Commission payments advice ....

[Conans]

Any help with this question would be much appreciated .....

We have been generating a small but increasingly steady flow of orders via our affiliates and have encountered an issue.

As we are in the world of fashion, quite a few of our orders (or items within an order) can be returned however the commission is payable on the complete order. If the entire order is cancelled I have no issue cancelling the commission. My problem arises where part of an order is returned and I am not sure how to get round this on an ongoing basis. At the moment the commission amounts are a pittance however they could build up quite significantly over time.

It's not really the fault of us or an affliate if someone orders 4 items at an average price of £70.00 (a £280.00 order with the affiliate due £33.60 with another £10.08 override) however if three of the items are returned the commission should only have been £8.40 (+ £2.52) so we would be £32.75 out of pocket in total on a £70 sale!!! Does anyone know what do the other fashion businesses do because we can't be the only ones with this issue?

I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Cheers

[kier]

Do you have the ability to add in manual commissions to your account? If so instead of cancelling the whole transaction you can cancel and then add in a manual payment for the value of the goods not returned. Its also important that you make your policy clear in your program description so affiliates know where they stand.

[drivetowin]

The alternative (which certainly I would prefer) is that you pay a lower rate of commission (to take account of the cost to you of returns) but you don't debit affiliate commissions for returns.

i.e. if you pay 12% commission now but 50% of orders are returned (taken across the board), then pay affiliates 6% commission on all orders but still pay the commission even if the order is returned. Makes it much easier for affiliates to plan cash flow that way.

[aaclapham]

Originally Posted by drivetowin The alternative (which certainly I would prefer) is that you pay a lower rate of commission (to take account of the cost to you of returns) but you don't debit affiliate commissions for returns. i.e. if you pay 12% commission now but 50% of orders are returned (taken across the board), then pay affiliates 6% commission on all orders but still pay the commission even if the order is returned. Makes it much easier for affiliates to plan cash flow that way.

Completely agree, nothing more disheartening than a whole load of commission disappearing at the end of a month.

[Conans]

Thanks for your comments. I think I can do manual adjustments now but will consider the reduced commisson option too.

I'll report back soon.

Thanks again.

[yesasia]

Hi , on some networks you can also manually change the commission amount for any order. For our fashion site we usually let the affiliate keep the full commission if the order cannot be fulfilled completely, except in cases of abuse.