Configuring a referral program

This article describes how to configure a referral program using Manager's keys and Storefront buy-links:

Referral program

A referral program is a marketing campaign that allows partners to promote Reseller's products and bring in new customers using a referral link to Storefront. Partners earn a reward as a percentage of Subscriptions purchased by new customers. In order to start a referral program, it is necessary to create a Manager for every partner and specify their keys. The key is used as an attribute of a referral link to Storefront that attaches a Manager to Accounts followed the link to purchase a Subscription.

Starting a referral program

To start a referral program:

1. Create a Manager for a partner as follows (see Adding a Manager):

   1. In the Email field, enter an email that is not associated with the partner's contact information. For example, specify a fake email in the @example.com domain.

      Partners of a referral program must not have access to the Operator Control Panel or any notifications via their Managers. Managers, in this case, are only an auxiliary tool to run a referral program.

   2. In the Role list, select Sales person.

   3. In the Key field, enter the Manager's unique key — a personal code of a partner. The key can include uppercase and lowercase characters, numbers, underscore, dot, and dash.
      

      The key is case-sensitive. For example, carter81 and Carter81 are different keys, and they will not work together for the same Manager.

2. Share with a partner a link to Storefront with the personal code — the Manager's unique key (see Buy-link template for ordering a Service via Storefront):
   1. It can be a link to any page of Storefront.
   2. The link must include the &manager_key={manager_key} attribute where the {manager_key} is a case-sensitive value specified in the Key field of the Manager.

   Example of a referral link: https://example.com/catalog/?manager_key=referralkey

Purchasing Subscriptions under a referral program

In order to count a purchased Subscription under a referral program, all the following conditions must be met:

1. A Manager of a partner has the Active status (see Viewing and updating Manager's information).

2. A customer visited any page of Storefront via a link with the &manager_key={manager_key} attribute where the {manager_key} is the case-sensitive Manager's key.

   On the customer side, the Manager's key is stored in the browser cookies for one month. As a result, a Subscription will be counted under a referral program even if a customer does not buy it immediately but within a month after following the referral link. However, if the browser cookies were cleared, a referral link should be used one more time.

3. The customer's Account is not yet linked to any Manager (see Viewing and updating Account's details), or it is a new Account.

When a Sales Order is created, the platform automatically assigns a Manager, whose key is used in a referral link, to an Account (see Viewing and updating Account's details).

Calculating a partner's reward

In the current version, calculating a partner's reward is performed manually using the list of Accounts brought in by a partner within a particular period and other data depending on the referral program terms, for example:

• The list of Orders for an Account completed within a particular period.
• The list of Subscriptions for an Account activated within a particular period.

For calculating a partner's reward, use any of the following:

• Filtered lists of Accounts, Subscriptions, or Orders in the Operator Control Panel — see Viewing the List of Accounts, Viewing the list of Subscriptions, Viewing the List of Orders, and the following general articles: Searching and filtering, Exporting a List as a file.
• API v3 methods — see Get a List of the Reseller's Account, Get a List of the Reseller's Subscriptions, Get a List of the Reseller's Orders in the API guide.