Absolute SELF referrals coming through as 3rd party

[GreenCarbonMail]

I know there has been lots of discussion about this and one of the main reasons Zazzle has given for what we designers believe should be SELF referrals coming through as 3rd party has been that the customer could have come to the Zazzle site before using the link we gave them. So, therefore, the cookie that the affiliate/ambassador program counted was the previous one.

But, have you had the experience of not using a referral link and going directly to your own shop using your exact URL with no referral and only ever going onto the Zazzle site through your shop. Then after coming directly to your shop, designing a product for a customer, then buying the product yourself - only to receive a notification of a 3rd party referral sale? Yes, that just happened to me.

No one else was involved - went directly to my shop, designed products, placed order - all within the same session - yet it was recorded as a 3rd party referral. 

Has anyone else experienced this? I've sent a message to support and hope I don't get the same canned response about "cookies".

Oh, and prior to placing the order, I asked their chatbot to confirm the exact steps I needed to take to ensure I received my royalty and SELF referral. And still knowing I followed the exact steps - it came back as 3rd party.

[Deb1]

I got sick of it and just cancelled the ambassador program I find it to time consuming and gets on my nerves.  I never get anything but a third-party sale anyway, so it does not matter to me at all. To my understanding it is only good for 45 days anyway. Have a fantastic day.

[NigelSutherland]

I've discovered that when visiting Zazzle without being signed-in, I am unable to proceed without being confronted with a pop-up banner requesting I sign-up for a 20% discount. There is the alternative to click "No, I'll pay the full price".

I suspect that this in itself will eliminate the possibility of achieving self-referrals. 

[Martin]

Hmmm, good point. That would be a bit sneaky!

[Laura-LiseWong]

I had a family member who has never used Zazzle before ask me to design some pillows. I sent her the link and she told me she hit the 20% off discount button to add her email address and it still came through as a referred sale for me. So I don't believe that to be true. I got the sale and the referral and she got 20% which is great for her because I find shipping prices to be terrible in my personal opinion.

[GreenCarbonMail]

I bet that is one of the reasons customers we drive to the site get auto-switched to being third-party referrals. Very unfair to us designers who share on social, and create blogs promoting our work with specific direct links to only get the small royalty rather than the full referral credit.

[SimplyDesigned]

Correct me if i'm wrong, if a customer comes in on your link, they have your cookie. Them having clicked and added their email address to that isn't going to override your referral.

[KarmaKay]

This is correct. I have referrals coming through my website to Zazzle. They show up as referrals along with the tracking code I use to see what page they come from. I rarely get any "none" sales though.

[Anne]

That would still leave the absence of "none" a mystery. A repeat customer should always generate a "none". Or am I missing something?

[Rena]

I agree and what is worse is now they are out of tissue paper again. My sales for this month when that happened were at their highest they had been. Now that is all down the tube. 

[GreenCarbonMail]

Congrats on the high sales and sorry about the tissue paper - very frustrating.

[MelodyFarms]

Did anyone ever respond to you?

[GreenCarbonMail]

First I received a canned response regarding customers using the wrong links. Then after explaining repeatedly that I was the customer who went to my Zazzle shop from my direct URL where I create a design, put on 2 products and bought those 2 products without any other interaction or clicking. And this was there response:

"Your referral to Zazzle was credited to a reliable source, and the data cannot be changed, which is disappointing to you."

I emailed once again - stating there was absolutely no third party and please indicate who the "reliable source" is since I went directly to my link, from a direct link on my website GreenCarbon2112.com.

I asked if that was the "reliable source" since I went directly from my website, to my direct URL and have done that for the past 6 months since I ran into this same issue before and followed their exact direction so the next time I would get a Self Referral. I anticipate another generic response saying they can't name the source, but I can't be the only one running into this issue.

[Jadendreamer13 · Accepted solution]

You could cancel your order and try again. Try sending yourself a link via email or text message. Then log into a browser using incognito mode (preferably one that you don’t use for Zazzle). Now, without logging into Zazzle, click the link you sent yourself and make your purchase. It’s worth a try.

[GreenCarbonMail]

Unfortunately if I cancel at this point, I won't get it in time. I thought the same and did use incognito, opened directly from my website link, then I did have to log in to be able to use my free shipping, but logging in should not negate my self-referral. I feel like we're all trying to figure out how to make this work because following the direction given by Zazzle is clearly not working.

[Jadendreamer13]

Next time, don’t log in an attempt to use free shipping. Most referral royalties will be more beneficial to you financially than using free shipping and then not getting the referral.

[GreenCarbonMail]

Well, given I had to be logged in to make my design, and I've paid for that Zazzle free shipping annual thing it should in no way impact referrals.

[Jadendreamer13]

Yes, but when your design is complete, and when you’re ready to purchase your item, send yourself a link via text message, then open a new browser window in cognito mode (using a different browser than you use for zazzle), click the link, and make your purchase. There will be no pre-existing link on the other browser.

[alissag]

Do you happen to use the Capital One Shopping App or Rakuten or a similar "cash back" app? I do wonder about those apps hijacking our referrals.

[GreenCarbonMail]

I do not use those apps to go to the site - my direct URL on Zazzle - I created a design then bought the design and it came back to me as 3rd party referral.

[shoshannahscrib]

Honestly it is so frustrating and annoying. I have worked in affiliate marketing for years and this current Zazzle system is really beyond anything I have EVER seen. If I give someone a direct link and they immediately buy, it should refer to me. Full stop. Ridiculous and annoying. What on earth is the point of all the extra work we do to promote and deal with customer requests on top of creating products? I get a referral about 2x a year, and it's so random.

[BN_Stationery]

I'm still so disappointed in this. I brought my cousin onto zazzle as a new customer yesterday, created products for her and she purchased within 5 minutes and still third party, i'm guessing because she signed up and clicked on zazzles email or something, or I don't know if its third party automatically if they use the coupon codes 

[donding]

I'm having a similar issue. Somewhere someone is receiving our referrals and it isn't us. I use to make $1000 a month, not a lot but enough to add extra income. Then they did away with volume bonus along time ago....so that dropped down to about $500 a month. Now with all the 30% and 40% off I'm lucky to get $100 to $150 a month. This has happened in the last 5 to 6 months. I went in and created new content, cleaned up and deleted the no sales content and linked this new content to my pinterest account. Now all I see are third party referrals. These sales are coming from the new content put on pinterest. I'm about done with Zazzle. I wish we had the option to opt out of these 30 to 40% sales. I do business cards and it has been ongoing for awhile now flipping back and forth between 30 to 40%. I am extremely frustrated.

[Toni]

I personally made a birthday gift for someone, paid and shipped.  I also have the annual zazzle shipping.  It came in as a "referral," which is was not.  I use to get a payout every month and now it's down to every other month.  Also my sales are way down.  I thought maybe Zazzle was having issues, but there's been enough time that it should have been worked out. I am discouraged.

[Anne]

I don't think this system is fair, nor ethical. This is underscored not only by all the reports from designers and (cough) "ambassadors", but also by the almost complete absence of "none" referrals.

[DBusinessCards]

I agree 100%. I feel like I'm being robbed. I just can't wrap my head around the reasoning behind what they are doing. I think they forgot who creates the things that they sell every day. Without the creators they don't have a business. I think by the way they are conducting business they are pushing new contributors away and a lot of the contributors who been here for a long time, are leaving. I wish they would listen and realize who they are hurting.

[AMLARTS333]

I have had the same experience.  You have to go into your browser's history and clear all cookies.  Then sign back into Zazzle and make the purchase.  It's all about the cookies, I guess Zazzle has it programmed so that if a person has been on their site before, it is automatically assigned as 3rd party.  Hence, we would have to ask our customers to clear their "cookies" before they make a purchase!  I won't do that. 

[Rena]

That would take so much time for every purchase. No I won't do that either. 

All of my sales are 3rd party.