The SmartCart Enterprise Ecommerce Hosting Suite provides a comprehensive and effective approach to affiliate management and commission tracking.
How It Works
- Store Administrator can add affiliates and assign a commission rate for each affiliate based on a flat amount or percentage of each sale
- Affiliate can submit a request to become an affiliate – Store Administrator grants permission for affiliate account
- Affiliate receives an ID and can simply place a link to your website to start earning commissions
- Affiliate and Store Administrator have access to real time traffic and sales reporting
- Store Administrator can edit sales reports if a sale from an affiliate is cancelled or modified
- Store Administrator has access to batched commission reports to issue commission payments to affiliates
How Affiliates are Tracked
SmartCart employs a tracking cooking that is added to a visitor’s web browser once the affiliate link is clicked. The cookie will only track pages visited on the website and the products ordered. The affiliate cookie does not expire, so if the visitor returns to the site 6 months later and makes a purchase, the affiliate will still receive credit for the sale.
Activating the Affiliate Tracking Module
- Log in to the SmartCart Control Panel, go to Marketing > Affiliate Manager
- Change status to On
- Optional: Assign a minimum commission payment. This is the minimum amount of commission required to execute a payment. Unpaid commissions carry over until the minimum amount is met.
- Once settings are complete, click Update Status
Adding Affiliates
Affiliates can be manually added to the tracking system, or an affiliate can submit an Affiliate Request for approval.
- To manually add an affiliate, click Register Affiliate from the Affiliate Control Panel
- Submit the affiliate info in the form provided.
- The store administrator will receive an email with a link to review and approve the affiliate submission.
- Assign the affiliate commission rate. If the commission is a percentage of the sale, use the decimal value. A 10% commission is submitted as .10
- Click Submit Application – affiliate is added to the tracking system and receives the account info and tracking code.
Affiliate Links
Once the affiliate has been added to the system, they can immediately start referring others to your website. This is accomplished by linking to your website with the affiliate ID in the link URL.
Home Page Link Format:
http://www.storedomainname.com/index.cgi?ID=affiliate_id
or
http://www.smartcart.com/acctname/index.cgi?ID=affiliate_id
Category Link Format:
http://www.storedomainname.com/index.cgi?ID=affiliate_id&terms=Category_Name::Sub-Category_Name&category=Category_Name
or
http://www.smartcart.com/acctname/index.cgi?ID=affiliate_id&terms=Category_Name::Sub-Category_Name&category=Category_Name
Product Page Link Format:
http://www.storedomainname.com/index.cgi?ID=affiliate_id&item_num=Product_Number&title=Product-Name
or
http://www.smartcart.com/acctname/index.cgi?ID=affiliate_id&item_num=Product_Number&title=Product-Name
Affiliate Registration Form:
This is the form used to submit an Affiliate Application.
The link is relative to your store URL.
http://www.storedomainname.com/affil_form.htm
or
http://www.smartcart.com/acctname/affil_form.htm
FAQs
I need customizations to the Affiliate Tracking Module. Is this possible?
Yes. SmartCart can modify the programming to meet the needs of your business.
Does the Affiliate Manager support Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)?
At this time, the SmartCart Affiliate Manager supports one affiliate level.
Can a shopper enter an Affiliate’s ID at checkout?
SmartCart’s affiliate tracking system will automatically tag affiliates when a shopper clicks of an affiliate’s link. The affiliate’s ID is appended within the link URL. If you need the shopper to provide an affiliate ID during the checkout process, we can facilitate this format. Just contact us and request the modification to your account.
Will SmartCart track affiliates from social media sites and website blogs?
Yes, SmartCart can track affiliate traffic from any website, as long as the affiliate ID has been added to the link URL.
Do you have a question about SmartCart’s Affiliate Manager?
Simply respond to this post, or contact SmartCart Support. We’d love to hear from you!
