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First Purchase Commission

Affiliates earn commission only on the customer's initial purchase. Subsequent payments don't generate additional commissions.

Emil Klitmose

Written by Emil Klitmose

Updated recently

With First Purchase commission, affiliates earn money only when a referred customer makes their initial purchase. Any subsequent payments from that same customer don't generate additional commissions.

How It Works

Revshare tracks each customer using a unique customer ID from your payment provider:

  1. Customer clicks affiliate link and makes first purchase
  2. Revshare records the sale with the customer ID
  3. Affiliate earns commission on this purchase
  4. Future purchases from the same customer ID don't generate commissions

Important: The customer ID comes from your payment provider (Stripe customer ID, Paddle customer ID, etc.). This ensures accurate tracking even if customers use different email addresses or payment methods.

Use Cases

First Purchase commission works best for:

  • One-time products: Physical goods, digital downloads, courses
  • E-commerce stores: Products with no recurring billing
  • Cost control: When you want to limit affiliate costs to initial sales only
  • Simple tracking: Easier to manage than recurring commissions

Example

Scenario: 20% commission on $100 product

Purchase 1:Customer buys $100 product → Affiliate earns $20 ✓
Purchase 2:Same customer buys $50 add-on → No commission
Purchase 3:Same customer renews subscription → No commission

Customer Tracking

Revshare uses the customer ID from your payment provider to identify repeat customers:

  • Stripe: Uses session.customer or charge.customer
  • Paddle: Uses event.data.customer_id
  • Custom API: Pass customer_id in your API call

If no customer ID is provided, Revshare uses the customer email as a fallback identifier.

Need recurring commissions? Check out Recurring Payments for subscription-based businesses.