Commission incorrectly paid on gift card purchases, which program terms usually exclude because gift cards are a store of value rather than a completed retail sale. Leakage occurs when tracking systems fail to exclude gift card SKUs from commissionable order totals.
A publisher earns 8 percent commission on a 300 dollar order that turns out to be entirely gift cards, a category the advertiser's program terms explicitly exclude, resulting in a payout that should never have been approved.
Gift cards represent stored value rather than a finished retail transaction, and the actual purchase happens later when the recipient redeems it. Paying commission twice, once on the gift card sale and again on redemption, would inflate advertiser costs, so program terms typically exclude gift card SKUs from commissionable totals.
Book a free strategy session – no pitch, just an honest conversation about your affiliate channel.
Start the Conversation →