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.
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“Affiliate marketing has the unique power to amplify your reach and build lasting partnerships with influencers and other brands, all while delivering measurable results.” - Rick Nelson, CEO, The Fulfillment Lab |
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.
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:
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.
Ecommerce affiliate marketing simply adds the online element to affiliate marketing. When an online merchant promotes another company’s products, services, or website on their own website, they earn a commission. It’s really that simple!
Today, ecommerce affiliate marketing is an increasingly popular tactic that is being used to drive additional sales and generate online revenue that is beneficial to both brands and their affiliate marketers. This has led more and more businesses to join affiliate programs—in fact, 80% of brands now leverage the power of affiliate marketing to boost sales and brand awareness!
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:
There are three common commission structures for affiliate programs:
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Not every affiliate program is a great fit for your ecommerce brand. Before you attach your name to a partner, it’s worth taking a closer look at how the program works and what it will mean for your customers.
The strongest affiliate partnerships feel like a natural extension of what you already offer. Ask yourself whether the program solves real problems your customers have, or adds services they would need anyway, such as fulfillment, shipping, or marketing tools. If recommending a partner will make your customers’ lives easier, help them scale, or improve their experience, you’re looking at a program that fits your brand rather than distracting from it.
Before you sign up, make sure you understand how commissions are calculated and how long they last. Some programs only pay once on the initial sale, while others reward you every time your referral orders or ships. The Fulfillment Lab’s affiliate program, for example, uses mass volume profit sharing, which means you earn a piece of the profit from every item your referrals ship, not just their first order, creating lifetime, recurring income as their business grows.
Clear, predictable terms are a good sign. Look at the cookie window, how often payouts are made, what the minimum payout threshold is, and how refunds or chargebacks are handled. If you struggle to find these details, or if the language feels vague, treat that as a warning sign. A strong program will be transparent about how referrals are tracked and when you get paid, and will give you a straightforward way to monitor earnings in a portal or dashboard.
The best affiliate programs don’t just hand you a link and disappear, they actively support you. Look for partners that provide ready-made marketing materials, clear talking points, and a real person you can contact with questions. The Fulfillment Lab, for instance, welcomes affiliates into a tight-knit partner community, shares resources to help them promote services, and holds regular check-ins so everyone stays aligned on goals and quick wins.
Every recommendation you make reflects on your brand. Before you commit, look at the company’s track record, reviews, and how they handle core operations like fulfillment speed, accuracy, packaging, and customer service. The Fulfillment Lab has built its reputation on custom packaging, fast and accurate order fulfillment, real-time inventory visibility, and global capabilities, making it easier for you to recommend them confidently as a fulfillment partner for brands that care about both scale and customer experience.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
Choosing the right affiliate programs is only half the job. The other half is knowing where to place those recommendations so they actually help customers and generate consistent commissions.
Your website is the most natural place to introduce trusted partners. A dedicated “Partners” or “Recommended Services” page can highlight your go-to tools and providers, such as your preferred fulfillment partner, email platform, or analytics stack. You can also weave affiliate recommendations into relevant blog posts and guides. For example, if you’re writing about scaling globally or improving shipping speed, you can naturally reference The Fulfillment Lab as the fulfillment partner that offers custom packaging, real-time tracking, and integrations with major ecommerce platforms.
Post-purchase is a powerful moment to introduce affiliate partners because your customer is already engaged and seeing value from you. You can briefly highlight recommended partners on thank-you pages, order confirmation pages, or in post-purchase email flows. When a customer is thinking about their next steps, such as how to fulfill more orders, ship internationally, or improve unboxing, pointing them to a trusted partner like The Fulfillment Lab feels like practical advice, not a hard sell.
If you run a wholesaler, DTC brand with a customer portal, or B2B platform, there is often a natural place for a “Recommended Partners” or “Integrations” section. Within that environment, you can showcase fulfillment, marketing, or software partners that plug into your customers’ existing workflows. Featuring The Fulfillment Lab alongside ecommerce platforms, marketplaces, or CRMs gives customers a clear path to a fulfillment solution that supports custom packaging, global fulfillment, and real-time visibility.
Your teams are often the first to hear about customers’ operational challenges. When a customer tells you they are struggling with fulfillment, shipping, or international growth, that’s the perfect moment to recommend a partner. Sales and customer success teams can introduce The Fulfillment Lab during strategy calls, quarterly business reviews, or onboarding sessions. Because the recommendation is coming from a relationship you’ve already built, it feels like a tailored solution rather than an ad, and when that customer signs on and starts shipping, you benefit from lifetime revenue share on every shipment.
To turn affiliate marketing into a meaningful revenue stream instead of a side project, you’ll want to measure how it’s performing. You don’t need an enterprise-grade analytics stack, just a few core metrics that show whether your efforts are working.
Start by looking at how many people are actually seeing and interacting with content that includes affiliate recommendations. Track visits to your partner pages, blog posts, and email campaigns, and pay attention to click-through rates on affiliate links. If traffic is healthy but clicks are low, it’s often a sign that the placement or the way you talk about the partner needs refining. A simple shift, such as being clearer about how a fulfillment partner will improve shipping speed, branding, or margins, can significantly lift engagement.
Next, zoom in on how much revenue your affiliate efforts are generating. Earnings per click, average commission per referred customer, and the share of revenue coming from recurring payouts tell you how strong a program really is. Programs with lifetime or recurring models are especially valuable for ecommerce brands. The Fulfillment Lab’s affiliate program uses volume-based profit sharing, so affiliates earn a piece of the profit from every item their referrals ship, turning one introduction into a long-term, passive income stream as those brands grow.
Good affiliate programs don’t just pay well, they make your customers more successful. Monitor whether customers who take your recommendations are more likely to grow, stay longer, or report higher satisfaction. When a partner like The Fulfillment Lab helps your customers speed up delivery, customize packaging, and simplify global shipping, the impact often shows up in repeat orders, stronger retention, and better customer reviews for your own brand.
Finally, look at the overall health of your affiliate efforts over time. Track how many programs actually produce meaningful revenue, how quickly new partners start generating commissions, and whether your earnings per referral are trending up or down. With that view, you can double down on programs that consistently deliver value, for example, a fulfillment partner with lifetime revenue share, and quietly phase out those that add complexity without real results.
You can start affiliate marketing without a budget by focusing on channels that are free to use and that you may already have in place, such as a basic website, social media profiles, or an email newsletter. The key is to choose a niche you understand, create genuinely useful content around the problems your audience is facing, and then layer affiliate recommendations into that content. Many affiliate programs are free to join, so your main “investment” is the time you spend building trust and publishing content consistently.
Yes, affiliate marketing is a long-standing and legitimate model used by ecommerce brands, software companies, educational platforms, and more. Brands set up affiliate programs to reward partners for driving traffic, leads, or sales; in return, affiliates earn commissions when they help those brands grow. Like any business model, it needs to be run honestly: choose reputable partners, make clear disclosures about your relationships, and prioritize recommendations that genuinely help your audience rather than quick wins.
Treat affiliate marketing like a focused media business rather than a side hustle. Start by picking a niche where you have experience or real interest, then choose a primary channel, such as a blog, YouTube, social media, or email list, where you can consistently publish content. Join affiliate programs that align with your niche and your audience, weave your recommendations into articles, guides, and case studies, and then track which partners drive meaningful results. If you already run an ecommerce brand, you can treat affiliate programs as an additional revenue stream by recommending trusted partners, such as a fulfillment provider like The Fulfillment Lab, to the customers you’re serving today.
Affiliate marketing is worth it when it’s anchored in long-term relationships and real value. It can create a meaningful, sometimes recurring revenue stream with relatively low financial risk, but it does require ongoing effort: publishing content, nurturing an audience, tracking performance, and refining your approach. For ecommerce businesses, it’s especially powerful when you promote partners that directly improve your customers’ operations or customer experience, such as fulfillment, shipping, or technology providers, because those recommendations deepen your customer relationships while also generating commissions for your brand.
A strong niche sits where your expertise, your audience’s needs, and viable affiliate offers overlap. Start by looking at topics you already discuss with customers, like scaling logistics, improving conversion, or expanding into new channels, and identify recurring problems that keep coming up. Then check whether there are reputable products or services that solve those problems and offer affiliate programs, for example ecommerce platforms, marketing tools, or fulfillment partners. The more specific and problem-focused your niche is, the easier it becomes to create content that stands out and attracts the right people.
Success in affiliate marketing comes from combining trust, relevance, and consistency. Focus on recommending partners you genuinely believe in, and explain clearly how they help your audience achieve their goals. Place your recommendations strategically along the customer journey rather than everywhere, and measure which programs and pieces of content actually drive clicks, sign-ups, and revenue. Over time, prioritize programs that offer strong, predictable value, such as lifetime revenue share with a fulfillment partner like The Fulfillment Lab, and continue refining your content based on what your audience responds to.
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.
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.
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.
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!