[dpbriggs]

Why do retailers put up with Honey? They're clearly not providing value with the attribution theft. Why give them money?

[zonkerdonker]

Extortion, essentially. Honey will actually give users the largest available discount if the retailer doesn't buy into the affiliate program (i.e. the retailer loses money). If they do agree, then the retailer can limit the coupons and discount code shown to customers through Honey.

[miki123211]

And there's presumably also a profit-sharing agreement.

E.G. if the retailer normally pays at 300 bps to their affiliates for a particular transaction, Honey may only get 100 or 50 bps.

It's a choice between e.g. Honey giving every customer of vendor X a voucher code from a particularly valuable influencer in X's niche, which gives 30% off on first orders, versus giving them a 20% discount and taking 1.5% for itself.

This is a great deal for the retailer, they go from -30% to -21.5%, it's a great deal for Honey because that kind of money on millions of transaction is a lot of money, and it's a great deal for users, as Honey wouldn't even exist without this scheme, and they'd get 0% off instead of 20.

[gruez]

Sounds like more of an issue for the consumer than the retailer? Suppose the best coupon for a retailer is 20% off, and Honey shows that to its users. Retailers want to stem that loss, so they bribe/pay Honey, maybe 5%, to post a 10% coupon in its place. That way the store loses 15% rather than 20%. That might be bad for the consumer, if they thought they were guaranteed the "best" deal, but I'm not sure how the store has any standing to sue. If so, that would put forums like slickdeals at risk.

[kin]

This is not true. In the affiliate marketing space, Honey won many awards for being great business partners. Yes, there are examples of retailers being impacted when Honey picked up on a coupon that was not supposed to be public, but Honey always cooperated at removing such codes whether you partnered with them or not.

[artursapek]

Retailers don’t have to honor discounts, nobody is forcing them to.

[buzzerbetrayed]

Why do retailers offer those discounts then? Why not deactivate them instead of allowing honey to give them to their users? Am I misunderstanding what honey does?

[arkh]

As a not an American, I can't fathom the love for coupon you all have.

Shit system, shit value for the client, and still it looks like some people would kill for a 5% one-time discount on anything.

[kin]

Retailers have budget to spend and have that spend deliver a return. It's just a simple return on investment. CJ, one of the biggest affiliate companies even encourages working with shopping extensions. https://junction.cj.com/cj-value-of-browser-extension-study-...

[TheRealPomax]

Except many companies came forward during the expose, explaining how honey loses them money, not makes them money.

[rs186]

I find it hard to understand -- many of these retailers are struggling, and I doubt affiliate links and cash backs are the best way to spend their market money

[ChrisRR]

Because people will buy things if they think they're getting a bargain, even if it's a totally fake discount

[Joel_Mckay]

Online marketing firms already had a credibility problem long before Honey showed up.

The only metric business people care about is whether the lead converts into sales. People often don't want to think about how the hotdog was made at the factory. =3

[lwkl]

I read part of a reddit AMA with a cofounder of Honey who no longer works there. According to him honey and services like it increase the likelihood that people will complete a instead of going to a competitor.

Lknk to the AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/s/lEGdq1Sx9d

[al_borland]

A significant number of users will spend more if they think they're getting a deal. Without a deal, even a fake one, users will go somewhere else or spend less. Or, if they think they're saving 15% on one thing, they'll justify spending 40% more, to get more out of that 15% discount.

This is what happened when Ron Johnson tried to rebrand JC Penny. JC Penny customers were used to "deals" through coupons. He changed the pricing so the prices were lower, across everything, all the time. The classic JC Penny customer hated this. They ultimately pay the same amount, it would be less work for them, but it wasn't a "deal".

Amazon plays on this too with the crossed out inflated "typical price", and then showing the actual price you'll pay. No one ever pays that crossed out price; it can say anything, but lets them put "-40%" so people get excited and buy.

It's all very manipulative. Honey was just another form of the same concept.

[gruez]

Sounds like your ire should be directed at the retailers who created the coupons in the first place, not Honey for letting people know they exist.