As you launch your cashback rewards program and more customers begin participating, you may encounter questions about their delay in receiving cashback rewards. While it might at first seem unusual, this delay is a standard part of the cashback rewards process.
Here’s a detailed explanation to help understand why this happens and how our platform keeps track of transactions (orders) to ensure fairness and accuracy for everyone involved.
When a customer activates a cashback offer using a Wildfire link (e.g. in a browser extension or offer wall that Wildfire powers) and makes a purchase with an online retailer, Wildfire captures this order through our affiliate network partnerships. In turn, we also capture the corresponding cashback rewards the customer would ultimately earn as “Pending.”
This Pending status remains until the online merchant confirms the order. Confirmation can take varying amounts of time depending on the type of purchase and each merchant's policies. Merchants do typically impose a hold period of 30+ days to ensure that the order is not canceled or returned.
This period can be longer for certain types of purchases, such as hotel bookings, where the hold may last until after the purchased hotel stay is completed.
Once the hold period is over and the merchant confirms the sale, they pay the commission to their affiliate network. The affiliate network then pays Wildfire. At this point, the order status updates to “Ready” in our records. Clients who utilize our Commission API to ingest commission data and pay their customers will be able to see each individual order’s status as it progresses.
Only after Wildfire receives these funds can we pay our clients, who in turn can distribute the earned cashback rewards to their customers. Once the funds have been distributed to clients, the order status updates to “Paid” in our records.
Alternatively, if the partnership is structured in such a way that Wildfire manages user payouts, the order status will flip to "Paid" once funds have been distributed to both the client and the end user.
This multi-step process ensures that cashback rewards are only paid out for completed, non-returned orders, protecting all parties from potential fraud or the merchants’ payment of commissions on returned orders.
The hold period is crucial for several reasons. Importantly, it protects merchants from paying commissions on orders that might eventually be canceled or returned. This wait time allows merchants to confirm that the purchase is legitimate and final before releasing a commission.
The hold period also reduces the risk of fraud by verifying the legitimacy of orders. It ensures accurate commission payments by allowing for possible returns or cancellations, and builds trust among Wildfire, our merchant partners, our clients, and their customers.
By waiting until the order is confirmed, all parties can be confident that the cashback rewards are based on finalized purchases.
Understanding the cashback redemption gap is crucial for explaining to your customers why their rewards might seem delayed. This delay is a necessary part of the process to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the cashback rewards system.
By clearly communicating with your customers, you can help manage their expectations and enhance their overall experience with your cashback program.
Wildfire’s Client Success team has some suggestions for how to communicate this baked-in merchant delay with customers, and upon your becoming a client and launching a shopping rewards program, your Client Success Manager will work with you to optimize your customer messaging.