Selling
Affiliates: Partner Links, Commission and Payouts
Give partners a tracked link, pay commission on the orders they send, and record the payouts you make.
Overview
Affiliates are partners, such as creators, bloggers and other stores, who send you shoppers. Each partner gets a link (your store address with ?ref= and their code). When a shopper follows it and places a paid order within your attribution window, the partner earns commission on what the shopper paid for the goods. Commission is approved after your hold window, reversed or reduced if the order is refunded, and paid by you. BestWebby does not move this money. You pay partners the way you agreed and record each payout here.
Affiliates are part of the Scale plan.
Step 1: Switch the programme on
Go to Marketing → Affiliates → Settings.
- Attribution window — an order placed within this many days of the partner's last click counts for them. If a shopper follows two partners' links, the last one wins.
- Hold window — commission is approved this many days after payment. Match it to your return window.
- A note for partners — shown in their portal.
While the programme is on, your storefront's cookie banner offers the Marketing choice. A partner is credited only when the shopper allows it. Without that consent the visit is counted but nothing is stored on the shopper's device, and the order is not credited. This follows the same rule as your ad pixels.
Step 2: Add partners
Click Add partner, then enter their name, their email (they sign in to the partner portal with it), a link code, and their rate: a percentage of the goods, or a fixed amount per item sold. Copy their link from the Partners tab and send it to them.
Step 3: Rates for particular products (optional)
Under Rates by product, set a different rate for a product or a collection, for one partner or for every partner. The most specific rate wins: the partner on the product, then the partner on a collection, then everyone on the product, then everyone on the collection, then the partner's own rate.
What earns commission
- Commission is worked out on each item's price after its share of the order's discounts, so a partner never earns on money the shopper did not pay.
- Shipping, tax and gift cards earn nothing, and neither do items shipped by your Ghost Search partners.
- A partner buying with their own email address earns nothing.
- A fixed per-item rate never exceeds the item's own price.
Commission states
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| In hold window | The order is paid; commission is approved when the hold window ends. |
| Approved — owed | You owe it to the partner. |
| Paid | Included in a payout you recorded. |
| Reversed | The order was fully refunded, cancelled or disputed before approval. |
A partial refund before approval reduces the commission in proportion. A refund after approval is clawed back the same way: on unpaid commission it lowers what you owe, and on commission you have already paid it is taken off the partner's next payout. Orders whose payment never completes are never credited.
Step 4: Pay partners and record it
When a partner is owed money, the Partners tab shows Record payout with the amount in each currency. Pay them first, by bank transfer, PayPal or however you agreed. Then click Record payout, add how you paid and a reference, and confirm. Every commission in that amount is marked Paid. If the amount changed while you were looking, for example because a refund came in, you are asked to check the new figure.
The report and CSV export
The Commissions tab lists every credited order with the partner, the amount commission was earned on, the commission, any clawback and its state. Filter by partner, state and date, then click Export CSV for your accounts.
The partner portal
Partners sign in at your store address followed by /partners, using a one-time link sent to their email: they open it and press Sign in. It expires in 15 minutes and works once. (Opening the link alone signs nobody in, so email security scanners that open links cannot use it up.) They see their link, their rate, their clicks, the orders credited to them and their payouts. An order shows only a short reference, the date and the amounts, never who bought or what they bought.
Pausing or removing a partner
Pause stops their link from earning; commission they already earned stays. Removing a partner who has commission history pauses them instead, so the record of what they earned and were paid is kept.