Part 6: Setup Fee and Deposit Payment
1. Minimum vs Alternate Deposit Amount
When getting an account started with ShareASale there is a one-time network access fee of $625. You will also be asked to make a minimum deposit of $125 into the account that we will use to pay out Affiliate Commissions and ShareASale Transaction Fees.
As Sales are made on your website and commissions are paid out, the amount will be deducted from your account balance and placed in a similar account that the Affiliates have at ShareASale. These Payments are not finalized or “locked” until the 20th of the month following the date of the sale giving you anywhere from 20-50 days to review every transaction.
The $625 network access fee plus the minimum deposit of $125 means the total minimum cost to start a Merchant Account with ShareASale is $750.
PRO TIP! The $125 Minimum is just that – a minimum. You can set this amount higher if you want. This is especially important for those companies with high-ticket items or higher volume sites.
2. Auto Deposit
We give you the option to attach a credit card to your account during setup so that the balance never goes below zero dollars. If your balance falls to $0 or below, your account will temporarily go offline until the funds are replenished.
This strategy communicates to Affiliates that they will have the opportunity to earn commissions because your program will never be offline. An offline status means you have inactive links. Inactive links mean a negative user experience. A negative user experience means upset Affiliates. Upset Affiliates means no success in your Affiliate efforts! Be smart, keep funds in your account!
By attaching a credit card to your account, you can avoid all of the above headaches so that when your account reaches a low balance trigger, it will refill to an amount you specify.
For full transparency, here is our total pricing.
This generally includes the network access fee ($625), deposit amount ($125 minimum), transaction fee (20% of commission), and the monthly minimums – which we do not want you to have to worry about!
Regarding the minimums, building an active Affiliate program takes time. We understand this, so we give you a grace period before any monthly minimums are introduced.
For the first 30 days, there are no minimums. After 30 days there is a $35 monthly minimum in transaction fees that you must pay to ShareASale. Ideally, you will be clearing this easily and not having to pay this fee, but if not you will want to be sure to reach out to our Client Services team to find ways in which we can help to optimize your program.