Cashback Glossary

The affiliate industry runs on a vocabulary most shoppers never encounter. You can use cashback perfectly effectively without any of these words, but understanding them lets you read the small print on a retailer's affiliate terms and troubleshoot when something goes wrong. Terms are ordered alphabetically.

Affiliate network

The intermediary company (Impact, CJ, Awin, Rakuten Advertising) that connects retailers to publishers, handles cookie-based tracking, aggregates transactions, and processes commission payments. QuickCashback works with all four major networks plus several regional ones.

Attribution

The process of identifying which publisher earned commission on a specific sale. Almost always last-click-wins: the final affiliate cookie set before checkout wins the commission.

Average order value (AOV)

The mean dollar value of orders placed by shoppers referred through an affiliate. Higher AOV usually correlates with lower conversion rate — expensive items convert less often per click.

Chargeback

A payment reversal initiated by the shopper's card issuer, typically as a dispute. Chargebacks reverse cashback attribution because the affiliate network treats the sale as undone.

Clawback

The removal of a previously-tracked commission after the fact — usually due to a return, refund, or chargeback. Reduces pending amounts more often than confirmed amounts.

Commission

The amount a retailer pays the affiliate network per referred sale, expressed as a percentage of sale value. Our cashback rate is calculated from the passthrough share of this commission after network fees and platform margin.

Confirmed

Cashback that has cleared the retailer's return window and been released by the affiliate network. Confirmed cashback is guaranteed and available to withdraw.

Confirmation window

The waiting period between pending and confirmed status. Set by the retailer, typically 45–90 days after purchase. Ensures return-window transactions have settled before commission is paid out.

Conversion rate

The percentage of clicks that result in a completed purchase. Industry averages sit between 2% and 8%, higher for well-known brands and destination retailers.

Cookie

A small text file the retailer's website stores in your browser when you click a cashback link. Contains a unique identifier that ties later purchases back to QuickCashback. Expires after 24 hours to 45 days depending on retailer.

Cookie duration

The length of time an affiliate cookie remains valid after being set. Longer durations improve attribution rates because they capture delayed purchase decisions.

De-duplication

The process retailers use to assign a sale to a single publisher when multiple publishers touched the shopper's journey. Usually favours last-click but sometimes weights content publishers over voucher-code publishers.

Deep link

A cashback link that opens a specific product or category page inside the retailer's mobile app rather than a general home page. Improves conversion but breaks attribution more often than web-based tracking.

Earnings per click (EPC)

The average commission earned per click sent to a retailer across the entire affiliate network. Used by networks to rank retailer profitability.

First-click attribution

An attribution model where the earliest affiliate cookie wins commission. Less common than last-click — used mostly in travel and financial-product categories with long research cycles.

Last-click attribution

The industry-standard attribution model. The final affiliate cookie set before checkout wins. Why activating cashback last, right before payment, is the most important behavioural rule.

Pending

The status of cashback that has been tracked but not yet confirmed. Pending amounts appear within 24–72 hours of a qualifying purchase and remain until the retailer's return window closes.

Publisher

Any website, extension, or app that drives traffic to retailers in exchange for commission. Cashback platforms, coupon sites, editorial review sites, and creator accounts are all publishers.

Rate

The specific commission percentage a retailer pays for a given category or product. Rates change frequently — sometimes monthly, sometimes at the start of a promotional window.

Rate cut

A temporary reduction in commission during a retailer's own promotional event (Black Friday, seasonal sales). Cashback percentages drop for the promotional window and recover afterward.

Sticky cookie

An affiliate cookie configured to persist even if the shopper visits other affiliate sites before checkout. Extremely rare, typically only for retailers with negotiated relationships with a specific publisher.

Stacking

Combining a coupon code, sale price, cashback, and other discounts on the same purchase. Most discounts stack because they reduce different base amounts; the exception is a second affiliate cookie, which overwrites the first.

Tenancy

A negotiated arrangement where a retailer pays a publisher a fixed placement fee regardless of clicks or conversions. Not standard commission and not passed through as cashback.

Tracking

The end-to-end mechanism that ties a click to a purchase to a commission. Tracking failure — where a purchase happens but is not attributed to the correct publisher — accounts for 3–6% of clicked orders industry-wide.

Voucher code discount publisher (VCD)

A publisher category focused on coupon codes rather than editorial content. Some retailers apply lower commission to VCD-attributed sales because voucher-code searches often occur immediately before checkout.