Storefront Feature: Affiliate Programs

A major challenge for new Internet businesses is how to drive traffic to their site. Some possible shoppers come to your site; they look around and really like what they are seeing. On your Web site you have a “Join Our Affiliates Program” link. They click on it, fill out a quick form, and choose a user name and password. They then will receive an e-mail with instructions and access to referral URLs. Once they have the URLs, they must send their prospects to your site either through outbound e-mail or via links from their own Web site. Along the way, your new site viewers will get tagged as having been referred by the affiliate. If they become customers and make a purchase, the affiliate will be credited with the sale. Both you and your affiliate can see this in the order record, using a login page with a full history of all their commissions. Affiliates are wonderful because they send traffic your way, and you pay them only for paid customers.