igourmet.com, a leading gourmet food Web site, is the product of cutting-edge 20th century technology. But Spencer Chesman, the company's president and CEO, can still remember his grandfather Charles Chesman's stories about the cheese-importing life in the early 1900s and it was far from high-tech.
The future of igourmet.com, Tucker Chesman
"They didn't even have refrigerated container vessels back then-or any kind of specialized ships for importing perishable foods," says Spencer. "You had to bring cheese in on passenger liners. To keep it cool, they would just put it down below the waterline, as far as possible from the boilers."
Despite the technological limitations of the times, Charles Chesman's importing company grew to become one of the largest cheese importers in the United States. His son Fred, Spencer's father, joined him in the business and continues as that company's president to this day. In the early sixties, Spencer's mother, Marsha, founded International Gourmet as a catalogue-based retailer of imported cheeses.
Spencer with sister Tracy & father Fred Chesman
In 1997, with the advent of the Internet, Spencer launched igourmet.com and with it, the third generation of the family's involvement in the imported food business. Over the years, the family has developed close (and in many cases exclusive) partnerships with Europe's best small-scale producers of fine gourmet cheeses and foods.
The company's mission is to provide delicious, high-quality gourmet products to North American consumers at the lowest possible prices, with all the speed and convenience of the Internet. The company also aims to be North America's personal gourmet shopper. With its depth of expertise and long history, igourmet.com is uniquely able to sample the best examples of each gourmet item and bring its customers only the "best of the best." In addition, igourmet.com is a premiere resource for gourmet food information. The online store includes detailed product descriptions, recipes and serving suggestions to educate consumers about fine foods.
The benefits of promoting iGourmet:
- 2.5% commission for each sale (AOV is over $125)
- 30 day cookie duration
- High converting website
- Dedicated Affiliate Management
Categories: food, food delivery, gourmet food, cheese, specialty cheeses, desserts, gifts, gift baskets, meats, seafood
Terms & Conditions
- Cookie: 30 day
- GEO: USA
- Creatives (must use approved creatives or submit for approval)
o Emails
o Banners
o Text ads
o No misleading or inaccurate claims
- Coupon Codes found outside of the affiliate program may be non-commissionable
Traffic Types
- Allowed traffic
o Paid Search (non-brand)
o Display
o Social Media
o Email (specific permission needed and guidelines to follow)
- Full CAN-SPAM Act compliance
- Use of global unsubscribe list
- Restricted Traffic
Search (Brand): No brand name search marketing is allowed including the use of product names (WE NEED A FULL LIST)
Incentivized traffic
- Need a full list of brand terms
- Not allowed to redirect near-brand domains (misspelling, brand related, etc.)
o Email: Need permission
o Adult traffic
o Additional restrictions: Newsgroups, chat rooms, message boards, website counters, guestbooks, craigslist, fraudulent and any tactics which can be categorized as general SPAM.
o Adware/Spyware
o SMS/MMS traffic
o Illegal content
o Iframing
- Terms and Conditions:
We DO NOT allow trademark bidding.
We do allow direct linking.
We do allow downloadable software partners to join our program.
We do not allow incentivized partners to join our program without being able to supply the source of traffic.
We do allow email marketing campaigns. All partners must be Can-SPAM compliant and contact us prior to running these for suppression lists. Any partner that doesn't reach out first is considered to be in violation of our terms and conditions.
Legal Notice
-Failure to abide by the above could result in termination and non-payment of commissions.
-Fraud is a serious offense, and will be treated as such. Fraud is defined as any action that intentionally attempts to create sales, leads, or click-throughs using robots, scripts, dis-approved payments, or manually "refreshing" of pages, for the sole purpose of creating commissions.
-iGourmet reserves the right to withhold any commissions earned from a non-affiliate transaction or for any other reason they deem at their sole discretion.
