How to Set up an Affiliate Campaign

SHOPLINE's Affiliate Campaign feature allows you to generate unique URL links for KOLs and affiliate partners. This feature makes it easy to identify exact order sources, evaluate promotional effectiveness, and calculate affiliate commissions accurately.

In this article, you'll find:

• FAQ
• How to set up an Affiliate Campaign
• Search for an Affiliate Campaign in the Admin
• How to check campaign performance
• Duplicate promotion
• Notes

1. FAQ

• Q1: What is the main function of the Affiliate Campaign feature?
  A: This feature generates a unique URL link for each referrer, allowing you to identify the source of orders and evaluate their performance clearly.
• Q2: Can all merchants use the Affiliate Campaign feature?
  A: It is available for merchants with any of the following modules:
  • KOL Group Buying
  • Promotions
  • KOL Affiliate and Referral Program (HK 2025)
• Q3: What are the main commission types?
  A: They are divided into "Commission for the entire order" and "Commission for selected products". Both can be further divided into:
  • No Commission
  • Percentage
  • Flat Amount
• Q4: How can I track campaign performance?
  A: You can set up an Affiliate code and link attribution, or choose Product-based Attribution, and go to [Promotions & Reward] > [Affiliate Campaign] > Usage Record to export the report.
• Q5: If I am collaborating with multiple KOLs with the same commission settings, how can I create campaigns quickly?
  A: You can use the "Duplicate" feature to create multiple campaigns quickly, but it does not support copying the Affiliate Link field.

2. How to set up an Affiliate Campaign

Step 1. Check your plan 

In the upper right of SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Hello, OOO] > [My Subscription & Billing] > [Current Subscription] to view your store's plans and modules.

• Please check if your store has the "Promotions & Campaigns / KOL Group Buying / Affiliate Campaign & KOL Revenue Share (HK 2025)" module. If so, you can proceed to Step 2. Create an Affiliate Campaign for the setup.
• Please confirm whether your store is using the "Premium/O2O/Enterprise" plan. If so, please go to [Apps] > [Apps Store] to install "Affiliate Performance Center."  

Step 2. Create an Affiliate Campaign

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Promotions & Reward] > [Affiliate Campaign]. Click Add at the top right to add a new Affiliate Campaign.

Step 3. Enter Campaign Name 

The campaign name entered here is for internal use in the SHOPLINE Admin only and will not appear at your storefront. Upon entering the campaign name, click Continue. 

Step 4. Set up Campaign Conditions & Commission

Set up the commission attribution method, conditions, types, and other related settings. This step mainly divides the setup into Commission Attribution Method & Condition and Commission Type.

1. Commission Attribution Method and Condition

A. Affiliate Link / Code Attribution

Customers must place an order via the affiliate link or affiliate code, and the system will attribute the commission to the affiliate from their last click.

Commission for the entire order	Commission for selected products
When an entire order reaches a total of NTD ___ (must be greater than 0), the affiliate partner earns a commission. This threshold is based on the Order Net Sales (Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash).	When customers purchase selected products, the affiliate partner earns a commission. Please scroll down to select the designated products for this campaign. *Notes: Supports selecting up to 500 products. It is recommended to avoid selecting products that are already part of other affiliate campaigns during the same valid period to prevent duplicate commission attribution.

B. Product-based Attribution

When customers purchase designated products bound to an affiliate partner, the affiliate earns a commission based on the actual sales volume of that product. Please scroll down to select the designated products for this campaign.

*Notes:

• Supports selecting up to 500 products.
• It is recommended to avoid selecting products that are already part of other affiliate campaigns during the same valid period to prevent duplicate commission attribution.

2. Commission Type

A. No Commission

Regardless of the attribution method chosen or the sales volume of the product, no commission will be generated.

B. Percentage

Affiliate Link / Code Attribution > Entire order	Calculated based on the Order Net Sales. Formula: (Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash) x Percentage.
Affiliate Link / Code Attribution > Selected products	Calculated based on the Product Net Sales. Formula: (Selected Product Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash) x Percentage. You can choose to "Apply to all" selected products or "Set up individually" for each designated product.
Product-based Attribution	Calculated based on the Product Net Sales. Formula: (Selected Product Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash) x Percentage. You can choose to "Apply to all" selected products or "Set up individually" for each designated product.

C. Flat Amount

Affiliate Link / Code Attribution > Entire order	Set a flat commission amount for each order.
Affiliate Link / Code Attribution > Selected products	Calculated based on the product quantity. Formula: Selected Product Quantity x Flat Amount. You can choose to "Apply to all" selected products or "Set up individually" for each designated product.
Product-based Attribution	Calculated based on the product quantity. Formula: Selected Product Quantity x Flat Amount. You can choose to "Apply to all" selected products or "Set up individually" for each designated product.

Step 5. Set customer discount

No discount

If you choose not to apply a promotion to this affiliate campaign, customers purchasing via the referral link or code will not receive a specific affiliate discount. However, they remain eligible for any other general store promotions.

Apply promotion

Select up to three promotions to include in your affiliate campaign. Customers will receive these discounts when they access your store via a referral link or enter the affiliate code at checkout.

If you haven't created any referral promotions yet, please go to the Promotions, Free Shipping, or Bundle Promotion pages to set them up. Please check the "For Affiliate Campaign Only" option during the setup. For detailed instructions, please refer to these articles.

Your selected promotions will be displayed below. You can click on them to view the promotion details, or click the icon to remove a promotion and select a new one.

Step 6. Set up Affiliate link and Valid Period

*Notes:

• If you selected "Product-based Attribution" in Step 4, the affiliate link settings will not apply.
• The Affiliate Code must be composed of lowercase characters and numbers. For example, "youtuber01".

A. Affiliate Link

The Affiliate Code entered here will be appended to your store's URL to create a unique Affiliate Link. Merchants can then copy and share this link with campaign partners.  

• To ensure a customer's browser recognizes the link, you cannot include Chinese characters, spaces, or any symbols ( _ * ? # $ ^ - ( ) = + % &), etc., as part of an Affiliate Code. The settings for an Affiliate Link are different compared to Promotions/Free Shipping. As the Affiliate Code is used to create a unique URL, each campaign partner must use a separate affiliate link like youtuber01 and youtuber02.
  
   
• If you wish to create an Affiliate Link that includes custom products, categories, and other non-storefront pages, you can do so by adding the Affiliate Code to the end of a specific page's URL. For example, if your Affiliate Link is https://www.test.com?sl-ref=test123, and you want to create a campaign link that redirects to  https://www.test.com/products/monkey, you can add the Affiliate Code (?sl-ref=test123) to the end of the product's URL: https://www.test.com/products/monkey?sl-ref=test123. This allows campaign partners to share links for specific products and track campaign performance. 
  
   
• If a customer accesses your store using an Affiliate Link and then enters an Express Checkout Page, this order will not count toward the calculation of the Affiliate Commission. If you wish to include an Express Checkout Page in an Affiliate Commission Campaign, please manually add the Affiliate Code to the end of the Express Checkout Page's URL. 

Our Valid Period setting will show a calendar for you to choose the start and end date as well as the hour, so please do not input a date or time in that field.

*Note: Event start and end time will be based on the origin of the country/ region that you have chosen for your online shop. If you are making an offer in another country/ region, then you need to refer to the specific local time.

C. Affiliate Reward Rules 

Enter a description of campaign commission rules (this field is optional), such as the date Affiliate Commissions are calculated/disbursed, or the percentage/fixed amount of commission per order. Promotional partners bound to the campaign will be able to view this information on the reports page of the KOL Partner Platform. For more examples, see below:

• On the 10th of each month, the Affiliate Commission will be calculated based on valid orders from the previous month. 
• If an order has been edited, the order amount after it is edited will act as the basis for the amount. 
• If an order is split, the commission will be calculated according to the parent order amount. 

Once you have completed the setup, click Preview to view a summary of the campaign.

Step 7. Confirm campaign settings

After checking your settings and ensuring the accuracy of the preview page, click Publish this Campaign. You can see a full list of created campaigns via [Promotions & Reward] > [Affiliate Campaign]. 

You can directly copy the campaign's affiliate link on the preview page or copy it from the campaign list, as shown below.

3. Search for an Affiliate Campaign in the Admin

If you would like to edit or view the effectiveness of Affiliate Campaigns, you can quickly search using the search bar. The system provides three filtering options: Campaign Name, Affiliate Code, and KOL Partner. Choose the filtering option you need and enter the corresponding keywords, and then click on the "Search" icon. 

*Note: The system does not support the use of special characters. When searching via email, please enter the content before the "@" symbol.

4. How to check campaign performance

After providing a campaign partner with the Affiliate Link, when a customer uses this Affiliate Link to make a purchase in your store, this order will be recorded in the Affiliate Performance Center. Partners will also be able to view a record of Affiliate Commission totals. For a more detailed guide on how to invite a partner to use the Affiliate Performance Center, please read this FAQ.

Step 1. Choose usage record

Go to [Promotions & Reward] > [Affiliate Campaign] and click Usage Record next to the right of a campaign entry.

Step 2. Check campaign performance overview

The numbers are calculated based on orders not yet cancelled, including three metrics:

*Notes:

• Orders not yet cancelled include orders in pending/ confirmed/ completed status.
• The data of the campaign performance overview is updated hourly, and the last update time will be displayed in the top right corner.

Step 3. Check affiliate commission

If an Affiliate Campaign has been set up to include a commission, the "Affiliate Commission" field will be displayed regardless of order/payment status. After cross-checking the Affiliate Commission against the actual totals, the Affiliate Commission will be calculated according to the final order amount. 

• Order Net Sales: Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash
• Product Net Sales: Selected Product Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash
• Order Net Sales: Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash - Return Total
• Product Net Sales: Selected Product Subtotal - Discount - Credits Applied - Point Redeem to Cash - Return Total

*Notes:

• Order History Auto-Archiving: This section only displays unarchived order lists. To view the full usage records, please export the report.
• All orders created through an affiliate link, regardless of their order or payment status, will appear in the usage record report as long as they are not deleted.
• When return details are updated to the order, the system will recalculate the "Order Net Sales" and automatically update the field. If the Order Net Sales or Product Net Sales amount is less than 0, the field will display NT$ 0.
  For more information on return details, please refer to: Advanced Return Management (New).
  

Step 4. Export usage record report

If you wish to export the record for the Affiliate Campaign, you may click Export. The report will be sent to whoever is currently logged in to SHOPLINE Admin. You can also download it at a later date via [Report & Analytics] > [Bulk Action Process].

The report contains detailed information about the campaign type and each order, which merchants and partners can download for reconciliation.

*Notes:

• An "Attribution Method" column has been added.
• Archived order data will only display the order number, and all other fields will show as "Archived." For more details, please refer to: Order History Auto-Archiving.

5. Duplicate promotion

In the SHOPLINE Admin, go to [Promotions & Reward] > [Affiliate Campaign]. Find the affiliate campaign you would like to duplicate, click open the drop-down menu, and select Duplicate.

The system will direct you to the affiliate campaign setup page and duplicate the following fields of the selected promotion.

*Note: After campaign duplication, you still need to click Preview and Publish this Campaign to successfully create the campaign.

6. Notes

• If an order is edited by a merchant after it is created, the Affiliate Commission will also be updated accordingly to reflect any changes. 
   
• If an order is split by a merchant after it is created, the Affiliate Commission is updated and calculated according to the parent order total.  
   
• The timezone for start and end times for a campaign will be based on the store's country/region, which can be set in SHOPLINE Admin. Merchants with cross-border operations should pay particular attention to any time differences when publicizing the details of a campaign. 
   
• After a customer uses an Affiliate Link to access your store and/or enters an affiliate code, the cart will record a tracking code for this particular affiliate campaign. The tracking code will be deleted and the Affiliate Campaign-based purchase/checkout will be terminated under the following four conditions: 
  1. The cart has been idle for more than 180 days
  2. Customer clears the browser's cache
  3. Customer logs out of the store
  4. The checkout process is completed
     *Note: If the customer clicks on the affiliate link/enters the affiliate code while logged in, yet the customer clears the cache or logs out of the store, the shopping cart and tracking code will be removed. However, if the customer uses the same account to log back in since the tracking code is already stored in the shopping cart of the member account, the tracking code of the promotion campaign will still be recorded when the customer places an order.
     
      
• If you are using the "Multiple Product Attributes for Checkout" feature, each product attribute will have a tracking code when a customer uses the affiliate link. If you set the commission for selected products, the commission will be subject to the "Product Net Sales" or "Selected Product Quantity" of each product attribute.
  
   
• If you are using the "Multiple Product Attributes for Checkout" feature, the Net Sales and commission of each product attribute will be recalculated when you split orders or edit child orders. For more details, please refer to Multiple Product Attributes for Checkout.

Read more 

• How to Create and Share Group Buying Campaigns | One-Page Store
• Affiliate Performance Center for KOL