Distributor Network Program

The National Distributor Network

In late 2008, Jack Koenig &Associates received a request wondering whether a person could receive commissions for selling merchandise listed on their OrderDepartment.com e-commerce website. Our initial reaction was “it's a possibility.” But after reviewing some of the challenges, we weren't so certain.

Some of the more interesting questions were:

If our would-be entrepreneur (which we'll refer to as “BizMate”) sent a prospect to OrderDepartment.com, how do we know that?
If “BizMate” tells us they sent a prospect to OrderDepartment.com, how on earth could we track everyone now and in the future?
What kind of commissions would we provide “BizMate”? Would they vary by product or would they be a flat percent?

The above three questions were only the tip-of-the-iceberg. Others were so complicated we just about tossed out the entire idea.

But then we discovered we could invest in a software upgrade, make some serious changes to the program, change our website design, and then perhaps, just perhaps, we could accommodate “BizMate” and other possible “Independent Distributors” (IDs).

We “green lighted” the project, upgraded and modified the e-commerce software, developed a comprehensive commission policy, purchased remote websites, and designed each to accomodate program goals.

As of September 2009, 10 individuals have been accepted to participate in the test stages of the program, their free standing websites have been populated, and we are in the process of completing a major marketing program to help drive prospects to their individual store gateways.

Although the “back-office” software allowing for such an arrangement is fairly complex, as usual we designed the “Independent Distributor Program” (IDP) to be fairly simple and intuitive:

Selected applicants are provided usage of a free standing front-end website to our OrderDepartment.com store.
The “front end” website contains product research information for each item sold on OrderDepartment.com and each product page contains a link to its corresponding catalogue page on the OrderDepartment.com e-commerce site.
The links themselves contain a unique code identifying where the prospect originated, that is, the Independent Distributor's website.
As a prospect clicks on any such link in the ID's research section, that prospect is forever assigned to the sending Independent Distributor. All future sales to this prospect generate commissions to that ID.
Once a purchase has been made and the trial period has elapsed, the Independent Distributor's commission account will be credited accordingly for end-of-month payment.

A unique marketing program has also been developed to aid in driving prospects to each ID's research “front-end.” The details of this program are proprietary and won't be revealed to any but the participating Independent Distributors.