Tip of the Day: Program Agreements

What is it?

The Program Agreement is also known as the “Affiliate Contract”. A Program Agreement is a necessary step during the setup process for any Merchant account on ShareASale. In short, it is a list of guidelines that you require all Affiliates partners to follow while promoting your brand.

This is a binding, business agreement. If it is not added in, Affiliates can only assume that there are zero restrictions in how they promote your program and its products. For example, without a program agreement, a Merchant wouldn’t be able to void orders for breaking your rules!

This agreement is your compliance strategy – include issues such as paid search compliance, coupon compliance, sales tax and government regulation. Your Program Agreement provides brand protection – who wouldn’t want that!?!

How do I add an Agreement to my Program?

Once logged into the Merchant account, open up the Account Details page and click on the Affiliate Communications tab.

Once that tab is open, click on Affiliate Agreement and you will be able to see the current agreement with Affiliates. If there are changes to be made, a new one can be added here.

If changes are made, make sure to place a summary of changes from the old to the new Agreement. This is helpful to Affiliates when they are identifying what specific rules were made or updated.

If you have a particular date that the agreement needs to go live, it can be placed here as well.

Keep in mind that when edits are made to the agreement, there is a seven day minimum before the new terms will become effective. This gives Affiliates time to agree to the new terms that will be put into place. Also, an automatic email will be sent to all current Affiliates in the Merchant Program whenever there are changes made to the Program Agreement.