Locking discount code to a specific affiliate

[nick]

Hi.



I want to know if it's possible to lock a discount code to a specific affiliate, so that the affiliate will get the commission even if another affiliate steals that discount code and uses it with their link?



Or, just simply to stop other affiliates using a particular discount code.



thanks.

[E-junkie_Guru]

We have no method to tie a particular discount code to a specific Affiliate; any discount code can be used by anyone at any time, although if you wish, you can create single-use Cart Discount codes that would be useless after being redeemed once.



If you were intending to use this as a sort of Affiliate-referral code -- i.e. so the Affiliate could just hand out a code, and buyers would enter that code in their cart to credit the Affiliate for that sale, with the discount being their incentive for entering the code -- for this purpose, it's just inherently unreliable to expect buyers would always remember to enter some code manually, discount incentive or not. However, we do have a better method to recommend for Affiliates who just want to hand out codes without posting links online anywhere.



Once the Affiliate joins your program and obtains their link code (or you can log into their E-junkie account to obtain the link code for them), you can get the href= URL out of their link code and provide that URL to a link-shortener forwarding service like tinyurl.com. This would give the affiliate a short, simple URL to hand out like tinyurl.com/a3c2b1 or even tinyurl.com/buy-from-bob (you can specify whatever you want after the "/" as long as it isn't taken already). If you don't like tinyurl, there's plenty of similar services available; just search Google for "link shortener" or "url shortener".



BTW, for simplicity's sake, we would recommend using our new Common Affiliate Settings (Admin > Affiliate Program Settings) rather than product-specific Affiliate settings, unless you really need to offer different percentage-share commissions for different products.

[sunnankar]

TysonWe have no method to tie a particular discount code to a specific Affiliate

Is there anyway you can build the feature? I think it would be extremely helpful. What would be great for me is if I could set the commission rate per affiliate and the discount rate per code and have a discount code tie to an affiliate. If all those variables could be set on a single screen that is in a spreadsheet type layout all the better.



For example, if Affiliate A (Code: YYY) is given a 20% commission rate and a discount code of 20% then the Customer would be charged $80=$100*20% and the Affiliate A would earn $16=$80*20%. If Affiliate B (Code: RRR) is given a 30% commission rate and the discount code is 10% then the Customer would be charged $90=$100*10% and Affiliate B would earn $27=$90*30%.



Then I could create printed advertising material like a postcard that had an area for 'Get a discount with code _____'. I could then get that printed material to various affiliates (perhaps they order on my affiliate program page) who could hand it out at conferences they attend. For example, I would get a bunch of postcards to Affiliate B who would fill in 'RRR' into the blank discount code area. Then Affiliate B could hand those postcards out at various conferences. The buyer would have a simple way to remember to buy my product (the postcard) and the incentive to get the affiliate credit (entering the discount code to save money).



I can not really think of any other way to accomplish what I want except with these additional features. As I am new to E-Junkie, perhaps this is already doable? I do not think so because I have been experimenting, searching and reading through the forums and do not think the option is available. These tools would be really helpful.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Although we cannot support the Affiliate-specific discount codes, you can at least create a generic Cart Discount code go give all Affiliates as a referral incentive, and you can assign a different share percentage to each Affiliate.



First you would set up your Affiliate programs with a "base" percentage, so anyone who signs up (perhaps by browsing through our Affiliate program listings) would see they can earn at least that much. Then in your Seller Admin > View/Edit Affiliates, you can grant an additional percentage or a per-order bonus amount to individual Affiliates.