# WC Affiliate Features The most feature-rich affiliate plugin built exclusively for WooCommerce. Everything you need to launch, run, and scale a full affiliate program - unlimited affiliates, real-time tracking, flexible commissions, and automated payouts - without leaving WordPress. This document covers **both editions**: - **WC Affiliate** (free, v3.5) - a complete, production-ready affiliate program on its own. - **WC Affiliate Pro** (add-on, v3.1.0) - a Pro features unlocker that extends the free plugin. Requires WC Affiliate (>= 3.0) installed and active. Features marked **(Pro)** require WC Affiliate Pro. Everything else ships in the free plugin. --- ## Dashboards ### Admin Dashboard **Your Complete Affiliate Command Center** The admin panel gives you a single screen to run the entire program - active affiliates, pending approvals, visits, referrals, commissions, and payout status all in one place. No digging through menus, no switching tools. Real-time program stats, top-performing affiliates, and best-converting products are surfaced the moment they happen. **Screens:** - Summary - live overview of visits, referrals, commissions, and earnings - Affiliates - full roster with status, earnings, and management controls - Visits - detailed log of every affiliate-driven visit - Referrals - every referral, its type badge, status, and responsible affiliate - Payables - pending commission payouts per affiliate - Transactions - full history of processed affiliate payments ### Affiliate Dashboard **A Private Workspace for Every Affiliate** Affiliates get their own front-end dashboard to track clicks, referral links, earnings, payout history, and real-time stats - with no wp-admin access required. They self-serve instead of emailing you, which keeps them informed, motivated, and active while cutting your support load. **Affiliates can:** - See their own real-time visits, referrals, conversions, and earnings - Generate and manage referral links - Request payouts and review payment history - Update profile, payment details, and notification preferences (with profile image support) --- ## Referral Tracking & Attribution ### Real-Time Referral Tracking **Accurate Tracking, Built for WooCommerce** WC Affiliate tracks affiliate referrals natively on your WooCommerce store - every visit, click, and conversion attributed to the right affiliate in real time. Because it is WooCommerce-native rather than a generic tool bolted on, tracking and commission attribution work correctly with simple products, variable products, and individual variations. ### Cookie Duration & Attribution Control **You Decide How Credit Is Awarded** Set exactly how long tracking cookies stay active - from a single day to a full year. Longer windows give referred visitors more time to return and convert. You also control attribution logic: decide whether a new referral click overwrites an existing cookie, or whether the first-click affiliate keeps credit for the whole window - essential for higher-priced products with long buying journeys. ### Coupon-Based Tracking (Pro) **Track Sales Without a Single Link Click** Give an affiliate a unique WooCommerce coupon instead of - or alongside - a referral link. When a customer uses the coupon at checkout, the commission is credited automatically, no link click required. This opens your program to influencers, podcast hosts, and content creators who cannot easily embed trackable links, and it works on platforms that strip or shorten links (Instagram bios, YouTube descriptions, TikTok profiles). ### Cross-Domain Cookie Sharing (Pro) **One Affiliate Program Across Many Domains** If you run more than one site under the same brand, standard cookies break the moment a visitor moves between domains. Cross-Domain Cookie Sharing makes referral cookies follow the visitor across all connected domains - click an affiliate link on site A, buy on site B, and the affiliate still gets full credit. List your domains in settings, enable it, and it works silently from then on. ### Permanent Customer Attribution (Pro) **Credit That Survives Guest-to-Account Conversion** Referred customer attribution is stored permanently against the WordPress user via user meta. If a referred guest checks out and later registers or logs in, the original affiliate still earns credit - closing a common gap where attribution is lost between a guest purchase and account creation. --- ## Commissions ### Flexible Commission Structure **Three Levels of Control** Set a global commission rate as a fixed amount or a percentage of the sale. Override it **per affiliate** to reward top performers or onboard partners with negotiated terms. Override it **per product** when margins vary across your catalog and a flat rate does not fit. Start simple with one global rate and expand to per-affiliate and per-product rules as your program matures - no developer needed. Product-level commission percentages can even be applied to referral links when that product is purchased. ### Recurring Commissions **Keep Rewarding Affiliates on Renewals** A dedicated recurring commission setting lets affiliates continue earning on repeat and subscription-style purchases, with commission type validation handled through the referral processing pipeline. ### Multi-Level Commissions (Pro) **Turn Affiliates Into Recruiters** When an affiliate brings in a new affiliate, they earn a commission on that sub-affiliate's sales too. Set unlimited tiers with different rates at each level, and WC Affiliate tracks every tier automatically and distributes the right commission to the right affiliate - no spreadsheets, no manual math. It is the fastest way to grow an affiliate network organically, because your top affiliates have every incentive to expand it for you. ### Performance Bonuses (Pro) **Reward Milestones Automatically** Set bonus commissions that trigger when an affiliate hits a defined milestone - a monthly revenue threshold, a referral count, or a conversion target. Once configured, bonuses fire without manual involvement, creating competition and momentum: affiliates close to a threshold push harder to reach it, and those who hit it once keep going. ### Referral Discounts (Pro) **Let Affiliates Offer a Deal** Allow affiliates to apply a discount on their referral links, giving their audience an incentive to buy while still crediting the affiliate for the sale. Enabled from the Basic settings. --- ## Payouts ### Manual Payouts **Full Control, No Integration Required** The free plugin supports manual payouts end to end: affiliates request a payout from their dashboard, you review and approve, and every payment is logged with amount, method, date, and affiliate name for a clean, auditable financial trail. ### Automated Payouts - PayPal & Stripe (Pro) **Approve Once, Paid Instantly** Connect PayPal and Stripe (via Stripe Connect onboarding) and pay affiliates in one click. When an affiliate submits a request, you approve it and the payment goes out instantly through their preferred method - no logging into payment apps, no copy-pasting amounts. Every transaction is logged automatically, so records stay clean with zero extra effort. ### Wise & Payoneer (Pro, Beta) **More Ways to Pay, Worldwide** Additional automated payout methods for Wise and Payoneer extend payments to more countries and currencies, so you can pay affiliates the way that works best for them. ### Transaction & Payout Logging **Every Payment Traceable** Processed payments are recorded in a dedicated transactions log with amount, method, requested and processed dates, and status - so audits, accounting, and reconciliation are always straightforward. --- ## Promotional Tools for Affiliates ### Referral Link Generator **Links for Any Page on Your Store** Affiliates can create referral links for any URL on your store - product pages, category pages, landing pages, or the homepage - directly from their dashboard. Optionally allow or disallow generation of external affiliate URLs. ### Shortlink Generator with Custom Slugs (Pro) **Clean, Branded, Shareable Links** Long, ugly affiliate URLs kill click-through rates. Affiliates can create branded shortlinks with custom slugs they define themselves - like `yourstore.com/go/blackfriday` or `yourstore.com/go/john` - far easier to share in videos, social posts, newsletters, and podcasts. They manage all their shortlinks from the dashboard, with full referral tracking still running in the background on every click. Random or user-defined slugs are both supported; external-URL shortlinks can be disabled. ### Banner Builder (Pro) **Ready-to-Use Promotional Assets** Create branded banners for product launches, seasonal sales, and ongoing campaigns, and affiliates access and download them straight from their dashboard - no Dropbox folders, no Slack requests, no waiting. Affiliates can use the banners on any website, WordPress or not. Having assets ready the moment a sale goes live is a real conversion advantage. ### Registration Form Builder (Pro) **Design Your Own Signup Experience** A drag-and-drop form builder lets you add custom fields, remove defaults, reorder inputs, set required vs optional, and write your own labels and instructions. Ask for a website URL, social following, or niche - gather exactly what you need to vet applicants. A better form attracts better affiliates. (The free plugin uses a standard registration flow.) --- ## Reporting & Analytics ### Visual Reports & Charts **See What Is Actually Working** Both admins and affiliates get a full picture of performance through visual charts, graphs, and filterable tables - visits, referral conversions, top-performing affiliates, best-converting products, and total earnings, all in real time. Admins see the whole program; affiliates see only their own data. ### Data Export & Import **Own Your Data** Export any report to CSV (and XML) for accounting, deep-dive analysis, or sharing with a partner - with formatting fixes for PHP 8.x and safe handling of empty result sets. Background export/import jobs keep large datasets from timing out. --- ## Affiliate Lifecycle & Communication ### Registration, Approval & Roles **Control Who Represents Your Brand** Require manual approval so affiliates only get dashboard access after you explicitly approve them. Email verification confirms new signups, with a resend option and countdown timer for unverified applicants. Existing WordPress users can be promoted to affiliates without creating a new account. ### Customizable Email Notifications **On-Brand Messaging at Every Touchpoint** Every stage of the affiliate lifecycle has a customizable email template - signup received, approved or rejected, referral confirmed, commission earned, payout processed, credit added. Personalize each with the affiliate's name, the relevant amounts, and your own brand voice. Good communication is one of the most underrated drivers of affiliate retention. ### Setup Wizard **Live in Minutes** A guided setup wizard walks you through configuring commissions, platform setup, and program basics on activation - including multi-platform and grouped-field steps - so you can launch without touching code. --- ## Program Integrity & Scale ### Unlimited Affiliates **Your Price Never Changes as You Grow** No caps, no tiers, no "upgrade to add more affiliates." Run 10 affiliates or 10,000 for the same price. Onboarding a new affiliate is always just an approval click, never a billing trigger. ### Fraud Prevention (Coming Soon) **Protect Your Commission Budget** Built-in safeguards monitor referral activity and flag patterns that suggest abuse - self-referrals, duplicate click inflation, and suspicious referral sequences - surfacing them for review before any commission is paid. --- ## Integrations ### WooCommerce (Native) Built exclusively for WooCommerce and tightly integrated with its order, product, and coupon systems - not a generic affiliate tool adapted to fit. Works with simple products, variable products, and variations. ### EasyCommerce Integrates with Codexpert's EasyCommerce, including pay-with-credits support in the payout flow (with graceful fallback to Stripe when credits are unavailable). ### Codexpert CRM Built-in Codexpert CRM integration for managing affiliate relationships, with CRM fields wired into the setup wizard and a completion hook for custom integrations. ### AI Chatbot Assistant An in-dashboard AI chatbot helps you find answers and get set up faster. ### Translation Ready Fully translation-ready and compatible with WPML, Loco Translate, Polylang, and other major translation plugins - both the admin-facing and affiliate-facing interfaces - so you can run a localized program in any language or market. --- ## Technical ### Modern React Admin & Affiliate Dashboards The admin panel and affiliate dashboard are built as React + TypeScript single-page apps (rewritten from the ground up in v3.0), backed by `@wordpress/data` stores for fast, responsive, real-time UI. ### REST API All functionality is exposed over a versioned REST API (`wc-affiliate/v1`) with capability-based permission checks, covering affiliates, referrals, visits, transactions, dashboard stats, settings, export/import, and the setup wizard. Pro adds endpoints for banners, coupons, shortlinks, the form builder, and payout methods. ### Purpose-Built Data Model Affiliates, visits, referrals, commissions, and transactions are stored in dedicated tables and models for accurate tracking and reporting at scale. Pro extends the same model with banners, coupons, shortlinks, bonuses, discounts, and payouts. ### Optimized Tracking Engine The referral tracking and commission calculation engine is tuned for performance under high affiliate volume, with cookie-based attribution and careful edge-case handling. --- ## Free vs Pro | Capability | Free | Pro | |---|:---:|:---:| | Admin dashboard & affiliate dashboard | ✓ | ✓ | | Unlimited affiliates | ✓ | ✓ | | Real-time referral & visit tracking | ✓ | ✓ | | Cookie duration & attribution control | ✓ | ✓ | | Flexible commissions (global / per-affiliate / per-product) | ✓ | ✓ | | Fixed or percentage commission | ✓ | ✓ | | Recurring commissions | ✓ | ✓ | | Referral link generator | ✓ | ✓ | | Reporting, charts & CSV/XML export | ✓ | ✓ | | Customizable email notifications | ✓ | ✓ | | Manual payouts | ✓ | ✓ | | Email verification, approval & role assignment | ✓ | ✓ | | Setup wizard | ✓ | ✓ | | Translation ready | ✓ | ✓ | | Fraud prevention | Coming soon | Coming soon | | Multi-level commissions | ✗ | ✓ | | Coupon-based tracking | ✗ | ✓ | | Shortlink generator with custom slugs | ✗ | ✓ | | Automated payouts (PayPal & Stripe) | ✗ | ✓ | | Wise & Payoneer payouts (Beta) | ✗ | ✓ | | Cross-domain cookie sharing | ✗ | ✓ | | Permanent customer attribution | ✗ | ✓ | | Registration form builder | ✗ | ✓ | | Banner builder | ✗ | ✓ | | Performance bonuses | ✗ | ✓ | | Referral discounts | ✗ | ✓ | --- ## Getting Started 1. **Install** - Install and activate WC Affiliate; make sure WooCommerce is active. 2. **Configure** - Run the setup wizard to set your commission rules and program basics. 3. **Recruit** - Share the affiliate registration link and approve applicants. 4. **Track** - Watch visits, referrals, and commissions roll in from the admin dashboard. 5. **Scale** - Upgrade to Pro for multi-level commissions, coupon tracking, branded shortlinks, automated payouts, a custom registration form, and more.