Changing prices on affiliate products
The admin-approval workflow for catalog price + commission changes — why it exists, the 48-hour review, and how creators see your pending changes.
Why price changes need approval
For your shop's basic products, you can change the price any time with a tap. For affiliate-listed catalog products, price changes go through an admin review process that takes up to 48 hours.
The reason: creators promoting your product priced their content based on the original price. A 20% drop overnight (or worse, a 20% hike) can blow up their video calls-to-action and frustrate the buyers they pitched.
The 48-hour review protects creator-buyer expectations while still letting you adjust prices.
What changes go through review
Two kinds of changes:
- Item price — what buyers pay.
- Commission rate — what creators earn.
Other changes (photos, description, stock, delivery zones) don't need admin review and can be made directly.
If you change both price AND commission at once, both go through the same single review.
How to request a change
Step 1 — Open the product
Seller Hub → Catalog → tap the affiliate product.
Step 2 — Tap "Edit"
The edit screen shows the current values. You can change:
- Price (in UGX).
- Commission rate (2-30%).
You'll notice these fields are slightly different from your basic shop product editor — they have a small "Pending review" indicator if a change is already pending.
Step 3 — Make the change
Type the new price / commission. The screen shows the current values alongside your proposed new values, with the delta:
- Price: 100,000 → 90,000 (-10%)
- Commission: 12% → 15% (+3%)
Step 4 — Add a note (optional)
A note field where you can explain the change to admin:
- "Reducing price due to bulk supplier discount."
- "Increasing commission to attract more creator pickup."
- "Holiday markdown — running for 2 weeks then reverting."
Admin reads this. It often shortens the review.
Step 5 — Tap "Submit change request"
The change goes into the Pending review queue. The product on your shop and in the catalog continues showing the OLD price / commission to buyers and creators.
What creators see during pending review
When a creator views your product on the catalog, they see:
- The current (old) price and commission.
- A small "Price change pending" banner.
- The new proposed values.
This lets them decide:
- Keep promoting at the current rate.
- Wait for the change to land.
- Pause their promotion of this product until they see the new numbers.
It's transparent — creators know what's coming.
How admin reviews price changes
Admin checks:
1. Reasonableness
A 10% drop is normal. A 60% drop is suspicious (someone selling at deep discount to dump inventory, possibly affecting affiliate economics).
2. Frequency
A seller changing prices every week looks unstable. Most price changes are spaced months apart.
3. Direction
Increases face slightly more scrutiny than decreases. A 20% price hike with no explanation might be rejected; the same hike with "raw material costs increased 25%" usually clears.
4. Your shop's standing
Slow-tier shops have stricter review. Healthy shops get faster approval.
Most legitimate changes clear within 24-48 hours. Edge cases (very large swings, unusual frequency) can take longer.
What happens after approval
You get a notification: "Your price change for [product] is approved."
- The new price + commission go live immediately.
- The "Pending change" banner disappears from the product.
- Creators promoting it see the new numbers.
- Buyers viewing it see the new price.
If a buyer already has the product in their cart at the old price, the cart price updates to the new price (the cart is auto-refreshed — see How the cart works ).
What happens if change is rejected
You get a notification: "Your price change for [product] needs revision."
Admin's reason is included. Common reasons:
- "Change is too large without explanation. Please add context."
- "Frequency of recent changes flagged. Please wait 2 weeks before resubmitting."
You can resubmit with revisions. There's no penalty for a rejection.
Special case — emergency pricing
If your supplier just doubled the cost of materials and you NEED to raise prices immediately, you can:
- Submit the change with a clear note ("emergency cost increase").
- Pause sales of the product while review is pending. Open the product → set stock to 0. Buyers can't buy at the old price during the wait.
Once approved, restock and resume selling at the new price.
This isn't a normal workflow — use it only when continuing at the old price would lose you significant money.
Multiple changes in flight
If you have a price change pending review on Product A and a commission change pending on Product B, both are processed independently. They don't affect each other.
But: only one pending change per product at a time. You can't submit a second change to Product A until the first is approved or rejected.
A pattern that works — quarterly review
Rather than tweaking prices ad-hoc, many affiliate sellers do a quarterly price review:
- Review margins on each affiliate product.
- Identify which need raising (margins squeezed) or which could go higher (insufficient creator pickup).
- Submit all the changes at once.
- Wait for admin to clear them in batch.
This pattern:
- Keeps creators stable for months at a time (they hate frequent changes).
- Concentrates admin review effort.
- Forces you to think strategically rather than tactically.
Tracking your change history
Catalog → tap any product → History tab shows every price change ever, with:
- Date submitted.
- Date approved.
- Old → new values.
- Note (if you added one).
Useful for bookkeeping and for spotting patterns ("we've been slowly raising prices on bestsellers — is that working?").
Common questions
How long does a price change take to approve?
Typical: 24-48 hours. Range: a few hours to 5 business days during high volume.
If a change has been pending for 7+ days without admin response, email support.
Can I cancel a pending change?
Yes — open the product → Cancel pending change. The change is withdrawn. You can submit a different change if you want.
Can I lower the commission rate for an existing product?
Yes — same flow as raising. Submit, await review. Creators promoting at the higher rate see the pending change and can choose to stop promoting before it lands.
What if I want to lower the price as a temporary flash sale?
The price-change workflow works for permanent changes. For temporary discounts:
- Flash sale mechanism (open product → Flash sale → set sale price + end time). This doesn't require admin approval and runs for your set duration.
Flash sale prices are visible to buyers but don't change the underlying catalog price. Creators promoting at the regular price see the flash banner.
Can I synchronize multiple product price changes to go live at the same time?
Not directly. Each change is reviewed independently. They may approve at different times.
For a coordinated launch, time submissions so they all hit admin at the same time (better than rolling them out one by one).
What about my self-listed (non-affiliate) catalog products?
Those bypass the review queue. You can change prices directly any time. The approval workflow only applies to affiliate-listed products.
What's next
- Setting commission rates — the underlying decisions you're price-changing toward.
- Delivery zones — other per-product changes you can make (without admin review).