System Update: 4.19 - [9/8/2011]
Ecommerce account holders (merchants) can set up an affiliate program. This feature enables merchants to set up a commission rate to be earned by the affiliates and banners for the affiliates to display on their websites. Orders created by visitors who reach the site via these banners will be tracked and an affiliate payment will be computed. Merchants can keep track of affiliate payments via their website admin.

How it works:

Merchants create an affiliate program with a percentage based commission via the Affiliates area in the Store section. They set up an affiliate commission rate and write up how the affiliate program works in the program description area. Then they add banners that the affiliates will select to display on their website.

Affiliates are created via the User Accounts system. This can be done via the normal user account to a group methods: manually enter the affiliate user, create a form that sets up the submission as a user in the group, or use the standard Create Account option. Each affiliate account must be approved (edit the new account, click the Affiliate tab, click the Approve link).

Once the affiliate user is created and approved, the affiliate logs in via the store's Account Login Form and clicks the Affiliate tab. They can see details of the affiliate program and copy/paste HTML to display the merchant's banner on their affiliate website. Sales completed by customers who reach the site by clicking the banner will be tracked and commissions will be applied to the affiliate.

The merchant can view the amount owed to the affiliate and register a payment by finding the user in the user accounts area (Affiliate group) and clicking the Affiliate tab. The merchant still must send the payment to the affiliate. All payments that the merchant sends will appear on the affiliate's Transaction History when they log in and select the Affiliate tab.