FAQ
Does the add-on take payments from vendors?
Section titled “Does the add-on take payments from vendors?”No payment gateway is involved. Ads are paid from the vendor balance that the marketplace already holds: the charges are posted to Vendors → Accounting as Payout rows, so they are deducted from the next payout. With the Vendor debt payout add-on, vendors can also top up their balance to keep advertising.
Can a vendor spend more than the budget or the balance?
Section titled “Can a vendor spend more than the budget or the balance?”No. Every charge is checked under a lock against the daily budget, the total budget and the amount available above the minimum balance you keep. When the next click would not fit, the campaign pauses (until midnight for the daily budget, until the balance grows for the balance).
Why are some clicks free?
Section titled “Why are some clicks free?”Repeated clicks of the same visitor within the set time, clicks from crawlers and tools, clicks of your administrators and of the vendor’s own team, and clicks beyond the per-IP limits are not charged. They are counted as invalid clicks in the statistics.
When does the vendor balance change?
Section titled “When does the vendor balance change?”The amount available for ads drops at once with each charge. The vendor balance in Accounting changes when the charges are posted: once a day (or every hour), or when you click Post now.
Are sponsored products clearly marked as ads?
Section titled “Are sponsored products clearly marked as ads?”Yes. The slots have a “Sponsored products” heading, every card carries a “Sponsored” label and the vendor’s name, and the links use rel="sponsored".
Does it work with the full page cache of CS-Cart 4.21?
Section titled “Does it work with the full page cache of CS-Cart 4.21?”Yes. The slots are the same for every guest and are cached with the page; impressions and clicks are sent to an endpoint that is never cached. Changes to campaigns purge the cached pages.
My theme does not show the strip on search results.
Section titled “My theme does not show the strip on search results.”The search strip is printed under the page title of the main content block. If your theme uses another wrapper for the main content, place the Sponsored products block on the search results layout instead. Category and product page strips use template hooks that every Responsive- or Nova-based theme keeps.
Which orders count as ordered revenue?
Section titled “Which orders count as ordered revenue?”Orders placed within the attribution window (7 days by default) after a sponsored click, by the same visitor (cookie) or signed-in customer, for the sponsored product or another variation of it, without failed, declined and cancelled orders.
Does it work with Direct Customer-to-Vendor Payments?
Section titled “Does it work with Direct Customer-to-Vendor Payments?”Yes, but such vendors receive the order money directly and usually have no positive balance. Their campaigns pause for not enough balance until they top up (Vendor debt payout) or you allow a negative balance with Minimum vendor balance to keep.
Does it work with common products (master products) and variations?
Section titled “Does it work with common products (master products) and variations?”Yes. Vendors promote their own offers; links lead to the product page with the vendor’s offer selected. A product page never shows its own offers or variations as sponsored products, and an order of another variation of a sponsored product counts for the campaign.
What does uninstalling remove?
Section titled “What does uninstalling remove?”The add-on’s tables (campaigns, statistics, click log, charges, posting records), settings, privileges and language variables. Charges already posted stay in vendor accounting. Post the open charges first (Posted charges → Post now).
Is CS-Cart (not Multi-Vendor) supported?
Section titled “Is CS-Cart (not Multi-Vendor) supported?”No. The add-on needs vendors and vendor balances; CS-Cart Standard and Ultimate refuse the installation.
What happens if the license lapses?
Section titled “What happens if the license lapses?”Without a valid license (no key after the 14-day start period, an invalid or revoked key, a domain the license does not cover, or no successful check for 14 days), sponsored slots disappear from the storefront and no impressions, clicks or charges are recorded. Campaigns, statistics and vendor balances stay as they are; charges recorded earlier are posted after the license is valid again. Once the license is valid again, everything is back.
The admin panel shows a license notice.
Section titled “The admin panel shows a license notice.”Open Add-ons → Manage add-ons → Sponsored Products for Vendors → Settings → License. The status line says what is wrong: no key, a key for another add-on, a revoked license, or a domain that the license does not cover. Fix it and click Check now. See License.
Does the add-on work on my staging copy?
Section titled “Does the add-on work on my staging copy?”Yes. Subdomains of your licensed domain (for example staging.yourstore.com) and local development hosts (localhost, private IP addresses, *.local, *.test) are covered by the same license. Clear Show sponsored products on the storefront on copies, so a copy never charges vendors.
What happens if your license server is down?
Section titled “What happens if your license server is down?”Nothing changes for 14 days: the add-on keeps working and retries every hour. Only if no check succeeds for 14 days is it switched off until the next successful check.
Does the license check slow down my storefront or checkout?
Section titled “Does the license check slow down my storefront or checkout?”No. The check runs in the admin panel or from cron, once a day. The storefront never runs it.
Still stuck?
Section titled “Still stuck?”Work through the troubleshooting guide, then contact support with your CS-Cart version, edition, PHP version and the add-on version (1.0.0).