Forum Moderators: skibum
I am wondering if anyone else has noticed this. One way I can see this scheme working is if there was a virus that was 'grabbing' sales and sending them over to my 'new affiliates'.
The other is this: I also had a few large transactions that turned out to be fraudulent, i.e. customer never placed the orders. Half of them got reported as 'affiliate sales'. Stolen cards being used to drive up affiliate sales commissions?
Thoughts? Suggestions?
First, the "dual reporting" issue occurs if you have not implemented a system to insure that both tracking pixels are not shown. It is not unusual for consumers to click from one affiliate's site to yours, and then later click from a different affiliate's site to your site. If those clicks are on separate networks, then when the "thank you" page is shown, if there is a tracking pixel for each of the two networks, then the transaction will be reported for both affiliates. You can either implement some (fairly complex) scripts to insure that only the "last referrer" affiliate-network's tracking code is shown, or you could just eliminate ClixGalore and use ShareASale exclusively.
It is possible that a "parasitic" affiliate (one using adware or malware) is, in fact, planting a ClixGalore or ShareASale cookie every time an infected computer accesses your web site, or perhaps just when something is "added to cart" or when some other "checkout process" occurs. It's MUCH more likely that this would be your ClixGalore affiliate than your ShareASale affiliate.
Another issue may be "coupon sites," who are (properly) promoting your coupons; if you have a "coupon prompt" as part of your shopping cart sequence, many consumers will exit your site to search for a coupon, and if they click back from an affiliate site, the affiliate cookie will be set. The solution here is to REMOVE the coupon prompt, because you typically will lose more customers than you close with this prompt. (A key issue with "coupon affiliates" is that many don't actually drive ANY new sales, but instead merely obtain good search engine placement and "poach" commissions when consumers respond to the merchant's coupon prompt. Note that these coupon affiliates do provide an important benefit by "recapturing" your customer back to your site, but if other affiliates perceive this then they'll stop sending you new customers. I generally do NOT promote merchants who have a "coupon prompt" in thier shopping-cart sequence, unless there is some other compelling reason such as a VERY high commission rate.)
Second, on the issue of fraudulent transactions: Yes, there have been situations in which fraudsters have enrolled as affiliates, then submitted fraudulent orders using their affiliate tracking ID, and sought to collect commissions from those transactions. I would expect that to be a greater problem on a network like ClixGalore that has fewer restrictions and rules, but it's something that can happen anywhere.
In general, if you reverse the first fraudulent transaction, most fraudsters will see that their trick won't work, and they'll stop. Unfortunately, a few of these fraudsters use automated tools to create new affiliate accounts and fraudulent orders.
However, I have NOT had this experience with ShareASale (both in my own role as a merchant's affiliate manager, and as a consultant for other merchants), though I'm sure it does happen.
You can reverse the fraudulent transactions, so that the commissions are reversed; you should try to do so quickly, and certainly before the date when transactions are "locked" or when commissions are locked for payment.
