Patent ID: 7702536

Claim:
A method for using referral data to track referrals, product sell-through and to compensate a product distributor comprising: assigning, by a sever computer, a referral identifier to a product distributor, wherein the referral identifier is produced by a referral code generator and comprises a required number of characters, the referral code generator performing the steps of: receiving, by the server computer, a portion of a proposed referral identifier, the received portion comprising a number of characters which is less than the required number of characters; adding, by the server computer, a selection of characters to the portion of the proposed referral identifier sufficient to meet the required number of characters for the referral identifier and to produce a complete proposed referral identifier which includes the portion of the proposed referral identifier; compressing, by the server computer, the complete proposed referral identifier into a compressed referral identifier, using a hashing algorithm, to transmit the referral identifier determining, by the server computer, whether the compressed complete proposed referral identifier has been assigned by evaluating the compressed complete proposed referral identifier for hashing collisions with other existing referral identifiers; and approving, by the server computer, the compressed complete proposed referral identifier, when there are no hashing collisions between the compressed complete proposed referral identifier and the other existing referral identifiers, for assigning as the referral identifier, for transmission to the product distributor, wherein approving the compressed complete proposed identifier comprises providing a visual indicator indicating approval of the compressed complete proposed referral identifier; associating the referral identifier with a product; receiving and storing the referral identifier at the server computer; determining, at the server computer, whether a purchase relating to the product has occurred; determining that a purchase relating to the product has occurred, identifying the product distributor based on the referral identifier; and providing referral data to determine compensation for the identified product distributor.