Referral and agents system
Although the referral system is part of the rewards system, we mention it separately because of its specific implementation and importance in every competitive retail business.
From a marketing perspective, a referral from a current user is the golden ticket to a new user. It is even more critical in the times of online shopping as trust is harder to establish without personal contact. Therefore, people seek advice and trust by browsing through reviews, and a recommendation from a trusted person makes the decision even easier.
83% of people trust recommendations from friends and family. (McCaskill, 2015)
Referral systems currently face numerous issues that blockchain can solve:
- fraud,
- payment delays,
- lengthy disputes,
- unreliable tracking,
- privacy breaches.
Currently, affiliate and referral campaigns are plagued by fraud. The pay-per-click model is outdated and vulnerable to click fraud, cookie stuffing, and typosquatting. Moving to the blockchain model of referral marketing offers additional benefits in fraud prevention since smart contracts automate the process and reduce the need for trust. Honest publishers will also receive better value when cookie spamming and artificially generated traffic is contained. Using digital identities makes it easy to uniquely identify a user and effectively prevents multiple user accounts or self-referrals.
Dispute events are almost nonexistent in the world of smart contracts. Even if they occur, the blockchain records every transaction for easy review and resolution.
With the use of smart contracts and cryptocurrencies for payments, user rewards can be automated and processed simultaneously as the referral event occurs. Instant payments are one of the great benefits of using blockchain for referral systems.
Tracking is also easy and can become cookie-free as each user is uniquely identifiable by a DID. Each transaction can be precisely timed and assigned to a specific user. Using hashes to represent DIDs also improves user privacy and effectively resolves privacy breaches.
Each platform user will receive their unique referral link, which is connected to their DID. Once guests visit the 3air website through their link and register, their DID will be connected to the referrer, and every subsequent transaction can be between them.
Platform clients can enable referral systems through the rewards system described in the previous chapter.
Figure 14 3air Referral system