How orders are credited to affiliates

The plugin credits an order to an affiliate because of the coupon code the customer used, and nothing else. This article explains what that means and what it does not do.

Coupons, not links

There are no referral links, no tracking cookies and no affiliate accounts. An order counts for an affiliate when the customer enters one of the affiliate’s coupon codes at checkout, or when you add the coupon to an order in wp-admin. A customer who follows an affiliate’s recommendation but uses no coupon is not credited to anyone.

An affiliate is only ever a name and an email address saved on coupons. No user account is created for them, and they have no login to your site. They learn about their orders through the emails you choose to send, and through statements you print for them.

Which orders count

Every order that used at least one coupon is in the reports, as long as it is not a checkout draft or in the trash. Orders that used a coupon with no affiliate are counted too, and listed as “Unassigned”.

The reports stay up to date on their own: an order is updated whenever it is saved, changes status, or gets a refund. Moving an order to the trash removes it from the reports, and restoring it brings it back.

One person, several coupons

Coupons with the same email address belong to one affiliate. Coupons with no email address are grouped by name instead. Capital letters make no difference in either case. See One affiliate with several coupons.

Changing a coupon’s affiliate

When you change the affiliate on a coupon, its past orders move with it, except orders you have already paid the previous affiliate for, which stay with them. See The Affiliate tab.

Orders with coupons of two affiliates

WooCommerce lets a customer use more than one coupon on an order. If an order uses coupons of two different affiliates, it is credited to both, and each earns their full commission on it. To stop that, tick Individual use only on the Usage restriction tab of your affiliate coupons, so that they cannot be combined with other coupons.