually achieving up-sells in excess of 33 percent, which is better than they are doing on television through the 800 phone numbers,” Gray said. “This is close to a million-dollar investment to create all this technology, and these companies get access to it for free and are able to go from almost no up-sells to over 33 percent.”
Companies can choose from two Internet affiliate models, either selling all their products through the co-branded 800webmall site or keeping whatever e-commerce applications they currently have on their own site and featuring select products on 800webmall for further revenue. Essentially, companies choose to use either RevShare’s e-commerce engine exclusively or their own.
Three companies, DirectlyToYou.com, Direct To Retail and SeeYouOnline.com, got a jump on the program and, because of previous deals with either RevShare or 800webmall licensing DRTV agency AMNTV, have already joined the affiliate program. DRTV company The Media Group, Stamford, CT, which operates the As Seen On TV DirectlyToYou Web site, has been using the co-branded 800webmall Web site and e-commerce engine for a little more than a week.
“We immediately saw it would be a good opportunity to add content to our site and add additional revenue,” said Matt Weber, director of Internet commerce at DirectlyToYou.
But like most Internet-based business applications, Weber is waiting for the real cash results before the e-commerce engine can be called a success.
“Time will tell about the e-commerce system,” Weber said. “We’ve only been using it a week, but it seems like an e-commerce system that would be a perfect fit for direct response in general. It’s a qualified sales platform for the product and industry. It fits well with the model.”
