Affiliates

An affiliate shares a code or link, and earns a share of the orders it brings in. Configure the programme under Affiliates in the dashboard.

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Programme settings

Enable Affiliate Program turns it on. Nothing below applies until it is enabled.

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Who becomes an affiliate

Open makes every customer a potential promoter, without any control over who ends up representing your shop. Manual suits programmes where you want to approve each affiliate. Allow Affiliates to Edit Their Code lets affiliates pick their own code from their customer dashboard, which matters to anyone promoting under a brand name.

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Where affiliates find their code

Affiliates get their code from the customer dashboard on your storefront, by logging in with their email address. They do not need to have bought anything first. That page shows their affiliate code and referral link, their tier and the buyer discount it carries, their balance and lifetime earnings, their referred customers, and their balance history. It is also where they edit their code if you allow it, transfer affiliate balance to store balance, and request a payout, where those options are enabled. On Open enrollment every customer sees a code there automatically. On Manual enrollment the page tells customers to contact you to join, and you create the affiliate yourself in one of two ways:

• Invite an affiliate by email address from the dashboard. This creates the customer profile if the address has never bought from you, so you can recruit someone from outside your existing buyers.
• Set an affiliate code on an existing customer record.

Either way the code appears in their customer dashboard once they log in. You can also just send someone their code directly. There is nothing to activate on their side, and any order using it is attributed either way.

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Which orders earn commission

Per order pays for the sale the affiliate directly caused. Lifetime pays for the customer they brought in, which affiliates prefer and which costs more over time. Attribution window is how many days a referral code from an affiliate link is remembered in the buyer’s browser before checkout. Both settings can be overridden per tier, so a top tier can promise lifetime attribution or a longer window while the rest of the program stays per order. The mode that applies is always the affiliate’s own tier mode. When a buyer already bound to one affiliate uses another affiliate’s code, the binding moves only if the new code’s tier is last code wins and the current affiliate’s tier is not first code wins.

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Limits

Minimum order value excludes orders below a total from earning commission. Set 0 for no minimum. Orders in other currencies are converted at the order’s exchange rate. Maximum commission per order caps what one order can pay out, no matter its size. Set 0 for no cap. A cap matters if you sell anything expensive, since an uncapped percentage on a large order can exceed what the order earned you.

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Where commission goes

Shared keeps the money in your shop, since the affiliate can only spend it with you. Separate is what affiliates expecting cash will want. With separate balances you can also allow:

• Balance transfers, letting affiliates move affiliate balance to store balance and spend it at checkout
• Payout requests, letting affiliates request a cash payout that you review and pay manually, with a minimum payout amount in USD

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Tiers

Tiers set what an affiliate earns and what their buyers get. How many tiers you can create, and how many affiliates you can have in total, both depend on your plan. The buyer discount is what gives an affiliate something to offer. A code with no discount attached is only a tracking link, and converts accordingly. Only tiers marked public appear on the storefront affiliate page, in sort order, showing their commission and buyer discount. Put the tier you want people aiming for where they will read it first. Product overrides set different commission on specific products within a tier, which is how you protect margin on low-margin lines while paying well on the rest.

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Payouts

Affiliate payout requests appear in the dashboard for you to review. You pay them outside SellAuth, through whatever method you agreed with the affiliate, then record the payout. Commission on a refunded order can be reversed from the invoice page. Leave it alone when the refund was not the affiliate’s doing, since affiliates tend to leave over commission reversed on legitimate referrals. See Refunds.

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Next steps