How do I Set Up and Use the Affiliate Program?

Introduction

The affiliate program allows you to offer a service to your customers in which they can refer additional shoppers to your online store for potential sales. With the affiliate program, Shift4Shop will keep track of the customers that make a purchase and automatically calculate the payout for the affiliate's referral.

Set Up the Affiliate Menu Link
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To begin the affiliate program process, you will need to create a menu link on your web store for customers to access the affiliate registration section. Please note, if you do not want to create the menu link, you can still send a link to the affiliate registration to your customers. This link will be www.[domain].com/affiliateInfo.asp.

To create the Link, log into your Shift4Shop Online Store Manager and, using the left hand navigation menu:

1. Go to Content ->Site Content
2. Click the "+Add" button for either Menu Links or Extra Pages

3. Type 'Affiliate Program' in the Page Name field.
4. Select 'New' in the Sub Menu of dropdown.
5. Type the sorting page display number in the sorting field.
6. Click +Add.

Now that the link/page is created, let's edit it further. Look to the far right of the newly added page and click on its "Action Wheel" where you'll see two options - Content and Delete.

7. Click "Content"
8. In the Link field, type affiliateinfo.asp
9. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes

You will now see an Affiliate Program tab at the top of your Home Page on your website.
(or footer if you used an extra page instead.)

Upload Banners
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Shift4Shop allows you to upload three different banners for you to offer your customers for the Affiliate program. The banners are the images that the affiliates will insert to their web pages to refer additional customers over to your store. We recommend you upload three different sizes of banners so your affiliates have a variety of options.

As part of the Affiliate Program, Shift4Shop automatically generates the code for your affiliates to insert to their web pages, however, you must upload the images.

1. Save three different image files in the .jpg format to your computer. Name the images affiliatebanner1, affiliatebanner2, and affiliatebanner3.
2. In your Admin panel, click on the File Manager.
3. Click on the affiliate banners folder
4. Click Upload Files.
5. Browse for all 3 affiliate banner images you saved on your computer.
6. Click Upload.

Your banners will replace the place holders in the file manger. Please note that your image file names must be the same described above.

Enable the Affiliate Program
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You will need to enable the affiliate program and set a few default settings to begin accepting applicants.

Using your Online Store Manager's left hand navigation menu:

1. Go to Modules
2. Use the search bar at the top to search for "Affiliate Program"
3. Next, check the Enable Affiliate Program checkbox and click on the "Settings" button
4. Check the Auto Approve Affiliates checkbox if you would like customers to be automatically approved for the affiliate program when they register. If this is left unchecked, you will need to approve the customers manually.
5. Set your Default Commission. This is a percentage of the total order (not including shipping or tax), that you will payout to affiliates for successful referrals.
6. Set the length (in number of days) that you'd like the affiliate tracking cookie to be good for. 

7. Click Save to commit your changes

Registration Process
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The registration process must be done by each affiliate on your website. As there is a section of terms and conditions the potential affiliate must check off on, you cannot register for them in the Admin panel.

For the potential affiliate to register:

1. Direct the customer to your website and have them click on the 'Affiliate Program' link. If you did not create a menu tab, you can send them a link to the registration page which is www.[domain].com/affiliateInfo.asp
2. Tell the customer to click on the Create Account button.

3. The customer will then fill out their email address, password, and company information.

4. On the next step, the customer will fill out their website address, Tax ID number, and check off on the terms and conditions.

5. Once done, the affiliate account will be created.
6. To paste the referral Affiliate links/banners into their website, the Affiliate will login to the 'My Account' section of your website.

7. In the Affiliate Statistics section, the will click on the View Details link.

8. In this section, the Affiliate will copy the code provided underneath the banner they would like to display on their site. Once copied, they will paste the code into their website. The referral customers will click on the banner, or link displayed and the Affiliate will get credit for the sale if one is made. Since the code is different for each Affiliate you setup, you will be able to track which Affiliate Website the customer comes from.

Approve Affiliates
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Using your Online Store Manager's left hand navigation menu:

1. Go to Modules
2. Use the search bar at the top to search for "Affiliate Program" and click on the "Settings" button.
3. Next, click on the link labeled "Affiliate List" to see a list of your current affiliates.
4. Then, look to the far right of the Affiliate and select "Edit" from the action wheel

This will take you to the customer's record. Along the top you'll see a series of tabs.

5. Click on the Affiliate tab.
6. Check the Active checkbox.
7. Modify the commission percentage if you need. This will override the default commission setting in the Modules section.
8. Click Save at the top right to update the information.

Manage Orders
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When a new order comes through via the affiliate program, you must either approve or deny it as applicable for commission payout. Using your Online Store Manager's left hand navigation menu:

1. Go to Modules
2. Use the search bar at the top to search for "Affiliate Program" and click on the "Settings" button.
3. Next, click on the link labeled "Open Orders" to see a list of your current affiliate orders.
4. Click on the Order Number if you would like to view the order that was referred by the affiliate.
5. If you approve the order, click the App button and click Save Changes.
6. If you deny the order, click the Deny button and type in the reason. This reason will display to the affiliate when they check on the status of their orders.
7. Click Save to commit the changes.

Manage Commission Payouts
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Shift4Shop keeps track of the orders you approve for commission payout to the affiliates.

Using your Online Store Manager's left hand navigation menu:

1. Go to Modules
2. Use the search bar at the top to search for "Affiliate Program" and click on the "Settings" button.
3. Next, click on the link labeled "Payout Report" to see payouts for the recorded (and approved) affiliate orders.
4. Check the Pay checkbox next to the affiliate you would like to pay.
5. Type the amount you would like to pay the affiliate in the Amount to pay field.
6. Type the check or reference number.
7. Click Save Changes.

8. The affiliate record will update with the new balance. If you click on the affiliate name, it will take you to their customer record.
9. The payments section will update with any recent payouts you have made.