Furniture retailer Mydeco.com is relaunching as an e-commerce site in a move to improve customer experience.
The company's affiliate concept, which links to products from 1,500 partners, will continue to operate under a new domain name before Christmas.
Mydeco.com will then operate as a merchant site, selling products from smaller and boutique designers.
The move raises questions over the affiliate model, but CEO Nicole Vanderbilt sais that this is primarily about improving customer experience.
First and foremost it’s about the user, we want to make it easier to buy in one spot. From a business point of view we will have a stronger relationship with our client and we will own the customer much more than we do now.
Vanderbilt said that Mydeco in its affiliate form will move to mydecomarketplace.com, and is still a strong business since it works for shoppers that like breadth of choice.
The e-commerce site will be aimed at customers that want a more interactive experience, and like the Mydeco iPhone app will include 3D visuals of the products.
Matt Swan, client strategist from affiliate marketing company Affiliate Window, said that data collection is likely to be a primary driver behind the relaunch.
It means they will be able to identify their customers, see what they are spending and target them in specific ways.
Swan added that more advertisers are asking for better information on customers, so any affiliate that can provide this data is in a stronger position.
Reader comments (2)
Managing Director at Colony Commerce
2:07PM on 18th November 2011
My Deco has always been one of those sites to me that has lacked something. In the earlier days it seemed to be a mess of things and was just too "creative" or design lead in its approach to the audience. eCommerce being added to the offering I think is possibly that missing entity, they have the ability as mentioned in the article to really offer a personalised interaction as long as they utilise all the information at hand and I hope they release a site to be proud of.
8:45AM on 12th November 2012
I agree. Their 3D experience which is a bunch of features that no one appreciate. They started to build a lot of features but not having vision of the solution outcome.
- directory full of random products
- sorting unclear
- category/subcategory one big mess
- 3D outsourced to Poland works from tech point of view, but not business logic behind
It seems like MyDeco wants to run its own Affiliate Network and run from commission taken by Affiliate Window, but would this encourage merchants to join and integrate their pixel? I doubt.
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