Affiliate Management

Purchases can be associated with individuals, affiliates, who provided a hyperlink with a special code that led the customer to the store. Affiliates can each have their own compensation plan based on fixed dollar values or percentage of sales.

A basic affiliate payout tracking lists orders for an affiliate that have shipped so are eligible for payout. Orders can be checked off and associated with a payout date, check number, and check amount.

View Example Screen Detail

An area is provided so that affiliates can log into their account and view a report that details all of the referrals they have provided, the number that have resulted in sales, and any payout information.

More details are provided on the affiliate account page.

Example Uses

The affiliate system is flexible enough to be used for purposes other than a standard affiliate program. Here are some examples:

• Banner Ad Campaigns - Sales generated from banner ads can be tracked by creating an affiliate for each campaign and passing the ID in the URL that links to the store from the ad.
• Internal Link Tracking - If the store is used as part of a site with non-store content, hyperlinks to the store from specific pages in the site can each have their own affiliate ID. Sales generation from different site pages/content can then be determined to aid in analysis of what triggers the action for customers to enter the store and purchase. If an affiliate ID is already registered for the customer then it will not be overwritten. This feature allows a customer to follow one hyperlink into the store, exit the store to non-store content, and then go back to the store via a new hyperlink while preserving the affiliate ID from the hyperlink which initially prompted them to enter the store.
• Newsletter/Email Response Tracking - If periodic newsletters or emails are sent to customers to announce new product offerings, new site features, etc, use a unique affiliate to track the number of sales that result from the news. The number of sales or aggregate monetary sales volume can be compared to the number of announcements sent out to determine the success of the campaign.
• Market Tests - Prepare multiple versions of images, copy, newsletters, etc that will be used in the same location (a few different banner ads at the same site, a couple versions of a newsletter where one version is mailed to one set of customers and the other is mailed to the rest, etc) and assign each its own affiliate ID. Compare the success of each version to gain insight into what entices people to visit the store and purchase.

Note that none of the suggestions above will measure the source of traffic generated by any one affiliate. The affiliate feature only tracks the number of referrals and sales that result from affiliate hyperlinks. If traffic analysis is needed, then compare hyperlinks with differing affiliate IDs that appear in the Web server traffic logs.