Build your affiliate network with Multi-level Marketing
What is MLM and how does it merge with your affilate program?
1. What is MLM?
MLM, also known as network marketing or referral marketing, is a promising strategy to sell products and services by encouraging existing employees or affiliates to recruit new affiliates. As a result, your business could reach out to more potential clients via a variety of channels and advertising campaigns.
The fundamental of MLM is represented by a pyramid, in which each affiliate asks another affiliate to join his or her affiliate network system at a downline level. The more people who are invited, the more products or services will be able to reach out to their target market.
Having MLM set up in your affiliate program means each affiliate in the pyramid network is not only paid for the sales he/she generates but also for a share of the sales made by their downline affiliates - which is called network commission. Therefore, people in the network would be incentivized to recruit more affiliates under them instead of just directly selling products to customers.
The network commission that upline affiliates receive will be provided separately, not deducted from the commission of the downline affiliate.
2. How to set up
To set up MLM, you must first go to Extra functions > Multi-level Marketing (MLM) and click the Activate MLM checkbox.
The maximum of MLM levels is 20. It's recommended that there are fewer than 5 levels as it will be easier for you to manage the network connections and calculate how much total commission you're willing to pay on an order.
Network commission can be based on total sale or program commission, and set at a percentage or flat rate. The commission value should be set in descending order to make sure that the affiliate who directly brought the order will receive the most commission amount. You can take a look at the Live example to check if you set up everything correctly!
Example
In this example, William invited Quinn and Quinn invited James, which makes William and Quinn both James' parent affiliates. The MLM structure is applied to all affiliates in the "Gold" program and there are two network commission levels. There is a 10% default commission for James - the downline affiliate who brought the order and two network commissions for Quinn and William based on their levels - 5% (Quinn: level 1) and 3% (William: level 2). The total amount of commission that needs to be paid for this $100 order is $18.
You can also configure advanced settings like a recruitment bonus to your affiliates when they successfully recruit other affiliates or the minimum total revenue an affiliate must reach to be able to receive network commission. Or select a program for the invited affiliates to join if you don't want them to start at the same level as the upline affiliate.
Example
In this example, the MLM recruitment bonus is $5 and the minimum total revenue is $50. Quinn ("Affiliate" program) recruited James and received a $5 bonus. James is automatically placed in the "TEST" program. When James brings back an order, Quinn has only generated $40 of personal sales and is not eligible to receive a 5% network commission for that order although being James' parent affiliate.
Once you are done with the settings, remember to click Save!
3. How affiliates recruit others
After MLM is activated, each Affiliate Dashboard will have a network link.
Affiliates will share their dedicated network links to recruit others to join your program. When they click a network link and sign up as new affiliates, they will be considered as downline affiliates of a lower level than the link owner. Plus, downline affiliates' performances can be viewed in both the merchant's and the upline affiliates' dashboards.
FAQ
Is a network link different from an affiliate link?
Yes, it is. Here are their differences:
| Network link | Affiliate link | |
|---|---|---|
Format | Typically yourstorename.bixgrow.com/register?parent=... | Typically yourstoredomain?bg_ref=... (full) or yourstoredomain/affiliates_name (shortened) |
What affiliates use it for | Inviting more affiliates to join the MLM network. Invited affiliates will automatically become their downlines, allowing them to earn networks commissions on the downlines' sales. | Driving customers and sales to your store. Referral orders made directly using affiliate links allow them to earn commissions. |
Where to find | Affiliate Dashboard > Network > Network link | Affilate profile or Affiliate Dashboard > Affiliate link |
4. Set a parent for an existing affiliate
If you want to set upline affiliates for an existing affiliate, go to Affiliates > click the affiliate's name > Network > Set Parent.
Here, you can fill in the parent affiliate's name or email to search. When you finish, click Save.
There can only be one direct upline affiliate for each affiliate.
5. How an MLM commission is displayed
If an order is brought by an affiliate in the MLM network, the order commission for the downline as well as the network commission for the upline will be shown in Conversions.
Affiliates can also keep track of their network commissions in the Network tab.
Last updated
