Use the Links feature to create hyperlinks that add a specific product to the shopping cart, take the shopper to a specific product page, open your store’s home page, or open a custom page or external Web page.
You can create links to marketing campaigns, offer emails, and custom pages you created or imported to your site. Links can trigger an offer you created or they can use a program ID to track how many shoppers click the link. After you create the link, you can send it to shoppers via email, attach it to an image or button in your store, and so on.
Note: To use the Links feature you must have the Content Manager, Page Designer, or Merchandising Manager user role assigned to you in your user profile. For more information on roles and user profiles, see User roles.
You can create a link that adds a product to the shopping cart or sends the shopper to a specific product page. When you create the link, you must make sure that link points to the currently deployed product version in your store. When you created the link for a previous version, it may not behave as you expect and may cause problems when a shopper places an order for the product or tries to use the link. That means when you change a product and deploy those changes, you must update the links you created to ensure the link points to the latest version.
For more information on product versions (and how the version of a product can change), see Product versioning.
When you create a link, you can specify the theme you want your link to use for your store. You can also specify the locale or currency you want your link to load when displaying pricing information for your store. This can be especially useful when creating marketing campaigns for shoppers in specific locales because you can tailor the store for the language and currency of the shoppers you are targeting.
Note: The store must support the locale and currency specified by your link to work as intended. If a link specifies an unsupported locale or currency, the system loads your store’s default locale and currency.
Basic link structure
Links that take a shopper to a page in your store or perform an action have a specific structure and pattern. There are several elements in the link that indicate what the link does and where it takes the shopper when they click the link. You need to understand the link structure for your store to create better links and allow you to troubleshoot why your links do not work as expected.
Example: The highlighted portion of the link in these examples varies, based on the store and what the link is intended to do. The first part of the link is the same for every link for any store, regardless of what action the link performs.
The following example shows the basic structure for a link.
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/siteID/locale/action/parameter.
value
The following example shows a link created by the Links feature.
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/MySiteID/ru_RU/buy
/productID.120932000/quantity.1/pgm.402000/ThemeID.1283100/currency.RUR
When you click this link, it loads the store using a specific theme and locale (Russia) and currency (Ruble or RUR) and adds a specific product to the Shopping Cart. A program tracks traffic from this link.
Custom link examples
To help you understand how to build your own links, we’ve included several examples with an explanation of what each link does. We also highlighted, in bold, the elements in the URL that determine how the link operates. As you review these examples, you can find a description of the corresponding elements in How to create a custom link.
Warning: The examples in this section are for your reference only. Do not use them in your store. If you want to construct your own links, see How to create a custom link.
Locale links
You can use the locale element of the URL to specify a supported locale that loads when the shopper clicks the link to go to the store. Note that locale indicates both language and currency.
Example:
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/demo/en_GB/home
Theme links
You can use the theme parameter to specify the theme you want to use when the shopper clicks the link to view your store. See Managing themes for more about themes.
Example:
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/demo/DisplayHomePage
/themeID.23200
Buy links
The buy action allows you to create a link that will add a product to the Shopping Cart. You can use additional parameters with the buy action that defines how many of the product to add to the cart, whether the action triggers an offer, whether a program tracks the link, what happens after the shopper clicks the link, and how the store or pricing appears to the shopper.
Add specific quantity of one product
You can use the quantity parameter with the buy action to define how many of a specific product you want to add to the Shopping Cart.
Example:
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/demo/buy/productID.45128400
/quantity.2
Add specific quantity of multiple products
You can use the quantity parameter with the buy action to add multiple products to the Shopping Cart. You need to define the quantity for each product added to the Shopping Cart. Make sure you always put the quantity parameter right after the productID parameter or the link will not work correctly.
Example:
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/demo/buy/productID.45128400/quantity.1/productID.46143500
/quantity.2
Add Product in Marketing Offer
You can use the offerID parameter with the buy action to trigger an offer for the product when the shopper clicks the link to add the product to the Shopping Cart.
Example:
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/demo/buy/productID.8688900
/offerID.107138209
Add product and use program ID to track
You can use the programID parameter with the buy action to notify a program you created for your store to track traffic from the link.
Example:
http://store.digitalriver.com/store/demo/buy/productID.8641700
/pgm.215857
Search engine-friendly links
Links created by Store Builder are search engine-friendly links. Friendly links do not include a query string or punctuation marks. They are shorter and therefore don’t usually wrap on more than one line in an email (wrapping often breaks links).
Best Practices: Use friendly links in emails or as linked text on a page.
Links taskbar
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
 Create Link |
Allows you to create a link. See How to create a link using the Create Link wizard or How to create a custom link for more information. |
Links attributes
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | The ID used internally by the system. |
| Name | The name of the link. |
| Status |
The current status of the link. The possible statuses are as follows:
|
| A/B |
Indicates whether or not the link uses A/B testing. The possible values are as follows:
|
| URL | The URL or path for the link. |
| Expiration Date Range | Enter the start date and end dates for the expiration date range in the Beginning and Ending fields. |
How to copy a link URL
You can copy the link URL from the main Links page. If you are editing an existing link or creating a new link you can also copy the link URL from the Summary page. The instructions in this topic explain how to copy the URL from the main Links page.
Required Role: Content Manager This Global Commerce user role allows users to manage themes and styles, use Store Builder files, manage history for storefront links, view compare pages, view the Configure Site Settings page, and preview their store. or Merchandising Manager This Global Commerce user role allows users to create and manage marketing offers, tracking programs, and storefront links. The role also allows the user to import and export offers and preview the store. or Page Designer This Global Commerce user role allows users to manage and view history for custom pages, use the Store Builder files, create and manage storefront links, and manage content layouts.
- Select Storefront, select Links and Parameters and then click Manage Links.
- Click the URL field for the link you want to copy. When you click this field, the entire contents of the field (the link URL) is selected.
- Press CTRL+C on your keyboard to copy the link URL to your clipboard.
How to preview a link
To preview a link:
- Select Storefront, select Links and Parameters and then click Manage Links. The Links page appears.
- Click the name of the link under the Name column that you want to preview. The Edit Link page appears.
- Click Next until you reach the Summary page for the link.
- Click Preview on the Summary page. A new window opens where you can see how your link will appear and function.
How to delete one or more links
When you create a link, you can choose to save the link for future use. When you are done using a link, you can delete it and remove it from the list on the Links page.
Note: When you delete a link, the link is no longer available in the system for you to copy or preview. This will not affect any pages you linked to from the link or the pages where you inserted the link as long as the pages or products you created the link for remain.
Required Role: Content Manager This Global Commerce user role allows users to manage themes and styles, use Store Builder files, manage history for storefront links, view compare pages, view the Configure Site Settings page, and preview their store. or Merchandising Manager This Global Commerce user role allows users to create and manage marketing offers, tracking programs, and storefront links. The role also allows the user to import and export offers and preview the store. or Page Designer This Global Commerce user role allows users to manage and view history for custom pages, use the Store Builder files, create and manage storefront links, and manage content layouts.
- Select Storefront, select Links and Parameters and then click Manage Links. The Links page appears.
-
Choose one of the following options:
- To delete one or more links, select the checkbox next to one or more links you want to delete in the Links list and click Delete.
- To delete all links, select the checkbox next to the Delete button to select all files and click Delete.