Referrals Overview
A referral is when an order placed in your e-commerce store can be traced back to an individual BrandChamp via either a referral discount code or a referral tracking link. For more details, see:
Configuration
To set up referral links, referral discount codes and your BrandChamp's referral commission, please see our support articles covering the new referrals section:
Referral Detection
BrandChamp detects referrals by regularly synchronizing orders from your store and checking them to see if they contain either:
- A discount code matching a referral discount code configured in the system
- A referral code matching a BrandChamp referral tracking link
If an order happens to contain both (i.e. someone clicked on a referral tracking link but also used a referral discount code during checkout), the credit will go to the BrandChamp associated with the referral link.
Referral Commissions
Once a referral order is detected, the selected commission entry linked to either the Referral Link Template or Discount Code Set is used to determine whether to credit a fixed amount or a percentage of the order to the BrandChamp, and whether to pay out in points or cash balance.
Referral commissions are generally not paid out immediately. The system waits 14 days by default after the referral was detected so that if an order is changed or canceled, the BrandChamp receives the correct amount of points, or none at all if the order is canceled later.
You can change the number of days to wait before applying commissions in the Settings area.
Suspicious Referrals
When a referral order is detected, the system also checks to see if there is anything suspicious about the referral. For more information, see the Suspicious Referrals article.
Viewing Referrals
Referrals can be viewed in the "Referrals" area of the administration portal
Approval
One of: "approved', "denied" or "undecided". See the Suspicious Referrals article for more details.
Source
What caused the referral? If it was from a referral discount code, the discount code will be displayed in this column. If it was from a referral link the text "Referral Link" will be shown
BrandChamp
The BrandChamp credited with the referral
Order Customer
The customer details from the e-commerce order. If any details match those of the referring BrandChamp, the order will be flagged as suspicious if the "Treat self referrals as suspicious" flag is set in the Settings -> Referrals area. See the Suspicious Referrals article for more details.
Commission
How much commission was calculated from the net order amount (order total minus any order discounts) using the selected commission.
Commissions are credited to the associated BrandChamp user on the "Apply commission" date. Before that date, they show as "pending" and the amount can be adjusted if the order was cancelled for example (in which case, the commission would be removed).
Order Date
The order date according to the e-commerce system.
Note: this might be earlier than the date the BrandChamp system actually received it or detected it as a valid referral. BrandChamp will calculate the "Due On" date from the time it's first detected as a valid referral within the BrandChamp system, and not from this order date.
Apply Commission
What date the referral commission points will be applied to the BrandChamp's account. By default, this will be 14 days after referral is detected in the BrandChamp system. You can control this in the Settings area.
Applied
Whether the referral commission has been applied to the BrandChamp's account. Before it is applied, the commission will show as pending.
Order
The order number from the e-commerce system
Total
The order total. The top amount is the order total as charged to customer. The net amount below is the order total minus any discounts that were applied.
Selected Commission
Which commission entry was selected when the referral was detected.
Example: if a referral came in via a referral link, and the associated Referral Link Template was set up to give a "VIP commission" (20% cash) to BrandChamps tagged with the "vip" tag, and a "Standard" (10% cash) commission to all other BrandChamps, if the BrandChamp linked to the referral order had a "vip" tag at the time of the referral, you will see the "VIP commission" as the selected commission.