How can affiliate sales be tracked across a users various devices?

Question

Someone, with who I will have an affiliate link partnership, has put a link to my e-shop: http://www.example.com/?source=userA. I'd like to track my sales that happen thanks to his link.

What happens if someone:

• comes to my website thanks to the affiliate link, with his phone (mobile data IP)
• buys my product a few hours later, but with his computer (home internet IP) ; let's say he came to my website, directly by writing the URL that he remembered from his first visit

Then this purchase won't be tracked as a "purchase made thanks to the affiliate link". This is not fair for my affiliate partner!

Is there a solution for this well-known problem?

Answer 1

There's no way of knowing if someone using device B actually first found your website on device A. This is the fatal flaw of affiliate marketing, and the networks really have little incentive to do anything about it.... which they probably can't anyway.

I find it incredible that your are an honest web merchant who wants to honestly reward his affiliates. Wow, wonders never cease!! The trouble is that most merchants (and for that matter affiliate platforms) are only too happy to "lose" the contact with the "first click" or prime mover of an internet sale. In such cases either no affiliate commission is paid (great from the merchant's point of view) , or else the commission goes to the affiliate network (great from the network's point of view) as they "don't know" which affiliate to reward, so keep the full commission for themselves instead of splitting it with an affiliate.

The trouble is that this dilemma is in most cases insoluble unless the purchaser already accomplishes the first stage of a sale on the first visit, and then returns via a ticket number. Otherwise, except with some synced devices, there's no way of knowing if someone using device B actually first found your website on device A.