Shaving

Shaving is a process where the affiliate program “shaves” some transactions from affiliates, for a variety of reasons. Some are completely legitimate technical errors – some users have cookies disabled so that affiliate transactions cannot be recorded at all. However, some rogue affiliate programs use shaving techniques to save themselves a portion of their commission. Most affiliate programs that “shave” will tend only to shave off 10-15% of transactions in an effort not to be noticed by affiliates. Other cases where a transaction might get shaved is if a program offers something online, but then uses another technique (such as phone or email) to secure a sale, thereby denying the affiliate the earnings they deserve.