ViArt is constantly updating with new and useful features. An affiliate module available from 2.8 version is one of such features. The module delivers greater flexibility in the shopping cart options. This enhancement allows Internet merchants to offer various discounts, coupons, and referral commissions redeemable at their websites. Additionally, merchants can offer a commission to anyone providing a referral to their site.

To set Global Settings

To set the global settings for affiliates, you should go to Administration > Products > Products Settings and find the 'Merchants and Affiliates Settings' section. There you can set the type of Affiliate commission and its amount. You have an option to choose whether to set the value to some product type or for a particular product.

You have the possibility to set the expiration date for affiliate cookies in the Affiliate Cookies Expire field. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the browser software is closed down. In ViArt Shop the default value for cookies expiration is set to 60 days. This means 60 days since a customer visited your site with some affiliate code like 'http://www.viart.com/?af=viart'. Upon expiration of this period an affiliate user does not get any commision for the users he drove to your site.

In case the purchase was made within this period an affiliate user gets his commissions due to the commissions settings. If a user uses the affiliate link again after some period of time then the affiliate period starts from the first day and will have another 60 days to earn the commissions. You are free to set any number of days for affiliate cookies.

Minimum Payment Amount field allows you to set the minimum amount after which a new payment for an affiliate or a merchant user will be generated. The payment won't be generated until a user reaches the level you set in this field.

Create an affiliate group

To create a new affiliate group, please go to Administration > Customers >Profile Settings/Types and click add a new type or edit an existing one link. On the Edit Type page you can overwrite the global affiliate commissions rules to that particular group by editing Affiliate Commission field. Also, the commissions amount can be changed for a particular customer, then for a product group and finally for a particular product.

To enable the affiliate registration, you should go to the Affiliates Settings section and check off the 'Can user join to affiliate program' checkbox.

After you have checked this field, the 'Affiliate Code' field will appear on a user profile page. A user should then enter his affiliate code. This code will be used to pass customers to your site in the following way: 'http://www.yoursite.com/?af=your_affiliate_code'. Note that an 'af' parameter can be added to any query string in your store, for example: 'http://www.yoursite.com/products.php?category_id=1&af=your_affiliate_code'

Please, keep in mind that 'Affiliate Code' field appears only for the new accounts. As for existing accounts, only administrators have the right to change the value in this field.

You may allow a user to check his affiliate statistics, that is what products were sold and what amount of commissions he will get. Then you should check off Can user access to his affiliate sales statistics checkbox.

If you want to allow a user to view real payments made to him and the dates of payments, then you should check off the 'Commission Payments' checkbox in the 'Home Page Settings' section.

Customizing the look of an affiliate module

When you finish with type settings you may find it necessary to edit the look and feel of 'Profile Settings' and fields necessary for affiliate registration.

Sometimes, the simplest way of making payments to your customers is to use PayPal accounts. If you want to make all payments via PayPal, you should go to the Additional Fields section in Profile Settings and check the PayPal Account checkbox. You may also need a tax number from your affiliate users. If so, please check off the Tax Number checkbox as well.

Commission action

Next step is to check if the right Commission Action is set for every status. To do this, please go to Administration > Sales Order Statuses and find the Commission Action field.

Add Commissions should be checked off for 'Paid' or similar status.

For statuses like 'Cancelled', 'Declined', 'Refunded' you are to set the value Subtract commissions.

No commissions value is to be set for other statuses.

Please keep in mind that only after the order status is changed to 'Paid' or similar status, the earning commissions will be added to a user account and will later be included into a user payment. If the order was 'cancelled' or 'refunded' and a user has already received his commisions for this payment, then this amount will be substracted from his payment in the next payment.

Commission Payments Statistics

In order to check generated payments you should go to Administration > Customers > Commission Payments. All automatically generated payments has 'Not Paid' status by default.

You can make a search query by name or e-mail, by amount, by dates. You may also use a calendar to select the start and end dates. Also, you can search in All, Paid and Not Paid payments.

Note: When you send money to a user you have to update a payment status to 'Paid' as well as to update 'Transaction ID' field if it is available.

If you need to create a payment for a user who didn't reach the 'Minimum Payment Amount' you should go to Administration > Customers Commissions and search for the commissions with 'New' status and click the 'Create Payment' link. Then check the payment details on the 'Edit Payment' page and click the Add New button to create a new payment.