Commission reporting issue – shipping included in total sales amount

[mkellam]

Hi,

I haven’t seen this particular issue addressed before. We recently implemented WP eStore with WP Affiliate Platform.

We are using the system to sell both print books, requiring shipping and e-books that don’t require shipping.

When an affiliate refers a sale for a print book, the shipping is not calculated as part of the commission and that’s the way we would want it since shipping is not our income. The problem is that when an affiliate looks at his or her stats, the shipping IS included in the report under “total sales amount”.

One item from a recent sale cost $7.77 and then there was $3.40 shipping, which goes to the post office and is not included in the shipping calculation. Looking at the affiliate reporting tool, it says the “total sales amount” is 11.17, the commission amount is 50% and the commission is $3.89. As you can see, the numbers don’t add up – 50% of $11.17 is NOT $3.89 and it looks like we’re not really giving a 50% commission. This has caused a problem with some affiliates.

Is there a way to change the “total sales amount” so that it doesn’t include shipping when displaying the “total sales amount”?

Thanks!

Michael

[admin]

The “Total Sales Amount” is just the “Total” transaction amount (gross total). It doesn’t mean that the commission is applied to that whole amount. The commission will only be applied to ($total-$shipping) as it is doing that already. So all your calculations are working fine.

Normal affiliates already know to not expect commission on the shipping part. If you think it will help your affiliates then you can put a note like the following somewhere on your site (maybe on the “Affiliate Index Page”):

Please note that affiliate commission does not get applied to the shipping amount. The value in the “Total Sales Amount” column refers to the gross sale amount value.

[mkellam]

I assume I could add it to the reporting page template near the number.

The reason it’s a problem is that our affiliates are only accustomed to selling e-books, so seeing the shipping included in the total makes it look like we’re shorting them commissions. S there’s no way for me to modify it so the total dosplayed doesn’t include the shipping? Maybe using your $total-$shipping somewhere on the page that generates the order total display?

Thanks!

Michael

P.S. We bought the software with my wife’s e-mail account, but I need to post to the forum. Is there any way to change the e-mail address associated with our account? Thanks!

[admin]

The affiliate commission reporting page doesn’t show the total sales amount so it shouldn’t cause you any hassle. The only area where is shows the total gross sale amount is on the affiliate’s home page as a summary. You can customize the text to something like the following to avoid any confusion:

Total Sales Amount (including shipping)

Use this technique to customize that message:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/how-to-customize-various-textmessages-displayed-by-the-plugin

Basically, find the following text in the language file and change it:

Total Sales Amount

Please contact us regarding the email address issue.

[mkellam]

Thank you! I was able to customize it this way.

Michael

[Author]

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