Cross-sales

Cross-sells also known as xsells, are additional sales that occur along with an additional membership transaction. As the program owner, xsales allow you to make a sale to multiple sites all at the same time while driving revenue to each of your paysites. This article is intended to guide those who are new to the cross-selling process with NATS.

Cross-sell process
Selling memberships with cross-sells usually follow this flow:

  1. The user first get to your biller's processing page. On that page, there is an extra checkbox that lets the user join an additional site for an extra charge.
  2. If the user submits their processing information with that checkbox activated, then the biller will initiate two transactions for the user: one for the site that the user originally signed up for, and one for the additional site that the cross-sell is for.
  3. The biller will then post the appropriate transaction info to the owner of each site. In the post for the cross-sell site, there will also be additional information identifying the site.

Set up a cross-sale in NATS

To set up cross sales in NATS, go to the Upsells Admin section, and click incoming or outgoing cross sales from the navigation tabs.
If you are sending a cross-sale to another site, go to the "Outgoing Cross-Sales" section. Add Vendo from the Biller drop-down menu, and click Add New Option. On the next page, you will be prompted to fill in the Title, Description, and Disclaimer for your cross-sell option.
You will then need to fill out the Biller Info for your cross sale, which should be provided to you by Vendo. Fill in your Site ID, Option Identifier, and Ref Code here, and click Save Changes.
If you are receiving the cross sale, go to the "Incoming Cross Sales" section. Add Vendo from the Biller drop-down menu and click Add New Option. When prompted, choose the site and program you want to associate with the cross sale.
Under "Details," fill in the title of your cross sale option, the initial membership fee and length, and the recurring membership fee and length. Finally, fill in your Site ID, Option Identifier, and Upgrade Identifier in the "Biller Info" section and click Save Changes.

Outgoing cross-sales

The first step involves setting up the cross-sell on the biller's end.

Please refer to your biller's documentation for more information on how to configure a cross-sell in their admin.
Once the cross-sell is configured, set up an outgoing cross-sell in NATS.

  1. Visit your Upsells admin.
  2. Click Outgoing Cross-Sells. At the bottom, you should see a dropdown of billers. This dropdown will only contain billers that NATS will support sending cross-sells to, and will only contain billers that you already have configured in your Billers Admin. Select the biller that will handle the outgoing cross-sell from the dropdown and click "Add".

You will then see a page similar to this (we will use Epoch as an example here, the exact layout will vary from biller to biller):

  • The Title text box is purely for your own internal reference.
  • If you activate the Enable for all Options checkbox, NATS will trigger this cross-sell anytime NATS sends a surfer to the biller handling the cross-sell. Otherwise, the cross-sell will never fire until you set up rules for your cross-sell.
  • The information collected in the Data section will vary greatly from biller-to-biller. However, almost all billers will require a field called Ref Code. This field links the referring site to the site that is going to receive the cross-sell. If you are performing cross-sells between two of your own sites, NATS will use this field to link the outgoing and incoming cross-sells. NATS has a tool that will generate the Ref Code for you. See Linking an Outgoing Cross-Sell to an Incoming Cross-Sell for more details.

Cross-sale rules

In order for your outgoing cross-sell to be triggered, you have to set up rules to tell NATS when to trigger the outgoing cross-sell. You can see/edit these rules by clicking on the icon.

  • The Type specifies whether the rule you are setting up is a "SHOW" rule or a "HIDE" rule. If this rule is a match based on the other fields, this will let NATS know whether or not to trigger the outgoing cross-sell. The IGNORE setting will disable this rule entirely but not delete it.
  • The Options field lets you pick which option this rule will apply for.
  • The Site field allows you to limit the rule by a specific site.
  • The Program field allows you to restrict the rule to a certain program.
  • The Affiliate field restricts the rule to a specific affiliate's traffic.
  • The Country field restricts the rule to a specific country if set.
  • The Start Date/Time field lets NATS know when this rule is to take effect.
  • The End Date/Time field lets NATS know when this rule no longer applies.
    Be sure to click Add when you want to add the rule.

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Note

You must have at least one SHOW rule set up in order for the cross-sell to be triggered.

You can set up your gateway join form to display checkboxes for your outgoing cross-sells by editing your gateway_join template, which can be found in the Sites Admin.
Go to the Sites Admin and edit the site templates for the site you are offering this cross sell-through. Locate the gateway_join template, and click the "Customize" action icon.
On the next page, insert the following code into your gateway_join template:

{foreach from=$xsells item="xsell" key=xid}
<TR>
<TD class="join_name">
<input type="checkbox" id=xsell name="signup[xsell][]" value="{$xid}"/></TD>
<TD class="join_value">{$xsell.details.name}</TD>
</TR>
{/foreach}

Save your changes once you have done this. Your outgoing cross sell join options will now be displayed on your gateway join form.

Incoming cross-sales

Please refer to your biller's documentation for more information on how to configure a cross-sell in their admin.
When you visit your Upsells Admin, click on the white tab at the top-left that says "Incoming Cross Sells":
Then to set up a new incoming cross-sell, first pick the biller that will be handling the cross-sell as well as the site that will receive the cross-sell and the program the transaction will be paid out under:
From there, you'll be able to add the details for your incoming cross-sell:

  • The Site and Program dropdowns allow you to change the site/program again if you wish.
  • The Details section allows you to set some basic details for the cross-sell, such as the internal title of the cross-sell, the initial amount/days, and rebill amount/days.
  • The Biller Info section is where you tell NATS the information that NATS will use to process the cross-sell (The information collected varies greatly from biller to biller).

Linking outgoing cross-sales to incoming cross-sales

If you are sending cross-sells between two of your NATS sites, NATS provides a tool that will generate a ref code NATS can use to link the outgoing and incoming cross-sell.

The tool will use data from a specific campaign, program, and cross-sell to generate a ref code. You can access this tool by visiting internal.php?page=xsells on your NATS installation.
You can then view the correct ref code in the second column, go back to your Cross Sells Admin, and click on the pencil for the outgoing cross sale to which you wish to link. From there, copy/paste the ref code you got from the previous page:

  • Domain - The domain of the NATS that you are sending the cross sale to. If you are sending to yourself, you can leave it blank.

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Note

The 'Edit Sale Details' section for the individual cross-sale will differ depending on the biller.

Configure marketplace cross-sales in NATS

Cross-sales are additional sales that occur along with an additional membership transaction; as program owner, you can make a sale to multiple sites all at the same time, and driving revenue to each of your paysites at once.

Follow these steps to configure a marketplace cross sale in NATS.

Steps

  1. Go to Administration and Management → Programs Admin.
Program configuration elementsDescription
Program NameThe name affiliates see
Short NameInternal short name without space
Payout Extension DescOnly used in extended payouts
Payout Extension DescSelect Cross-Sale Program.
Program is HiddenA hidden program, which does't appear in link.
  1. Click Create a New Enabled Program.
  2. Fill the appropriate fields and click Add program.
  3. Scroll down to Tours in This Program, select the cross sale sate you want to configure and click Add.
  4. Go to Upsells Admin > Incoming Cross Sells > Incoming Cross Sales list.
  5. Select the biller, site, program and click Add new Option.
  6. Once the new incoming cross sale is configured, set the offer by giving the site id and the option id that Client Services will provide you with.
  7. Go to http://natsv4.staging.vend-o.com/internal.php?page=xsells Opens in new window cross-sales > Ref Code column and give the Ref Code to [email protected] to add it to the Back Office.