In addition to the possibility of working with affiliates, Digistore24 also offers you the option of entering into a partnership with one or more “vendor partners”.

For example, imagine you and your colleague Max start a joint project. You create an e-book for which Max records a number of videos. You want to offer the e-book and video course together as one product.

In this case, you create a "Joint Venture" on Digistore24. This is always a good idea if you have developed a digital product together with one or more partners and you would like to share the revenue accordingly.

About Joint Ventures on Digistore24

On Digistore24, you can set up a joint product together with another vendor. This is what we call a joint venture partnership - this ensures that the revenue is automatically allocated to the respective vendor account for each product sale. You determine the distribution of your revenue in advance and then you receive your assigned share.

For example, if you worked for 70 hours on the project but your partner only worked for 30 hours, then set up your joint venture with shares of 70% and 30%. Digistore24 will then automatically distribute the revenue to you both after deduction of the taxes and Digistore24 margin.

For joint affiliates, their commission is deducted before the revenue is allocated as usual. However, each vendor can also integrate their own affiliates, whereby the respective vendor pays the affiliate commission from their own share.

Sample Calculation

Thomas created a product with Marcel and Stefan, which he would like to sell for 100 € and have promoted by affiliates. The affiliates should receive 50% of the revenue after deduction of taxes and fees. The rest is then divided equally between Thomas, Marcel, and Stefan.

What would the calculation look like?

• The product costs: 100.00 €
• The Digistore24 fee is: 8.90 €
• VAT is: 15.97 €
• This means that after deduction of taxes and fees, the remaining amount is: 75.13 €
• The affiliate receives 50% of the revenue after deduction of taxes and fees, i.e. 37.57 € net. The gross amount is 44.70 €.
• The joint venture share for Thomas, Marcel, and Stefan amounts to 37.57 € net. That means: Thomas, Marcel, and Stefan each receive 12.52 € net. The gross amount is 14.90 €.

Tip

Instead of setting the share as a percentage, you can also set fixed amounts for your JV partners if you prefer.

Set up Joint Ventures

1. In the Vendor view, go to Affiliates & partners > Partnerships.
2. Click on the New Joint Venture button.
3. In the window that opens, select the Product you want to promote with your partner(s) and then click OK.
4. The first input field will show your Digistore24 ID. This means you are the product creator. If you are not the product creator, please enter the Digistore24 ID of the product creator. The product creator receives the revenue from the sales, as long as it is not allocated to the joint venture partners or affiliates.
5. In the remaining input fields, enter the Digistore24 IDs of your joint venture partners. You also determine the share of the sales revenue your partners will receive. If your JV partner helped you in creating the product (e.g., writing chapters in an e-book), select Help with product creation as the contribution and read this note.
6. Finally, click on Save.

Note

Unlike affiliate partnerships, joint ventures become active immediately. Therefore, if you create a new joint venture for a product, it is also applied to new payments of existing subscription payments. The same applies to joint venture cancellations. New payments will no longer be credited to the respective joint venture partner. Adding or removing a JV does not apply to existing installment payments, as the full payment amount is booked as revenue immediately in the case of installment payments.

Learn more about the exact distribution of your revenue here.

Joint Ventures and Add-on Products

If the purchase contains more than one product (i.e., the purchase contains at least one additional product, known as an add-on), you can set how the joint venture fees are calculated:

• based on the entire purchase or
• individually for each purchased product.

You can set this for the main product in the Add-ons tab.

Specifically, under the option: Calculate affiliate and joint venture commissions ...

• ... based on the total purchase amount

  This is the default setting. Only the joint venture settings of the main product apply. The total purchase price is used as the basis for the distribution.

• ... individually by add-on amount

  The joint venture settings apply to each add-on individually. For example, you could set up a joint venture only for an add-on product (e.g., a "setup service"). Your joint venture partners will then receive the fees set for the add-on product. The basis for the calculation is the purchase price of the add-on product. If a voucher is used during the order, it will be proportionally applied to all add-on prices. For example: The main product costs 100 EUR, the add-on costs 50 EUR, and the voucher discount is 30 EUR. The main product will be billed at 90 EUR and the add-on at 40 EUR.

Determine Affiliate Commissions for Joint Ventures

If you want all joint venture partners to pay equal shares of the affiliate commissions, make the respective affiliate settings as usual and enter the same shares in the joint venture settings.

You can also set it up so that only one joint venture partner pays for the affiliate commissions. Here is an example of how to proceed in such a case:

Desired Revenue Distribution

For a sale without an affiliate, the distribution is as follows:

• Vendor: 40% of the revenue
• JV partner: 60% of the revenue

For a sale with an affiliate, the distribution is as follows:

• Vendor: 40% of the revenue
• JV partner: 25% of the revenue
• Affiliate: 35% of the revenue

Here's how to set it up:

1. Enter an affiliate commission of 35% for the respective product.

   Learn more here.

2. Enter your joint venture partner as the default affiliate for the product.

   This way, your joint venture partner receives the commission if no other affiliate receives it.

   Learn more here.

3. Set up a joint venture.

   The joint venture distributes the 65% of the revenue that remains after the affiliate has received their 35% commission.

   • Vendor: 61.54% (= 40% / 0.65)
   • JV partner: 38.46% (= 25% / 0.65)

If the sale is made without an affiliate, the joint venture partner also receives the affiliate commission, provided the joint venture partner is specified as the default affiliate in the product details (under Product setup > Product configuration by clicking on the pencil icon) in the Properties tab.

If the affiliate is to receive, for example, 30%, then 70% of the revenue is distributed in the joint venture contract. Instead of calculating with 0.65, you would calculate with 0.70.

View Joint Ventures

Under Affiliates & partners > Partnerships, you will see an overview of all the joint ventures you have created ("Joint Ventures of my products"). Additionally, you will see all joint ventures where you are a joint venture partner for a product created by another vendor ("Joint Ventures with partner products").

Your Most Important Questions About Joint Ventures

• How many joint venture partnerships can I enter into?

  On Digistore24, you can enter into up to 4 joint venture partnerships.

• Can I transfer revenue already earned from one account to another?

  No. For technical reasons, you cannot retroactively transfer product-related revenue from one Digistore24 account to another.

• What you can do to give your partner the money they have already earned:

  Agree on an amount and transfer the money yourself.

• What you can do to ensure that your partner receives the money they have earned in the future:

  You can automatically allocate future product-related revenue to a partner. To do this, simply set up a joint venture with a partner share of 100%.

• What happens if I, as a vendor, provide a promo link with my own Digistore24 ID?

  A vendor cannot act as an affiliate for their own product. If they use their own Digistore24 ID in the promo link, the current cookie in the browser is invalid.

  If you, as a vendor, want to act as an affiliate for your own product, we recommend opening an additional user account.

• How are the costs for chargebacks allocated for products from joint venture partnerships?

  For each joint venture partnership, the revenue shares are defined in advance. Therefore, the costs for a chargeback are proportionally allocated to all vendors. In a joint venture partnership with a revenue distribution of 30% to 70%, the costs for chargebacks are also divided 30% to 70%.