BENSON PRESS KIT
https://trybenson.com/press

Press contact: Doug Silkstone, founder, doug@withseismic.com

FACTS
Founder: Doug Silkstone
Based in: London, UK
First launched: August 2022
Relaunched: 4 October 2026
Works on: Shopify and other platforms, with one script
Pricing: Free plan. 14 days of everything, no card
Website: https://trybenson.com

ONE LINE
Benson shows online stores which coupon extensions and AI shopping agents are in their sessions and what they cost, and lets them hide, cap or replace them, with a holdout behind every change.

ABOUT BENSON, SHORT
Benson shows online stores which coupon extensions and AI shopping agents are in their sessions and what they cost. Stores can then hide, cap or replace them, with a holdout behind every change. Benson first launched as getBenson.com in 2022 and relaunched at trybenson.com in October 2026. It's built by Doug Silkstone.

ABOUT BENSON, LONG
Benson shows online stores which coupon extensions and AI shopping agents are in their sessions and what they cost. It labels every visit as a person, a coupon extension, an AI agent or automation, hides extension pop-ups by rule, caps code attempts, and lets stores run their own coupon assistant for a fixed monthly price instead of commission. Every change can run against a holdout. Its goal is a fair relationship between merchants, extensions and agents. Benson first launched in 2022 and relaunched at trybenson.com in October 2026. It's built by London-based founder Doug Silkstone.

FOUNDER BIO
Doug Silkstone is the founder of Benson, the original discount extension blocker. He has spent 15 years building products and growing businesses, and has founded and sold three software companies. His career started in affiliate marketing, on the paid search team at vouchercloud, where he saw coupon extensions take commission meant for the affiliates who earned it. He now runs his own affiliate publisher, which partners with official brands and gives them control of how their discounts appear online, and WithSeismic, a product engineering studio. He builds Benson largely with AI agents.

QUOTES (Doug Silkstone, founder of Benson)
On the problem:
"Internally we called it the Honey Hoover. A shopper would find a brand through a review, a comparison site or a creator. Then a pop-up at checkout would claim the last click and take the commission that was meant for the affiliates further up the funnel."

On the future of extensions:
"Discount extensions will always exist, but they'll start to play by the rules. Benson is here to police them, and to help both sides understand the value each one brings."

On AI agents:
"Merchants are going to have to decide how they deal with agent traffic. Do they expose more data? Change what's on the page? Give agents clearer instructions? That's conversion rate optimisation for bots."

On building with agents:
"I have the expertise, but I have the same 24 hours in the day as everyone else. Now I can hand a lot of the work to agents, spend my time on the hard problems and scaffold the rest."

BRAND COLOURS
Near-black: #040406
Mint: #3CF2B0
Emerald: #10B981

SCREENSHOTS (Benson's demo store, Harbour & Pine, synthetic data)
01-overview.png: Overview. What's protected, what's switched on, and the insights that need a look this week.
02-coupon-extensions.png: Coupon extensions. Every coupon extension seen on the store, with sessions, conversion, discount depth and pop-ups blocked.
03-paypal-honey.png: One extension up close. PayPal Honey's sessions over time, its conversion against other shoppers, and how many pop-ups were hidden.
04-ai-agents.png: AI agents. AI shopping agents and automation: their share of traffic, conversion, code attempts and blocks.
05-popup-blocker-holdout.png: Pop-up blocker with a holdout. Extension pop-ups hidden by rule, measured against a holdout group that still sees them.
06-attribution.png: Attribution overwrites. Sessions where an extension or agent overwrote the affiliate click a shopper arrived with.
07-checkout-rules.png: Checkout rules. Code policy at Shopify's checkout, and which codes turn up in extension sessions.
08-insights.png: Insights. Leaked codes spreading through extension sessions, ranked by what they're worth.
09-results.png: Results. What Benson protected, how it was measured, and what's still leaking.
10-playbooks.png: Playbooks. Step-by-step plans for a store's extension traffic, such as handling a deal with an extension.

PRESS RELEASES
The original discount extension blocker is back (4 October 2026): https://trybenson.com/articles/bensons-back
Benson is back: the short version (4 October 2026): https://trybenson.com/articles/bensons-back-in-brief
