A very interesting type of product that you can create in WooCommerce, in addition to those we have already seen, is the external or affiliate product.
It is a type of product that you offer through a distributor or the manufacturer, of which you do not have to have your own inventory but you simply act as a commercial gateway, and you charge your corresponding commission if you have negotiated it before of course.
For example, you can sell products from Amazon or other online stores. You simply create the products, put your affiliate link, and the actual supplier takes care of the shipping and subsequent management.
The only thing you have to do, unlike any other type of product, is to select that it will be an External/Affiliate type, so you will be shown the specific fields for this type of product.
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Important fields to complete:
- Product URL: The web address to which the buyer is sent to make their actual purchase. Don’t forget to include your affiliate code or custom URL provided by the final supplier, if you have one.
- Button text: Here you can customize the text of the add to cart button, because in fact this type of products do not go through the cart or the checkout page, this is its main peculiarity, but lead directly to the external/affiliate product website.
- Normal and discounted price: as usual.
Other fields:
- Taxes: If they are applicable, which normally they are not, because you offer a final price.
- Inventory: Actually you will see that there is no possibility, at most you can write down a SKU, a code that identifies it.
Once you publish your product it will be available in your store but the transaction will be done through your affiliate link, and through your supplier’s platform.
When customers click on the button, they will not be taken to the cart or checkout page, but directly to the URL you have defined, and in fact no order or record of the activity within your online store will be generated.
