ClickCartPro has a built-in affiliate system which is quite easy to manage.
1. Turn on the system by accessing the management interface function:
System > Component > Settings > Wholesale and Affiliate Account Settings
Set:
Affiliate System Status true (0) – A true value activates the system and a false value deactivates the system. If active, customers with basic accounts will have the option to request an account upgrade to make their account an affiliate account. If you activate the affiliate system, be sure to add commissions to e-commerce application products and product options.
Maximum Order Commission 0.00 – The maximum per-order commission setting for affiliates sets the maximum commission amount that will be paid to an affiliate for orders they generate. Enter ‘0.00’ to use no maximum.
Track Affiliates Across Sessions false (0) – If set to true, when a customer clicks an affiliate’s link, that customer is assigned to that affiliate for the lifetime of their session and all future orders under that session will be attributed to the originating affiliate. If set to false, returning customer orders will not be assigned to the affiliate unless the affiliate’s link is used to access the store again.
2. Once the system is activated, for any users whose group is ‘basic’, an option will be presented in the account menu for ‘Request Account Upgrade’. This allows a user to request an account upgrade to an affiliate account from the site owner. Those requests are sent to the email address entered for the ‘Account Upgrade Request’ message edited under System > Mail > Mail Messages.
3. When the site owner receives the account upgrade message from a user, if the site owner wishes to approve the request and make the account and affiliate account, they can do so using the management interface function:
System > User Accounts > User Accounts
Locate the user account and choose to update it. Set:
User Group affiliate
Affiliate ID ID assigned to the affiliate – Enter a unique affiliate ID here that will be used in affiliate links to associate orders with an affiliate. Be sure this ID has not been used by another affiliate to avoid crossing commissions and data.
Affiliate Commission Percentage 0.000 – This field holds the commission percentage for an affiliate account. If you set this field to ‘0.000’, static price amounts entered on the product and product option level in ecommerce applications will be used to calculate commissions. If you set this percentage to a number greated than zero, the affiliate will earn commission based on the entered percentage.
4. After setting up the affiliate, the site owner should email them and let the know they have been approved and should access their account for affiliate info. Upon logging in, the affiliate is presented with another option in the account menu, the Affiliate Account Information option. This option provides affiliates with their URLs, sales and commissions to date and commission payment history.
Note about affiliate URLs:
Affiliate URLs are used in the following fashion http:www.example.com/index.php?mktsrc=XXX. The ‘mktsrc=XXX’ lets the system know affiliate XXX is tied to the request. If testing, be sure you do so with a basic user account with cleared cookies in order to get the affiliate id tied to your session.
If you want affiliates to link to specific products in your store the links that the affiliates use must be in the “native” CCP format as shown below in order for their affiliate code to be recognized and used.
http:www.example.com/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=product_identifier&mktsrc=affiliate_code_goes_here
5. Generate commission payments and log them using the management interface functions:
System > User Accounts > Generate Affiliate Payments
System > User Accounts > Affiliate Payments
Note about commissions: Commissions are automatically applied to affiliates for all orders whose payment method is set up to perform post-order updates. If an order is placed for a payment method for which post-order updates are turned off (typically methods like Contact Customer and Check Payment), after you have marked an order as ‘Complete’, you can then run post-order updates for that order in the management interface to apply commissions for an order to it’s related affiliate.
General Testing Notes
1. Prior to testing the affiliate system is working, close all browser windows, re-open them, and clear all of your history, cache and cookies. Then close, and re-open your browser. This will ensure when testing, you get assigned an affilate id in your session.
2. Access your affiliate URL only after you’ve cleared all of your history, cache and cookies from your browser. Shop for items which are set up to pay commission to the affiliate whose URL you’re using. When you’re ready to checkout, either checkout as a guest, or create a new account – as administrative account users are not subject to commission on orders.
