OpenCart 2 Affiliate Program
OpenCart 2 has a build-in affiliate module which allows you to create, track and manage affiliates. As a typical affiliate program, your affiliates will generate commissions upon referring customers to your store. Commissions are generated based on your referees and can be paid via three different methods. In this tutorial we will guide you on how to activate and configure your OpenCart 2 affiliate program and manage your affiliates.
At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:
- Configure the Affiliate Program
- Manage your Affiliates
Configure the Affiliate Program
To access the Affiliate program settings, please login your OpenCart 2 admin dashboard and refer to the Settings section via the main navigation menu.
Click on the edit button next to your store name to refer to the Settings section and select the Options tab to access the OpenCart 2 configurable options.
In the Options tab scroll down to the Affiliate section to review your OpenCart 2 Affiliate program settings. Here you have several options to configure:
Affiliate Requires Approval - Set this to Yes in case you would like to manually approve affiliates before being activated
Automatic Commissio - Set this option to Yes in case you would like to have affiliate commissions added automatically after every paid order. Setting this option to No will require manual approval of every commission
Affiliate Commission percent - Set the percentage of each paid order that will be commissioned to your affiliates
Affiliate Terms - Select the page that includes your Affiliate Terms of Service. Usually this is the 'Terms & Conditions' page but you can create or use a separate page for your Affiliate Terms of Service
New Affiliate Alert Mail - This option allows you to choose whether you should receive an email upon new affiliate sign up
When you are ready with your settings, please click on the save icon at the top right corner of your screen. Now that your affiliate program is active and configured your affiliates can sign up directly via your website via the Affiliate Program page accessible by default via the footer menu link.
Further Reading:
How to Manage Products and Categories in OpenCart
How to install OpenCart on a live server
How to install an Opencart template
How to manage extensions and themes in OpenCart
How to manage payments and shipping in OpenCart
Important Steps After an OpenCart Installation
Manage your Affiliates
To manage your existing store affiliates or create new affiliates you may refer to the Marketing ? Affiliates section via the main navigation menu of the OpenCart 2 admin dashboard.
Here you can add a new affiliate by using the add icon at the top right corner of your screen. There are two important configuration settings for each affiliate - the affiliate personal information and contacts and the commissions settings including the affiliate commission percentage and payout method.
First, fill in the affiliate personal information and all mandatory fields. Please note that a tracking code will be generated automatically for your affiliate by you can add a custom tracking code. This code is used to track your affiliate sales. When you have all personal details filled in, make sure that the affiliate status is set to Enabled.
Now you should proceed with the Payment Details for the affiliate. Please scroll to the top of the page and click on the Payment Details tab.
Here you should configure the affiliate Commission percentage and the payout method. When you have the desired settings applied click on the save icon to complete the process.
Now you should see your affiliate on the Affiliate List page. Via this page you can manage all of your affiliates. To change the existing settings for any affiliate, apply custom commission percentage or change personal details, please click on the edit icon for the affiliate.
Via the Affiliate Configuration page you can modify both the personal and payment settings for the affiliate as well as review all transactions generated for this affiliate via the Transactions tab. Additionally, you may manually add a transaction to a specific affiliate.
OpenCart 2 Marketing Links
OpenCart 2 has a build-in module for creating tracking links for your marketing campaigns. Tracking links are links to your store which include a special tracking code. Any visit via your tracking links will be recorded in the OpenCart 2 admin dashboard so you can monitor your marketing campaigns traffic and conversion rate.
To create your first marketing tracking link, please login your OpenCart 2 admin dashboard and refer to the Marketing section via the main navigation menu.
From the Marketing Tracking List page click on the Add icon to proceed with the configuration of your tracking link. Here you need to configure several settings to create your link:
Campaign Name - Just any name to help you recognize the campaign for which your tracking code is created
Campaign Description - Any internal note to help you distinguish your tracking link from the rest of your campaigns' links
Tracking Code - This can be any random generated string. This string will be added to the end of your URL links
Last, you can copy the example of your tracking links. For example, if you would like to point a link to yourOpenCart 2 home page and track the referrals and orders via it, you may use:
http://mydomain.com/?tracking=ID
or point to a specific page or product using the full URL to it and add the tracking tag and ID like this:
http://mydomain.com/index.php?route=common/home&tracking=ID
Make sure you replace "mydomain.com" with your actual domain name and the ID with your campaign tracking code unique tracking code ID.
OpenCart 2 Discount Coupons
OpenCart 2 has a build-in module for creating and managing promotion codes and coupons for discounts which can be applied to different products, categories or store-wide. Coupon codes can help you increase your store conversion rate, create special promotions or submit your custom offers to different sites or advertising campaigns.
To add and configure a coupon code in OpenCart 2, please login your Admin Dashboard and navigate to the Marketing ? Coupons section from the main navigation.
Via the coupon list you can edit or remove your existing discount codes. To add a new coupon code click on the add icon at the top right corner of your screen. Here you need to input several configuration options of your new coupon code:
Coupon Name - The name of the coupon as it will appears on your OpenCart 2 coupon list page
Coupon Code - The code of the coupon code that your customers need to input to apply the discount during the check out process
Type - Whether the coupon will provide a flat discount or a percentage of the total order amount
Discount - The amount or percentage of the discount
Total Amount - The minimum total amount of the order that needs to be reached in order to have the coupon active for the order. You can input 0 or leave empty if you would like to have the coupon valid for all orders
Next options are related to whether the coupon will be for registered and logged users only and if the coupon will provide free shipping as well as the products and products categories for which the coupon will be applicable.
Last, you need to configure the coupon start and end date after which it will be no longer active and how many times the coupon can be used as a whole and per customer.
Before saving your settings, please make sure that you have your Coupon Status set to Active.
Further Reading:
How to Manage Products and Categories in OpenCart
How to install OpenCart on a live server
How to install an Opencart template
How to manage extensions and themes in OpenCart
How to manage payments and shipping in OpenCart
Important Steps After an OpenCart Installation
How to send Mass Mails in OpenCart 2
OpenCart 2 provides you with an easy-to-use interface to send promotion, marketing and mass mails to your subscribers and clients. Be advised that you might consider configuring your OpenCart 2 mail settings before sending your first mailing campaign. This will greatly improve your mails delivery rate and avoid having your emails delivered as spam. To configure your SMTP settings, please follow our tutorial on How to configure OpenCart 2 SMTP settings.
To access the mail section of your OpenCart 2, please login your store admin area and navigate to Marketing ? Mail.
Via the Mail page you can select the From field of your mass mail and the target group of your campaign. Additionally, you should input your email subject and the mail body.
When you are ready to send your mass mail, please click on the Send button.
