Selected work

LUXURY TABLEWARE GROUP · ATTRIBUTION

Three brands, one cart, and orders nobody credited the same way twice

From a sale credited differently depending on which report you opened, to commissions paid only on the items a source actually drove.

Problem

The group ran three brand sites through one shopping cart, and its attribution didn't account for that. Channel credit for the same order varied depending on which report you consulted, and affiliate commissions were being paid on that basis.

Strategy

When I first looked at the data, I asked what happened when someone arrived at one brand's site through one source and then shopped from the other brands, partly to check that I was reading the data correctly. Following that question became the approach: work out how cross-brand orders were being credited before trusting any channel report built on them.

Execution

I traced how cross-brand orders were being credited and found the larger issue in the client's attribution: orders spanning more than one brand weren't being credited consistently. I asked colleagues to verify my work before it went any further. The fix was to commission affiliates on the line items they actually drove rather than on the order as a whole.

Results

The affiliate program moved to line-item commissioning, applied going forward.

How one mixed basket was commissioned before and after line-item commissioningDiagram of one order across three brand sites sharing a cart. A customer follows an affiliate link to Brand A’s site and also adds items from Brands B and C. Under order-level commissioning, the affiliate’s commission base is the whole $450 order; under line-item commissioning, it is only the $200 Brand A item. Values are illustrative.One shopping cart, three brand sitesFollows anaffiliate linkLands onBrand A’s siteAlso adds itemsfrom Brands B and COne checkout,one orderBefore: whole order commissionedBrand A item$200Brand B item$150Brand C item$100Commission base$450After: line items commissionedBrand A item$200Brand B item$150Brand C item$100Commission base$200Commissioned to the affiliateNot driven by the affiliateValues are illustrative