When a purchase earns a reward for a referrer, something has to decide which referrer. That decision is made by attribution rules, and they explain most of the disputes shoppers experience.
Attribution usually goes to the last referrer
The prevailing convention gives the commission to the last tracked source before the purchase, on the reasoning that it closed the sale.
A shopper who arrives through a cashback site, then leaves to find a code and returns through a coupon site, has changed the recorded referrer.
The cashback then fails to appear, not because tracking broke, but because the rules assigned the payment to someone else.
The record lives in the browser
Tracking is normally stored as a small file or parameter held by the browser for a defined period after the click.
Anything that clears or blocks that storage removes the record, including privacy settings, blocking extensions and switching between devices mid-purchase.
Completing the purchase in the same browser session in which the link was clicked avoids most of these failures.
Apps and direct visits break the chain
A link clicked in a browser that opens a retailer's app hands the session to a different environment, where the web tracking record does not apply.
Retailers usually treat app purchases as their own traffic, so no commission is generated and no reward is due.
The same applies to typing a retailer's address directly, which is why the sequence of the visit matters more than the fact that a link was used.
Attribution windows have deadlines
Each retailer sets how long after a click a purchase still counts, ranging from a single session to a month or more.
A purchase completed after the window closes generates no commission, even though the shopper originally arrived through the link.
For considered purchases involving a long deliberation, clicking through again immediately before ordering resets the clock and is the simplest safeguard.
Disputes rest on evidence you must keep
Claim processes generally require the order number, the date and time, and the value, submitted within a limited period.
The claim is passed to the retailer for a decision, which is why resolution can take months and why not all claims succeed.
Keeping order confirmations until the reward is confirmed converts an untraceable disappointment into a claim with something behind it.