Yahoo! Store Squeezes Its Merchants Once Again.

Just as the holiday season approaches, Yahoo! Store has suddenly announced that it is tacking on direct marketing and customer loyalty services to the check out page of all Yahoo! Store accounts. This feature will be a mandatory program for all merchants, there is no opting out. Customers will also be forced to click on the offer in order to check out with their purchase.

One thing can be certain, Yahoo! Stores will pull something on their merchants at the start of every, holiday season. Last year it was a change in price structure, this year it is a direct marketing scheme.

Yahoo! Store merchants were sprung with this new program in a recent newsletter.
Although many store owners never received any newsletter notice from Yahoo!, the news spread like wildfire in the merchant forums, YStore Forums, http://www.ystoretools.com/forums/default.asp and the newly formed eMerchants Association, http://www.e-merchantassociation.com/forums/default.asp.

Still smarting from Yahoo! Stores price restructure last holiday season, many merchants are angry about the new program, WebLoyalty.com, being implemented on their sites without their permission. They feel that they work hard to design and maintain their websites up to the highest standards and this advertising gimmick is not something that they would choose to put on their sites. Many merchants have written to Yahoo! Store, only to be rebuffed. Yahoo! Has been so flooded with calls and emails from angry merchants that they are now bouncing emails or replying with a canned message:

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Store.

The program has been designed to include everyYahoo Store so that the program's impact on customer loyalty may be tested. Yahoo! will periodically revisit the program in order to determine whether or not it will be continued. Until then all merchants will be asked to participate in the program. We appreciate your cooperation during this time.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

Regards,

Yahoo! Customer Care"

In spite of protests, the WebLoyalty program will start showing up next week on the check-out pages of all Yahoo! Stores. After the customer has completed their purchase, he or she will be asked to click on a Claim Your Prize" button in order to proceed. Once the button is clicked, they are taken to direct marketing program that offers a variety of discounts not related to the Yahoo! Store that they made their purchase from. A demo of this feature can be found at http://clientdemo.webloyalty.com/yahoo/

Here is the Yahoo Store WebLoyalty "help" page:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/store/promote/promote-14.html

Here is the home page for WebLoyalty
http://www.webloyalty.com/

Here is the email address for WebLoyalty "customer service":
yahoo@webloyalty.com