What is an affiliate commission?

An affiliate commission is the amount a store pays an affiliate for a sale that affiliate referred. It is usually a percentage of the order or a fixed amount per order. The affiliate earns it only on an attributed order, one the store can connect to them, and the store sets the rules that decide how much each sale pays.

What you will learn

• How a commission is calculated: percentage or fixed amount
• Why commission is earned only on attributed orders
• How a default rule and overrides set different rates for different products and affiliates

How a commission is calculated

Most programs use one of two commission types:

• Percentage: the affiliate earns a share of the order. For example, a 10% commission on an $80 order pays $8. Bigger orders pay more, so this type rewards affiliates who send high-value customers.
• Fixed amount: the affiliate earns the same amount on every order, such as $5, whatever the order total. This type is easy to explain and easy to predict.

Whichever type you choose, write it into your program terms, the rules every affiliate agrees to, so affiliates know what each sale pays before they start promoting.

Commission is earned only on attributed orders

Attribution is the rule that decides which affiliate gets credit for an order. An attributed order is one the store can connect to a specific affiliate, usually because the customer followed the affiliate's referral link, a web address that identifies the affiliate, or entered their discount code, a code unique to the affiliate, at checkout.

In Simple Affiliate, a commission exists only once an order is attributed under your program's rules. An order with no referral link, discount code, or other supported way to identify the affiliate credits nobody, even if the customer heard about the product from an affiliate. This is why you should tell affiliates and their audiences to use the link or code as intended.

An attributed order's commission can still change after the sale. In Simple Affiliate, canceling the order or refunding it in full cancels the commission. A partial refund reduces a percentage-based commission in proportion to the value of the items returned. You can also reverse a referral yourself, for example a duplicate.

Default rules and overrides

Most programs start with a default commission, one rule that covers every product. An override is an exception to that default for specific products. Stores use overrides because margins, the profit left after costs, differ across a catalog. For example, you might:

• Pay a reduced rate on lower-margin products
• Pay a higher rate on the product you most want affiliates to promote
• Give a whole collection of products one shared rate

In Simple Affiliate, you set a default commission for the program. On the Pro plan and above, you can override a percentage default for specific products, variants (a product's size or color options), or collections; a default that pays a fixed amount per order cannot have these overrides. The default covers everything you have not overridden.

Different rules for different affiliates

Commission rules can also differ between affiliates. A group is a set of affiliates who share the same rules. In Simple Affiliate, on the Basic plan and above, you can create several groups and give each its own commission rules, for example when partners have different agreements or promotional responsibilities. The Starter plan has one group.

Affiliates receive the full commission

In Simple Affiliate, fees never come out of an affiliate's commission: the affiliate receives the full amount they earned. If you pay through Autopay, the automatic payout option, the processing fee, the charge for moving the money to the affiliate, is charged to you on top of the commission. For what that costs, see the Simple Affiliate pricing page.

To see how product and variant overrides are set up in the app, read How to set product-specific commissions (Pro plan) in the help center.