MotoPartPicker Payment Architecture

01

Revenue Model Summary

Stream 1 — Primary

Affiliate Commissions

Riders click "Buy at [Retailer]" buttons. MotoPartPicker appends affiliate tracking parameters to the retailer URL. When the rider completes a purchase, the affiliate network pays MotoPartPicker a commission. No payment processing on our side — we never touch rider payment data.

Rate 1–7% of purchase value

Networks CJ, Impact, ShareASale, Amazon

Payout Monthly

PCI scope None — zero card data

Stream 2 — Secondary

Retailer Subscriptions

Retailers pay a monthly or annual fee for premium placement, enhanced analytics, API access, and partner benefits. Billing is managed entirely by Stripe — checkout, invoicing, dunning, the customer portal. MotoPartPicker syncs state from Stripe webhooks.

Entry tier Free (Affiliate Partner)

Mid tier $299 / mo (Verified Partner)

Top tier $499 / mo (Data Partner)

Processor Stripe Billing

02

Payment Flow Architecture

Affiliate Commission Flow

Retailer Subscription Flow

Critical architecture note

MotoPartPicker never handles rider payment information. Affiliate tracking is entirely URL-parameter based — we log the outbound click for analytics, not any payment data. For retailer subscriptions, Stripe Checkout is the hosted page; our server only receives webhook events after the fact. This keeps us at the lowest possible PCI scope (SAQ A).

03

Affiliate Commission Details

Retailer	Network	Commission	Cookie Window	Payout
RevZilla	CJ Affiliate	7%	14 days	Monthly
Cycle Gear	CJ Affiliate	7%	14 days	Monthly
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC	Impact	5%	30 days	Monthly
Amazon	Amazon Associates	1–3%	24 hours	Monthly
Partzilla	ShareASale	5%	30 days	Monthly

Tracking Implementation

Every "Buy at [Retailer]" button constructs a URL by appending the affiliate network's required parameters to the retailer's product URL. MotoPartPicker logs the outbound click in the affiliate_clicks table for internal analytics (part ID, retailer, timestamp, user session). Revenue attribution is via each affiliate network's reporting dashboard — we are not the source of truth for commission amounts.

Cookie windows vary significantly — Amazon's 24-hour window is the most limiting. This influences how we prioritize retailer placement: longer cookie windows mean better attribution for high-consideration purchases.

FTC Compliance Requirement Every page displaying affiliate links must include the following disclosure: "MotoPartPicker earns a commission when you purchase through our links. This never affects our compatibility data." This disclosure must be visible without scrolling and must not be hidden in footnotes. Non-negotiable — failure to disclose is an FTC violation.

04

Retailer Subscription Tiers

Affiliate Partner

Free / mo

No commitment

✓ Listed in price comparisons
✓ Standard affiliate tracking
✓ Basic click analytics
✓ No Stripe setup required

Verified Partner

$299 / mo

$239/mo billed annually — save 20%

✓ Priority placement in results
✓ Fitment Intelligence Reports
✓ API access (read)
✓ Verified Partner badge
✓ 30-day free trial
✓ All Affiliate Partner features

Data Partner

$499 / mo

$399/mo billed annually — save 20%

✓ Full API access (read + write)
✓ White-label compatibility widget
✓ Manufacturer portal access
✓ Quarterly data review call
✓ All Verified Partner features

Annual billing discount: 20% off. Verified Partner drops to $239/mo — Data Partner to $399/mo. Both billed as a single annual charge. Annual cancellations receive a prorated refund if canceled within the first 30 days.

05

Stripe Billing Implementation

🔒

Stripe Checkout

Stripe's hosted checkout page handles new subscriptions. Simplest integration — zero card data touches MotoPartPicker's server. Fully PCI-compliant out of the box. We create a Checkout Session server-side with the selected Price ID and redirect the retailer. On success, we receive the checkout.session.completed webhook.

⚙️

Stripe Customer Portal

Stripe's hosted portal handles all self-service billing management: upgrade/downgrade tier, change payment method, view invoice history, and cancel subscription. MotoPartPicker creates a portal session and redirects the retailer. No custom billing UI needed — Stripe maintains it.

WH

Webhook Events to Handle

checkout.session
.completed

Create retailer_subscriptions record. Set status to trialing or active. Store Stripe customer ID and subscription ID.

invoice.paid

Update subscription status to active. Record payment in billing history. Confirm access is enabled for the billing period.

invoice.payment
_failed

Update status to past_due. Send dunning email to retailer. Stripe handles retry schedule (Smart Retries).

customer.subscription
.updated

Handle tier upgrade or downgrade. Update local plan/tier reference. Adjust feature access immediately on upgrade, at period end on downgrade.

customer.subscription
.deleted

Update status to canceled. Access continues until current_period_end. Do not revoke immediately.

retailer_subscriptions

id uuid primary key

retailer_id uuid fk → retailers

stripe_customer_id text cus_xxx

stripe_subscription_id text sub_xxx

plan enum affiliate / verified / data

status enum trialing/active/past_due/canceled

current_period_end timestamp access gate

created_at / updated_at timestamp

affiliate_clicks

id uuid primary key

part_id uuid fk → parts

retailer_id uuid fk → retailers

session_id text anonymous session

affiliate_network enum cj / impact / shareasale / amazon

destination_url text full tagged URL

bike_make / model / year text for analytics segmentation

clicked_at timestamp indexed

Stripe is the source of truth for subscription state. The local retailer_subscriptions table is a read cache for fast access gate checks. Always reconcile against Stripe when in doubt.

06

Billing Lifecycle State Machine

Stripe Smart Retries manages the dunning schedule automatically — it uses ML to pick optimal retry times. MotoPartPicker receives webhook events for each attempt. On three consecutive failures, Stripe marks the subscription canceled. For grace period UX, access remains until current_period_end even when status = past_due.

07

Refund & Cancellation Policy

Monthly Subscriptions

Cancel anytime — no cancellation fee, no penalty.
Access continues until the end of the current billing period.
No prorated refunds for partial months.
Cancellation is one-click in the Stripe Customer Portal.

Annual Subscriptions

Cancel anytime — access continues to end of annual period.
Prorated refund available if canceled within first 30 days.
No refund after 30-day window has passed.
Refunds processed via Stripe — 5–10 business days.

"We want partners, not hostages. Cancel with one click in the Stripe Customer Portal."

08

Tax & Compliance

Tax Collection

Stripe Tax auto-calculates sales tax and VAT for all retailer subscriptions.
Tax is applied at checkout based on the retailer's billing address.
Stripe remits collected tax where applicable (Stripe Tax Remittance).
Stripe auto-generates compliant invoices for every charge.

PCI Compliance

MotoPartPicker is SAQ A — the lowest PCI DSS scope.
Stripe Checkout handles all cardholder data. Zero card data on our servers.
Affiliate flows involve no payment data at all.
Annual SAQ A self-assessment questionnaire required.

Money Transmission

MotoPartPicker is not a marketplace. No rider payments are processed.
No money transmission license required — we are an affiliate referrer.
Retailers set their own prices; MotoPartPicker never quotes a price.
Affiliate commissions are income to MotoPartPicker, not payouts to others.

Reporting & 1099s

No 1099 obligations — MotoPartPicker receives commissions, does not pay them out.
Affiliate networks (CJ, Impact, etc.) issue 1099s to MotoPartPicker if applicable.
Stripe generates consolidated financial reports for subscription revenue.
Invoicing: Stripe auto-generates and emails invoices to retailers on every charge.

09

Financial Reporting

💰

Affiliate Revenue

Total commissions earned. Broken down by retailer, bike category, and part type.

Monthly

📈

Subscription MRR

Monthly Recurring Revenue from retailer subscriptions, segmented by tier.

Monthly

🎯

Affiliate RPV

Revenue Per Visitor — key efficiency metric for affiliate monetization.

Daily

🔗

Click-Through Rate

Affiliate link CTR by part category and retailer. Identifies optimization opportunities.

Daily

📉

Churn Rate

Monthly churn for retailer subscriptions. Target: keep below 3% monthly.

Monthly

🏍️

Top Parts / Bikes

Highest-revenue parts and bike configurations. Guides content and SEO investment.

Weekly

DB

Admin Dashboard Scope

A lightweight internal admin page (not public-facing) displays: current MRR, affiliate revenue MTD, top 10 performing parts by click volume, top 5 bikes by revenue, and monthly churn. Data sourced from affiliate_clicks (internal) and Stripe Dashboard API (subscription metrics). No third-party analytics platform required at MVP.

10

Implementation Approach

Phase 1 — Affiliate Only

Month 1–6

● Apply for affiliate accounts: CJ Affiliate (RevZilla, Cycle Gear), Impact (Rocky Mountain), Amazon Associates, ShareASale (Partzilla).
● Build affiliate link generator utility — appends correct tracking parameters per retailer/network.
● Implement affiliate_clicks logging on every outbound click.
● Add FTC disclosure to all pages with affiliate links — required before launch.
● No Stripe setup needed in this phase.

Phase 2 — Retailer Subscriptions

Month 6–12

● Set up Stripe account. Create Verified Partner product and Price objects (monthly + annual).
● Build server-side endpoint: POST /api/billing/checkout → creates Stripe Checkout Session.
● Build server-side endpoint: POST /api/billing/portal → creates Stripe Customer Portal Session.
● Implement webhook handler at POST /api/webhooks/stripe — verify signature, handle all 5 events.
● Create retailer_subscriptions table. Implement access-gating middleware.
● 30-day free trial for Verified Partner — set at Stripe Price level.

Phase 3 — Scale & Optimization

Month 12+

● Add Data Partner tier to Stripe — create product, prices (monthly + annual).
● Enable Stripe Tax — configure in Stripe Dashboard, set product tax codes.
● Annual billing option — add annual Price objects with 20% discount.
● Build admin financial dashboard — MRR, affiliate revenue, churn, top parts.
● White-label widget delivery infrastructure for Data Partner tier.

// Key Stripe API calls (TypeScript / Node.js)

// 1. Create Checkout Session (new subscription)
const session = await stripe.checkout.sessions.create({
  mode:       'subscription',
  customer:   retailer.stripe_customer_id,       // create if new
  line_items: [{ price: PRICE_ID, quantity: 1 }],
  trial_period_days: 30,                          // Verified Partner only
  success_url: `${BASE_URL}/billing/success?session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}`,
  cancel_url:  `${BASE_URL}/pricing`,
});

// 2. Create Customer Portal Session (self-service billing)
const portal = await stripe.billingPortal.sessions.create({
  customer:   retailer.stripe_customer_id,
  return_url: `${BASE_URL}/dashboard`,
});

// 3. Webhook handler (verify signature first)
const event = stripe.webhooks.constructEvent(body, sig, WEBHOOK_SECRET);
switch (event.type) {
  case 'checkout.session.completed':  await handleCheckoutComplete(event); break;
  case 'invoice.paid':                 await handleInvoicePaid(event);       break;
  case 'invoice.payment_failed':        await handlePaymentFailed(event);    break;
  case 'customer.subscription.updated': await handleSubUpdated(event);       break;
  case 'customer.subscription.deleted': await handleSubDeleted(event);       break;
}

Payment ArchitectureMotoPartPicker

Revenue Model Summary

Payment Flow Architecture

Affiliate Commission Details

Retailer Subscription Tiers

Stripe Billing Implementation

Billing Lifecycle State Machine

Refund & Cancellation Policy

Tax & Compliance

Financial Reporting

Implementation Approach

Payment Architecture
MotoPartPicker