Approving and managing affiliates is how you decide who promotes your store. Affiliate and Referral Program for WooCommerce gives you one screen to vet applicants, review each affiliate’s sales and traffic, edit their details, and broadcast announcements to everyone at once. Part of the plugin documentation.
The Affiliates screen
↑ Back to topGo to: WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Affiliates. Every affiliate is a row showing ID, Name, Username, Email, Phone, Role, Level, Registration Date, Parent Id and Parent Name (who recruited them), earnings columns, and Affiliate Status. The table searches and sorts in place, so a large program stays manageable.
Vet applicants before they join
↑ Back to topBy default, anyone who registers becomes an active affiliate immediately. To review applications first:
- Go to: WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Advanced Features > General.
- Turn on Affiliate Verification.
- Save Changes.
New signups now wait for you. On the Affiliates screen, approve one applicant from the Affiliate Status column of their row, or tick several and use Approve all marked affiliates. Approval can send the affiliate a confirmation message — the wording lives on the Customize Affiliate and Referral Emails screen.
There is no separate “rejected” state. An applicant you do not approve simply stays inactive, and no rejection message is sent — if you want to tell them why, do so by email yourself.
Review one affiliate in detail
↑ Back to topClick an affiliate’s row to open their detail view. The header shows their Referral Code and Referral Link plus summary cards — Total Referrals, Total Commission, Approved Commission, Pending Commission, Wallet Amount and Total Visitors. Below them, tabs cover everything the affiliate has done:
- Referrals – this affiliate’s commission records, with approve and reject actions right in the view.
- Payouts – their withdrawal requests and payment history.
- Traffic – every recorded visit from their links: IP, URL, visit count, browser, device, platform and date.
- Profile – their contact details, editable in place.
- Show MLM Chain – opens the affiliate’s WordPress profile in a new tab, where their network tree renders. See How to Set Up MLM in Your Affiliate Program.
Edit an affiliate’s details
↑ Back to topSmall corrections are quickest on the Profile tab of the detail view — User Name, Email, First Name, Last Name and Phone, then Update. For everything else, the affiliate is an ordinary WordPress user: open them under Users to change their password, role, or their commission Level if you use Affiliate Levels with Auto Upgrades.
Send an announcement to all affiliates
↑ Back to top- Go to: WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Advanced Features > Notification.
- Click Add Notification and fill in Enter Notification Title and Enter Notification Message.
- Save the notification — it is visible to every affiliate immediately.
Affiliates see announcements under the bell icon in their dashboard header, with a badge counting the ones they have not opened. Announcements are plain text — no links or formatting — and you can edit or delete them here later.
The announcement bell appears on dashboard Template 1 only — Template 2 has no notification area. If you rely on announcements, keep Template 1 selected; see the Affiliate Dashboard and Affiliate Area Guide. Also reload this settings page between editing one notification and adding another, so the editor starts clean.
Export your affiliate list
↑ Back to topUse Filter & Export Affiliate Table to narrow the table, then Generate Affiliate CSV to download it. The file lists each affiliate’s ID, name, email, and their parent in the network — useful for mail merges or your own reporting.
FAQ
↑ Back to topDo affiliates get a special WordPress role?
↑ Back to topNo. Affiliates keep whatever role they already have — usually Customer — and their affiliate standing is tracked separately. Nothing about their store account changes when you approve them.
Can I approve affiliates one by one and in bulk?
↑ Back to topYes — both. Approve a single applicant from their row’s Affiliate Status column, or mark several rows and click Approve all marked affiliates.
Where do I see who recruited an affiliate?
↑ Back to topThe Parent Id and Parent Name columns on the Affiliates screen show the recruiter, and Show MLM Chain in the detail view draws the whole branch. More questions are answered in the Affiliate and Referral Program: FAQ.