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 company 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 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 {manager_key} is a case-sensitive value specified in the Key field of the manager.

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 {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.