Overstock.com has discontinued its auction affiliate program. Overstock.com spokesperson Jared Matkin said the reasons for the program's termination were the high rate of non-paying bidders that were generated by affiliate traffic, and that overall, the affiliate program was contributing roughly 1 percent of auction sales.

Matkin said, "In an effort to improve the auctions business, for buyers, sellers and Overstock.com, the Auctions team has been working to uncover the less efficient pieces of the business and reallocate that money to programs that will add value to the site."

Overstock.com sent a letter to sellers and affiliates earlier this month. In addidtion, Linkshare also sent out a mass notification alerting Overstock Auctions Affiliates that all tools pertaining to the Overstock.com auctions program would be removed from their site by the last day of January. Affiliate commissions will not accrue after January 31, 2007.

In other news, this week Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne posted on the site's auction discussion board that Overstock.com Auctions' sell-through rate has been increasing. "As you know, historically our STR has been abysmally low. We charged so little for the auctions that we did not feel too badLY ABOUT IT. But we set about making some changes, and theY seem to be working. A few weeks ago we had our first day with sell-through-rates over 10.0%. Then last week we had our first day with sell-through-rates over 20.0%. Yesterday our sell-through-rate was 31.0%."

Byrne asked sellers to spread the word in the eBay buying community. "I think that is the right message to send the eBay buying community: when you bid on auctions at Overstock, all the best deals do not get bid away (or sniped) from you."

Overstock.com is scheduled to release fourth quarter and fiscal year 2006 financial results before the market opens on February 5. An accompanying conference call and webcast is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time the same day.

http://forums.auctions.overstock.com/viewtopic.php?t=16563