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.

[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.

[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.