On the Martin & Osa site (which is lovely) the points I wanted to make (sorry if I didn’t!) was that:

* this is the standard that customers would now expect, whether or not you do it on your own site
* it’s expensive – not only to produce but also to plan
* it probably won’t work consistently across a very broad, department-store site
* as affiliates, how do you get access to rich media from merchants?
* if you crack the above, how do you manage consistency?

Retailers are in a double bind since, as you point out no one wants to add more costs, yet if your competitors raise the bar then what are you to do?

Retailers are in the position of being squeezed by a slowdown in overall spending AND increased selectivity. This means that the ‘winners’ will do OK, maybe even grow, while others will see revenues fall off a cliff. My prediction is that there won’t be a gentle, evenly-distributed decline for all, but rather very polarised winners and losers…

Of course, we’re all working to be in the former group, not the latter

Cheers ikj