The changes we are making are to alleviate two of the biggest issues we have with the existing affiliate program - extremely long waiting list to get in and being removed, forcibly, for not meeting sales requirements. With the upcoming changes a new affiliate can on-board right away and an older affiliate who has fallen on hard times can go inactive and come back without fear of losing their spot.
As many of you know, our affiliate program was a very manual process and was limited to 30 affiliates only. The limited number of affiliates resulted in a very large waiting list and sometimes people on the list would wait months for a spot to become available. Having such a long waiting list caused us to have to be more rigorous about rules compliance and resulted in shutting down shops. As you might imagine, neither experience is enjoyable for a true Mossm fan. So, we're introducing some changes that will improve the process for everyone.
The new program works as follows:
Beginning on August 1, 2015 anyone that wants to be an affiliate can buy an affiliate kit for 7500L$.
New affiliates will begin with a 5% commission rate. New affiliates will be locked in to a 5% commission rate for 30 days after which the affiliate's sales performance will automatically be evaluated and their commission rate will automatically be adjusted based on the sales performance for that two week period. Commission rates will go up or down based on the following criteria:
- Standard Tier: Gross sales of 0L$ to 4,999L$ per two week period receive a 0% commission.
- Silver Tier: Gross sales of 5,000L$ to 19,999L$ per two week period receive a 5% commission.
- Gold Tier: Gross sales of 20,000L$ to 39,999L$ per two week period receive a 10% commission.
- Premium Tier: Gross sales of 40,000L$ or more per two week period receive a 15% commission.
Existing affiliates will be locked in to their existing commission rate until September 1 after which sales performance will automatically be evaluated and commission rates adjusted as described above.
Waiting List affiliates will not be required to pay for the affiliate kit. They will enter the program at a 5% commission rate and will keep that rate until September 1 after which sales performance will automatically be evaluated and commission rates adjusted as described above.
In addition to automatic sales performance reviews and commission adjustments affiliates will be able to adjust the coordinates to their store as needed (without our help) and also will have access to a sales report from their affiliate dashboard.
Going forward, only Silver Tier affiliates or higher will appear on the Buy page at Mossms.com.
We have also made several improvements to the vendors. Setup is now much easier (no more config item). We can also remotely update vendors at all locations so we can run sales and specials. Our previous vendors did not have this functionality.
Whether you are an existing affiliate, on the waiting list or have just been thinking about it, please review our affiliate documentation for more information including requirements so you are not surprised when your commission tier changes.
Our timeline for rolling out the new program is as follows:
July 24: Begin updating vendors for existing affiliates.
July 26: Begin setup for everyone on the waiting list.
August 1: Begin selling affiliate kit.
Please keep in mind as you consider these changes; the affiliate program is a business opportunity. It will require work to be successful.