RevShare (revenue share)

RevShare means sharing revenue: the store gives up an agreed percentage of what the referred customer pays. The model comes in two versions. One-time revshare gives commission on the individual order – in practice the same as CPS with a percentage rate. Ongoing revshare gives commission on every payment the customer makes from then on, and that is the version the term most often refers to.

Ongoing revshare shifts the focus from orders to customers. A referred subscriber who pays DKK 200 a month at 25 % revshare is worth DKK 50 every month – DKK 600 a year if the customer stays. The model's value therefore depends directly on the customer's lifetime: low churn makes revshare a growing, predictable income, while high churn can make it worth less than a solid one-time commission.

The rate is agreed in the program terms and varies considerably from program to program – lower in industries with thin margins, higher where lifetime value is high. Read three things in particular in the terms: whether there is a cap on how long or how much is shared (recurring cap), what happens to ongoing agreements when the rate changes, and whether it is calculated on the whole payment or only part of it – for example excluding VAT.