An affiliate program lets other people sell for you. Every partner gets their own link. When someone clicks it and buys from you, the partner automatically earns a share of the sale, and you pay out the collected balance later. You decide how much partners earn and when their money becomes payable.
What you need before you start
The affiliate program is part of the Business plan. On any other plan the setup page shows an Upgrade plan button instead of the start button, and the program cannot be switched on, which includes the trial.
Payments must be on. Whether it is depends on the choice you made at signup; if it is off, switch it on under Settings > Features. The Affiliates menu entry only appears while Payments is on.
Starting the program
Your first visit opens the setup page Reward your fans for spreading the word. Pick what partners earn per sale: 10, 20 or 30 percent, with 20 marked Recommended, or type your own value into Or enter your own. Then set the Minimum payout and click Start referral program.
This switches the program on in simple mode with a 30 day attribution window and a 14 day payout freeze, all changeable later. If you want several commission tiers from the start, Advanced settings switches to advanced mode and takes you straight to the settings. That path does not start the program yet: it stays off until you switch on Affiliate program there and click Save.
The Overview tab
Overview is the first tab of the affiliate area. While the program is switched off, it starts with the box Your affiliate program is paused and guides you through the steps:
- Turn the program on: pick the Program mode and switch on Affiliate program right there.
- Set your commission: Adjust commission opens the settings with the commission per sale.
- Invite your partners follows once the program is on.
On a plan without the affiliate program, the box offers Upgrade plan instead.
Below, eight key figures sum up the program: Total affiliates, Active affiliates, Pending commissions, Cleared commissions, Paid lifetime, Pending payouts, Clicks and Conversion rate. The amounts count your program currency, test commissions are left out, and the small charts show the last 30 days. Conversion rate is the share of clicks that led to a commission.
If you earn commissions in more than one currency, Commissions by currency shows the pending, cleared and paid out amounts per currency. Three lists show your five strongest entries by cleared and paid out commissions:
- Top affiliates: your best earning partners.
- Top ranks: earnings grouped by the partners' rank.
- Top products: the products that bring the most commission.
View all opens the full partner or rank list.
Simple and advanced mode
Program mode on the Settings tab decides how much of the program you see.
- Simple pays one flat commission to the partner who brought the sale. The area shows Overview, Affiliates, Commissions, Payouts and Settings.
- Advanced adds the Team tree and, under Settings, the pages Levels, Ranks, Pools and Testing. Use it for multi-level commissions, ranks and bonus pools.
Switching back to simple keeps your levels, ranks and pools. When you save in simple mode, level 1 takes the value of Commission per sale, unless level 1 pays a fixed amount per sale: that amount stays, and you change it on the Levels page in advanced mode. While simple mode is on, only the first level is paid, and ranks and pools are not recalculated.
Most programs never need advanced mode. Start simple and switch when you want to reward partners for recruiting other partners.
The settings that matter first
The Affiliate program switch at the top of the settings is the master switch. When it is off, no new referrals are tracked, no clicks are counted and no commissions are created. The partner area with its pages, campaign links and Request payout is closed, its menu entry is hidden and members cannot join through Activate. Existing data is kept. Partner links still lead to their page, but they remember nothing. A workspace that has never started or saved the program counts as switched off.
Commission per sale is the share a partner gets for every sale they bring in. In advanced mode this field gives way to the Levels page. Minimum payout amount is the balance a partner must reach before a payout is created; smaller balances roll over to the next run.
The Attribution window (1 to 365 days) is how long a click on a referral link stays credited to a partner. The Payout freeze period (0 to 90 days) is how long a commission waits before it is cleared and can be paid out, as protection against refunds. In simple mode both sit behind Show advanced settings.
Customer names for partners controls what partners see about their buyers. Partner emails decides which emails partners receive automatically: Welcome email, New commissions (a daily summary in the morning), Rank promotion (advanced mode only) and Monthly statement (sent on the 1st). The wording of each email is edited in Settings under Notifications. For payout methods and the payout run, see Affiliate payouts.
Who can become a partner
Partners are members of your workspace. You add them yourself on the Affiliates tab, let everyone who signs up become a partner with New sign-ups become partners, or let members join on their own while the program is running. How each way works is explained in How partners join your program, and the partner list, the partner page and the team tree in Managing your partners.
An inactive partner keeps their data but earns no commission until you activate them again.
How partners find and share their links is covered in Affiliate links and tracking and The affiliate portal.
Who on your team can manage it
Every affiliate page needs View Affiliates, on top of Access Admin Panel that every admin page needs. The other permissions split the work:
- Update Affiliates and Team Tree to add, edit and remove partners and to change the team tree.
- Manage Program (Levels, Ranks, Pools) for levels, ranks and pools.
- Manage Commissions and Conversions to mark commissions that are past the payout freeze as cleared without waiting for the nightly run.
- Run Payouts for payout runs.
- Manage Affiliate Settings to save the settings, switch the mode and run tests on the Testing page.
The built-in Owner and Admin roles hold all of them. A custom role can include them while Payments is on; you assign roles under Settings > Team & Roles.
Next, read How commissions are calculated to see what a partner earns on each order.