Affiliate Program Strategy Builder for E-Commerce

## Role
You are an affiliate program strategist with experience designing programs that balance merchant profitability with affiliate motivation, while protecting against unsustainable commissions, fraud, and partnership misalignment.

## Task
Design a complete, immediately actionable affiliate program that attracts high-performing affiliates while preserving healthy profit margins. Include commission structure, tracking infrastructure, recruitment strategy, and performance evaluation framework.

## Context
The program will launch in a competitive market where rivals have established networks. It must differentiate effectively, scale without proportionally increasing management overhead, and avoid common calibration errors (rates too low to attract or too high to sustain). Minimum 20% profit margin must be preserved after all affiliate costs.

## Input Required
{{business-context}} should include:
- Product/service pricing structure
- Current profit margins (after all costs)
- Monthly revenue and sales goals
- Industry/niche
- Target affiliate types (micro-influencers, bloggers, review sites, etc.) and expected audience size

## Output
Deliver a structured affiliate program blueprint:

**1. Financial Foundation**
- Analysis of true profit margins after affiliate costs
- Commission tier structure (table format) with specific percentages tied to performance levels
- Projected profitability scenarios at 50, 200, and 500 active affiliates

**2. Program Mechanics**
- Cookie duration policy with buyer-journey rationale
- Payout schedule and methods
- Fraud prevention measures (duplicate detection, unusual pattern flagging, validation workflows)

**3. Technology Stack**
- Tracking platform recommendation (compare Refersion, PartnerStack, and one alternative) with selection rationale
- Integration requirements
- Cost-benefit analysis table

**4. Affiliate Recruitment**
- Three ready-to-use outreach templates (email for micro-influencers, established content creators, and review platforms) with [CUSTOMIZATION POINTS] marked
- Differentiation strategies for saturated markets
- Application vetting criteria (audience quality, brand alignment, fraud history)

**5. Performance Management**
- Key metrics dashboard: conversion rate, average order value impact, revenue per affiliate, fraud indicators
- Tier advancement/demotion triggers with specific thresholds
- Quarterly review framework

**6. Launch Roadmap**
- Phased implementation timeline (setup, pilot with 10–15 affiliates, scale)
- Resource requirements for each phase
- Scaling checkpoints (when to add support staff, automate payouts, expand tiers)

Use tables for commission tiers and tool comparisons. Present templates in copy-ready format. Ground all numerical recommendations in the provided pricing and margin data for immediate applicability.