Overview
Item Based Commission (IBC) enable merchants to apply commission rates to specific products instead of offering one general base commission rate. This may be to offer extra incentive for certain items, or to reduce standard commission rate due to low margin products.
Requirements for Item Based Commission
New merchants please contact your current integration specialist at integration@avantlink.com. All in-network merchants please contact support@avantlink.com to ensure that your program is set up to handle the Item Based Commission. There are two requirements to enable IBC:
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Merchant must pass SKU data to AvantLink in their tracking.
- SKU: The unique identifier for each item.
- Qty: The quantity of each SKU/product sold on the order.
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Price: Dollar amount for one item of the SKU/product
- Price needs to include discounts, but do not include tax or shipping fees.
- To commission properly, Price must include discounts as this data is used when calculating IBC commissions.
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Merchant must have a complete and functioning datafeed. The following IBC rules will take the SKU value from the AvantLink tracking script and match it to the datafeed to apply the rule:
- Brand Name
- Department
- Category
- Sub Category
The Products Sold Report can be used to view and validate the product data that AvantLink is receiving from a merchant.
Functionality Summary
- IBC rules are applied to all affiliates within a merchant program.
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Discounts should be applied specifically at the SKU level to ensure accurate commission calculation. Discounts applied as separate line items will not affect the IBC rate. For example:
- There's a $10 discount for a $100 sale that involves two SKUs. SKU1 costs $60 and SKU2 costs $40. SKU1 has an IBC rule.
- The discount must be deducted from the SKU1 Price so that is $50 sent to AvantLink via the tracking script to commission correctly.
- If the SKU Price is sent to AvantLink as $60 and there is a separate line item on the Cart for the discount. AvantLink will commission SKU1 based on the $60 pre-sale cost.
Configuring Item Based Commission
Contact AvantLink to validate your account fulfills the requirements outlined above for Item Based Commission (IBC). Then Navigate to the Item Based commissions by using the navigation menu > Commission Tools > Item Based Commissions.
Managing IBC rules consists of two parts: Part 1: Rule Creation & Part 2: Rule Prioritization.
Part 1: Rule Creation
Click "New IBC Rule" and follow the steps:
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Apply to:
- Select the affiliate(s) that the rule should apply to:
- All Affiliates: includes all current and future affiliates.
- Tag Group: include all current and future affiliates in a tag group.
- Specific Affiliate: click the
button to search for a specific affiliate using affiliate name, affiliate URL, or Classic ID.
- Select the affiliate(s) that the rule should apply to:
-
Product Identifier
- SKU
- SKU IBC rules are the most resilient IBC rules as AvantLink receives the SKU via the merchant tracking and does not rely on matching data to the product datafeed.
- Define SKU IBC rules for a single SKU or a set of SKUs using either the prefix (initial characters associated to multiple SKUs) or the suffix (ending characters linked to a multiple SKUs).
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Brand Name / Department / Category / Sub Category
- Rely on matching the SKU that AvantLink is passed via the Merchant's tracking to what is populated in the Merchant's datafeed. For accurate commissioning, a complete and accurate product datafeed must be maintained so that it is updating on a regular basis.
- AvantLink will populate product identifiers based on the values in the datafeed. Product identifiers are disabled if the data is not available in the datafeed.
- SKU
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Commission Rule
- Fixed Rate: IBC rate always applies, regardless of whether the affiliate's base commission rate is higher or lower than the Fixed IBC rate.
Base
Commission RateFixed
IBC RateRewarded Commission on IBC Product Affiliate 1
5% 8% 8% Affiliate 2 10% 8% 8%
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Promotion Rate: IBC rate only applies if the affiliate's base commission is lower than the Promotion IBC rate.
Base
Commission RatePromotion
IBC RateRewarded Commission on IBC Product Affiliate 1
5% 8% 8% Affiliate 2 10% 8% 10%
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Demotion Rate: IBC rate only applies if the affiliate's base commission is higher than the Demotion IBC rate.
Base
Commission RateDemotion
IBC RateRewarded Commission on IBC Product Affiliate 1
5% 8% 5% Affiliate 2 10% 8% 8%
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Commission Increase: The Commission Increase IBC rate is added to the the affiliate's base commission.
Base
Commission RateCommission Increase
IBC RateRewarded Commission on IBC Product Affiliate 1
5% 8% 13% Affiliate 2 10% 8% 18%
- Fixed Rate: IBC rate always applies, regardless of whether the affiliate's base commission rate is higher or lower than the Fixed IBC rate.
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Commission Rate
- IBC rate can either be percentage based or a fixed dollar amount.
- For percentages enter 4.5 for 4.5%
- For fixed amounts enter 4.5 for $4.50
- Enter zero (0) if you do not want to commission the product.
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Start & End Dates
- Configure when the IBC rule should be in effect.
- Time zone is Mountain Time.
Part 2: Rule Prioritization
After creating multiple rules, prioritize which rules take precedence over other rules. Rank the priority of the rule by clicking and dragging the rules listed in the table. Rules listed at the top of table take precedence over rules listed below it in the report. Be sure to "Save Changes" after prioritizing the rules.
Prioritizing the rules is important in the event that one product that may have two rule associated to it. For example:
- SKU 12345 is associated to the Category "Base Roof Racks"
- A SKU rule is created for 12345
- A Category rule is created for Base Roof Racks
- The rule closest to the top will be applied last and have that commission applied