Patent ID: 8732011

Claim:
A system that provides services for implementing a referral program in which participant sites refer users to a computer-implemented retail site, the system comprising: a referral tracking system configured to track referrals of users from the participant sites to the retail site using information encoded in referral links provided on the participant sites, said referral tracking system operative to maintain data that associates particular item purchases made from the retail site with particular participant sites to which such purchases are attributable; and a report generation system that uses the data maintained by the tracking system to generate activity reports for particular participant sites, said activity reports revealing, for a particular participant site and time period, a total number of user referrals that occurred, and how many of said user referrals resulted in purchases, said report generation system configured to transmit the activity reports to corresponding referral program participants to enable the participants to evaluate the effectiveness of their participant sites, wherein the report generation system is configured to provide, within an activity report for a participant site, information regarding a problem occurring with a referral link on the participant site; said referral tracking system and report generation system comprising computer hardware that executes program code.