Overview
Your cookie days policy dictates which orders are accepted as affiliate orders and which do not qualify.
You can control this in Lootly and choose an option that best suits your needs.
This guide explains the logic behind the cookie policy and how it affects the affiliate orders.
Cookie days set up
What are cookie days?
Cookie days are essentially the time period in which a sale can be contributed to an affiliate. This makes the affiliate process a lot less complicated, allowing you to know exactly whose efforts are driving the sales.
What’s the common practice in e-commerce?
Most often, the cookie days policy is set between 30 and 90 days.
How does it work?
Let's say you’ve configured a 30 days cookie policy. A customer lands on the website through an affiliate link and then leaves. They come back at exactly 31 days and then place the order. This order is out of the cookies days period and is thus unqualified for a commission.
In Lootly, this order will be marked as “expired”.
Since the order will be visible in Lootly, you’ll have the record and can sort it out with an affiliate if you have to.
How to configure cookie days
When you set up a commission offer, part of the settings is also setting the cookie days.
By default, only the first affiliate order from a new customer will give commission to the affiliate. You can still customize the period during which this order needs to occur.
You can further customize your cookie days policy to count all affiliate orders in the set cookie days period towards the affiliate's commissions.
Please note, the customer can not be an existing customer to your store placing affiliate orders. These are not counted towards commissions in either case.
Enter the cookie days
Choose the order commissions logic (new versus returning customers)
First order only during cookie days - this means only the first order from an affiliate will count. All other orders placed within the cookie days window will not be eligible for commission.
Unlimited orders during cookie days - this means all orders placed through the affiliate link during the cookie days window will be eligible for commission.
NOTE: the Advanced options in customizing the cookie policy are available in the Advanced plan of Lootly only.
Save your changes.
Example
Let’s say you set the cookie days to 60 and choose the “first order only during cookie days” logic.
This means the new customer has 60 days from the moment they click the affiliate link to make an order.
From here:
If an order is made within 60 days and it’s the customer’s first order -> order is accepted in Lootly and marked as “pending” status.
If the customer's first order is made outside the 60 days period, it’s considered outside the cookie days -> order is not accepted in Lootly and marked as “expired” status.
Now let’s say you set the cookie days to 60 and choose the “unlimited orders during cookie days” logic.
All orders (from the very first affiliate order by the new customer) placed within the 60 days window are eligible for commission and marked “pending” in Lootly.
If orders are placed outside the 60 days window they’re not eligible for commission and are marked as “expired” in Lootly.
If you have any questions on cookie days, reach out to us in the live chat.