What is Affiliate Marketing? 5 Benefits & 5 Best Affiliate Programs

What is affiliate marketing? It’s a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates for driving traffic or sales to their site. As ecommerce continues to grow, affiliate programs have become essential for boosting sales and brand awareness.

Need proof? The global affiliate marketing industry is thriving, it’s valued at over $17 billion and drives around 16% of ecommerce sales in the US and Canada. 

In this article, we’ll explore what affiliate marketing is, how it works, the benefits it can bring to your ecommerce business, and the top 5 affiliate programs you should consider joining.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model where businesses pay affiliates—typically influencers, bloggers, or content creators—a commission for generating sales or leads. Affiliates promote the business’s products through unique affiliate links or promo codes, earning commissions for each conversion.

Examples of what an affiliate marketing program is include:

• Bloggers promoting products and linking to affiliate pages
• Influencers sharing affiliate codes with their social media followers
• Niche websites reviewing products and including affiliate links for readers to purchase
• YouTubers embedding affiliate links in their video descriptions

Affiliate marketing is loved by businesses because it offers a low-risk, scalable way to increase sales. With minimal upfront costs, businesses can tap into a wide network of affiliates to promote their products and reach new audiences or generate a passive revenue stream.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing works by creating a partnership between a business and an affiliate (usually content creators, influencers, or website owners) who promote the business’s products or services. Here's how it generally operates:

1. Join an Affiliate Program: The affiliate (influencer, blogger, or online retailer, for example) signs up for an affiliate program or network offered by a business. This could be a direct partnership or through an affiliate platform like Amazon Associates or ShareASale​
2. Get a Unique Affiliate Link or Promo Code: The affiliate receives unique tracking links or codes that they can share with their audience. This could show up as a button on their website, a link in a blog or in a social media post. These links help track traffic and sales back to the affiliate, ensuring they get credit for any referral.
3. Promote Products: Affiliates promote the products through various channels such as blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos, or newsletters. The goal is to drive traffic to the business they are affiliated with using the unique links they were provided.
4. Earn Commission: When a customer clicks the unique link on the affiliates platform, and completes a purchase or action (such as signing up for a newsletter), the affiliate earns a commission. The commission rate and payment structure vary depending on the program—some may pay per sale, per lead, or per click.

There are three common commission structures for affiliate programs:

1. Purchase-Based Commission Structures. The affiliate partner gets paid when someone uses their code to make a purchase on the merchant’s website.
2. Traffic-Based Commission Structures. The affiliate partner gets a commission based on the number of people they refer to the company’s website—regardless of whether those visitors make a purchase or perform some other action.
3. Customer Acquisition-Based Commission Structures. The affiliate partner gets paid when their promotion helps the merchant close a new deal or sign a new customer.

An example of affiliate marketing in action:

Sarah runs a blog on healthy living and joins a health supplement affiliate program. She writes a review of a protein powder she uses daily, and includes her unique affiliate link in the content. 

When her readers purchase the supplement through her link, Sarah earns a 10% commission. 

This way, Sarah profits from her recommendations, and the company gains new customers without extra advertising costs

5 Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

Why would your ecommerce business want to join an affiliate program? There are many advantages of affiliate marketing—here are just a few top ones.

1. Create an Additional Revenue Stream

Joining an affiliate program is a fast and simple way for ecommerce businesses to open up an additional revenue stream—and what business owner wouldn’t want to increase their overall revenue? 

With a referral program, each time one of your contacts makes a purchase from your affiliate partner, you’ll earn an affiliate commission. So, by simply marketing their products or services on their behalf and referring your contacts to them, you can watch the additional income start rolling in! 

Be sure to check out our blog, 5 Best Affiliate Marketing Tips That Will Earn You More Money.

2. Increase Your Website’s Traffic and Visibility

There is a lot of competition in the ecommerce space, and joining an affiliate program can help you differentiate yourself from competitors by making it possible to provide your customers with additional value. 

You’ll be able to connect them with the products and services that your affiliate partner offers—without having to take on the effort, cost, and hassle of providing them yourself. 

Your customers will be happy when they can get a recommendation for a product or service they need from someone they trust, saving them the time and effort of having to find a partner themselves. 

Beyond just earning affiliate commissions, this can help you earn higher customer satisfaction scores!

3. Improve SEO Rankings

Affiliate marketing can positively impact your website’s SEO. When affiliates link to your products or services, these backlinks contribute to improving your search engine ranking.

High-quality backlinks from reputable affiliates signal to search engines that your website is trustworthy, which helps improve your overall visibility in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find you​.

4. Strengthen Customer Trust Through Recommendations

When affiliates recommend your products, their audience is more likely to trust these recommendations. These affiliates have built credibility with their followers, and their endorsement gives your product a sense of reliability. 

Customers often view recommendations from affiliates as personal suggestions rather than traditional advertisements, which can lead to higher conversion rates. 

This trust not only results in immediate sales but also helps foster long-term relationships. Affiliates help establish these strong connections with customers, ensuring a more stable and dependable customer base for your ecommerce business​.

5. Build Long-Term Partnerships

By joining an affiliate program, your business can establish strategic partnerships with brands and affiliates that align with your objectives. These relationships often grow into long-term collaborations, providing mutual benefits such as cross-promotional opportunities, access to new customer bases, and improved credibility. 

As these partnerships develop, your business may gain access to exclusive deals, promotions, or early product launches, enhancing your ability to serve your audience. This consistent collaboration helps drive steady revenue, expand your market presence, and strengthen brand loyalty over time​.

5 Best Affiliate Programs for Ecommerce Businesses

Now that you know some of the benefits of ecommerce affiliate programs, which should you join? Remember, it’s important to choose an affiliate program that is aligned to meet the goals and needs of you and your customers. With that in mind, along with the aforementioned Amazon Associates program, here are just a few ideas of where to start looking.

1. The Fulfillment Lab (That's Us!)

The Fulfillment Lab’s affiliate program makes it easier than ever to connect your audience with the perfect fulfillment partner. All you have to do is sign up online to receive a unique code that can be easily shared with your contacts. 

Then, once one of them creates an account using your affiliate code and begins shipping with TFL, you’ll get credit and start earning commissions. Plus, with volume-based shipping methods, you’ll continue to earn lifetime referral commission every time they ship through TFL! 

2. The Shopify Affiliate Program

Under Shopify’s affiliate marketing program, you can earn affiliate commissions for each user who signs up for a paid Shopify plan with your unique referral link. You’ll be able to save time and money on having to create content yourself by linking to blogs, webinars, video tutorials, tools, and automated funnels developed by Shopify for your use. It’s a great affiliate program for ecommerce business!

3. Amazon Associates 

The Amazon Associates program is one of the most popular affiliate programs globally due to its massive product selection and trusted brand reputation. With commissions ranging from 1% to 10% depending on the product category, merchants and bloggers can easily promote millions of products to their audience.

Amazon’s affiliate program provides access to tools like text links, banners, and widgets, making it simple to integrate affiliate promotions. Additionally, the program is known for its high conversion rates, driven by Amazon's global reach and fast shipping, along with strong support for affiliates.

4. eBay Partner Network

The eBay Partner Network enables you to advertise eBay products on your ecommerce site, social media platforms, blog, or website. You’ll get affiliate commissions from every product sold via your link, and there is a nearly endless supply of interesting products to promote, including popular trending products and daily deals.

5. Fiverr Affiliates Program

Fiverr is one of the world’s largest digital service marketplace with over 11 million users in 190+ countries. With the Fiverr Affiliates Program, you’ll get paid for every first-time buyer with no referral limit and a lifetime attribution. 

This provides a lot of value to your customers because you can connect them with any freelancers they may need when their internal team is over capacity or they need additional help during their busiest seasons.

Start Enjoying Affiliate Marketing Benefits with The Fulfillment Lab

While an affiliate partnership is an undeniable draw for those looking to increase recurring residual income online, you’re unlikely to find success unless you’re joining a reputable affiliate program. After all, you’ll only earn the high commission you’re looking for if your customers actually want to buy from the company you’re referring them to!

That’s why The Fulfillment Lab created its referral program with you and your customers in mind. But what makes ours different from the rest? Here are three key reasons why entering into an affiliate partnership can result in additional value and higher profits for everyone involved.

1. It’s Easy to Start Earning

We know you and your customers are busy, which is why we’ve created an affiliate program focused on speed and ease. Once you sign up, you’ll receive free resources that allow you to market and sell our services with ease, right to the contacts in your database.

Once signed up for our services, your customers will experience the same simple processes and fast results. Our proprietary fulfillment software allows them to start utilizing our fulfillment capabilities in a matter of moments, not days.

2. Everyone Involved Drives Additional Profits

An affiliate partnership with The Fulfillment Lab is a streamlined way for all parties involved to drive additional revenue. Once you’ve passed along your referral to your contacts and they sign up, your work is done. 

With mass volume profit sharing, you’ll continue to earn lifetime commissions each time they ship, meaning an additional revenue stream for you without any additional effort!

Signing up for our fulfillment services will also result in higher profit margins for your customers. Using our on-demand service capabilities, they can quickly add branded products that complement their existing line—without having to purchase or store them themselves. 

They can also create customized packaging that aligns with their brand to create a more personalized experience that keeps customers coming back.

3. Our Affiliate Support is Second to None

Our affiliate partnership is unique because it’s just that—a partnership. We know that if we all work together, everyone can achieve more and meet their business goals sooner. 

We’re always available to chat or assist you when needed, which is why we hold regular meetings with our affiliate networks to ensure we’re all on the same page and gaining additional value that leads to quick wins. 

You can book a meeting with our team at any time to discuss.

Our success means your success, and by joining our affiliate partnership, we can all get there faster—and together! If you’re interested in starting a valuable affiliate partnership with the Fulfillment Lab, reach out to us today!