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How to pay affiliates on repeat orders (lifetime commission)

A normal affiliate commission pays once, on the order the affiliate’s link or coupon brought in. Lifetime commission keeps paying: the customer is linked to that affiliate, and their later orders earn the affiliate a repeat commission too. Use it when your customers reorder, such as consumables, beauty or pet food, and you want affiliates to bring in customers who stay rather than one-off buyers.

What you’ll set up

Section titled “What you’ll set up”
  • Lifetime commission switched on in an affiliate campaign
  • The rate affiliates earn on repeat orders
  • How long a customer stays linked to their affiliate
  • Optional: customers you link to an affiliate by hand

What Bloop creates for you

Section titled “What Bloop creates for you”
Setting Starts as
Lifetime commission Inactive in every campaign
Commission for repeat orders 10%
Days Empty, which means No limit
Linked customers None. Bloop links a customer only after lifetime commission is on

First order vs. repeat order

Section titled “First order vs. repeat order”
First order Repeat order
Credited the usual way: the affiliate’s link (within the cookie window) or their coupon Credited to the linked affiliate, with no link or coupon needed
Pays the campaign’s normal rate, including product-specific rates Pays the flat Commission for repeat orders rate instead
Starts the link between the customer and the affiliate Doesn’t extend the link

Both use the campaign’s exclusions (shipping, taxes, discounts) and its Maximum affiliate commission per customer. See How to set what a commission is calculated on.

How to turn on lifetime commission

Section titled “How to turn on lifetime commission”

  1. Open the campaign

    1. In your Shopify admin, open BLOOP Refer & Aff → Affiliate program, then the Campaigns tab.
    2. Click the campaign your affiliates are on.

  2. Turn it on and set the rate

    1. On the Lifetime commission card, set Status to Active.
    2. In Commission for repeat orders, enter the percentage affiliates earn on a linked customer’s later orders. It must be more than 0 and at most 100.
    3. In Days, enter how long a customer stays linked, counted from their first order. Leave it empty for No limit.
    4. Click Save.

  3. Optional: link a customer by hand

    1. Open the Affiliates tab and click the affiliate.
    2. On the Lifetime customers card, click Add customer.
    3. Enter the Customer email and click Add customer.

    If the customer is already linked to another affiliate, Bloop asks Move customer to that affiliate first. Moving a customer stops the old affiliate from earning on their later orders. Past commissions don’t change.

Section titled “Who gets paid when another affiliate’s link is used”

Once a customer is linked, every later order from that customer pays the linked affiliate, even when the order uses another affiliate’s link or coupon. The customer still gets the discount from that coupon. One customer can be linked to only one affiliate at a time.

Section titled “When a link ends”
What happens Result
The Days you set have passed The link shows Expired. Later orders are credited the usual way
You reject the first order’s sale, or the first order is fully cancelled or refunded The link shows Cancelled
You remove the customer from the affiliate The link shows Removed. Commissions already recorded, including paid ones, stay as they are
The affiliate is no longer approved The link ends
You turn lifetime commission off Links are kept but pay nothing. They pay again when you turn it back on, until they expire

A customer is linked by their Shopify customer account and their email. An order with no customer email doesn’t start a link.

How it looks to affiliates

Section titled “How it looks to affiliates”
  • The affiliate’s campaign card in the portal adds a line such as: “You also earn 10% of the sales on a referred customer’s later orders for 365 days after their first order.”
  • Repeat orders carry a Repeat order badge on the Commissions page, and the order details say how long the customer stays theirs.

In Bloop, the Sales tab has an Order type column and filter (First order or Repeat order), and the sales export has an Order type column. Sales made before this feature, or while it was off, leave it blank.

Section titled “Related”