Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026
Affiliate Program Benchmarks 2026: Data from 464 Shopify Stores
The Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026 gives medians and quartiles from 464 programs on Simple Affiliate, for orders from November 1, 2025 to October 31, 2026.
Data read .
Key figures of the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026
- Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026: median commission of 10.0% of referred sales (461 programs).
- Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026: new customers give 60.8% of the referred sales of the median program (461 programs).
- Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026: 25.6% of the affiliates of the median program made a sale in 12 months (463 programs).
- Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026: the top affiliate of the median program gives 42.2% of its referred sales (461 programs).
- Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026: 311 of 464 programs (67.0%) get more than half of their referrals from discount codes.
- Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026: median referred sales of $14,279 in 12 months (462 programs).
What is the average affiliate commission rate?
The Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026 found that the median Simple Affiliate program pays 10.0% of referred sales in commission (461 programs).
The median percent rate of the default affiliate group is 10% (442 programs).
167 of 464 programs pay 10% commission in their default affiliate group.
73 of 464 programs pay 15% commission in their default affiliate group.
61 of 464 programs pay 5% commission in their default affiliate group.
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commission as a share of referred sales | 461 | 7.9% | 10.0% | 15.0% |
How much do affiliates sell for a program?
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, the median program got $14,279 of referred sales in 12 months (462 programs).
The median average referred order is $85 (462 programs).
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referred sales in 12 months (USD) | 462 | $4,211 | $14,279 | $54,634 |
| Average referred order (USD) | 462 | $54 | $85 | $155 |
How many referred customers are new customers?
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, new customers give 60.8% of the referred sales of the median program (461 programs).
New customers place 62.6% of the referred orders of the median program (464 programs).
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of referred orders from new customers | 464 | 38.8% | 62.6% | 82.2% |
| Share of referred sales from new customers | 461 | 36.0% | 60.8% | 82.5% |
How many affiliates make a sale?
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, 25.6% of the affiliates of the median program made a sale in 12 months (463 programs).
The median program has 11 affiliates with one sale or more (464 programs).
Among programs with 10 or more new affiliates, 17.9% of the new affiliates of the median program make a sale in their first 90 days (230 programs).
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliates in the program | 463 | 17 | 51 | 145.5 |
| Affiliates with one sale or more | 464 | 5 | 11 | 23.25 |
| Share of affiliates with a sale in 12 months | 463 | 11.1% | 25.6% | 46.8% |
| The same share, programs with 20 or more affiliates | 338 | 8.6% | 19.0% | 33.3% |
| Share of new affiliates with a sale in 90 days (programs with 10 or more new affiliates) | 230 | 7.6% | 17.9% | 32.7% |
| Median days from sign-up to the first sale (programs with 10 or more new affiliates) | 218 | 13.1 | 24.0 | 40.4 |
How much of the sales come from the top affiliates?
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, the top affiliate of the median program gives 42.2% of its referred sales (461 programs).
Among programs with 10 or more affiliates with a sale, the top 10% of affiliates give 58.6% of the referred sales of the median program (263 programs).
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of referred sales from the top affiliate | 461 | 26.3% | 42.2% | 62.9% |
| Share of referred sales from the top 10% of affiliates (programs with 10 or more affiliates with a sale) | 263 | 45.3% | 58.6% | 70.6% |
Do affiliates sell with discount codes or links?
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, 311 of 464 programs (67.0%) get more than half of their referrals from discount codes.
174 of 464 programs (37.5%) get 95% or more of their referrals from discount codes.
96 of 464 programs (20.7%) get 95% or more of their referrals from links.
The median share of codes alone does not describe a typical program: many programs use almost only one method.
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of referrals from discount codes | 464 | 4.0% | 88.9% | 98.1% |
| Share of referrals from links | 464 | 0.9% | 6.8% | 74.2% |
How many referrals are reversed?
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, 1.6% of the referrals of the median program were reversed (464 programs).
| Figure for one program | Programs | 25% | Median | 75% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of referrals that were reversed | 464 | 0.2% | 1.6% | 4.1% |
How do merchants pay affiliates?
Payments paid in the period, from the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026:
236 of 339 programs with a paid payment used Autopay through Stripe.
227 of 339 programs with a paid payment used Autopay through Stripe for more than half of their paid payments.
135 of 339 programs with a paid payment used manual payments.
111 of 339 programs with a paid payment used manual payments for more than half of their paid payments.
Which program settings do merchants use?
These are the stored settings of the default affiliate group on November 10, 2026, not during the period.
In the Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, 294 of 464 programs turn on a discount for the referred customer.
The median percent discount is 10% (276 programs).
459 of 464 programs use a 30-day conversion window.
The median conversion window is 30 days (464 programs).
60 of 464 programs turn on the customer connection, which keeps a referred customer connected to the affiliate for later orders, with or without a time limit.
Method
- Period: orders from November 1, 2025 to October 31, 2026, with the UTC day boundary.
- Programs: Simple Affiliate merchants with 20 or more confirmed referrals in the period (464 programs). The figures describe these programs, not all Shopify affiliate programs.
- Development, staff, test and fraudulent stores are left out.
- One program is one data point. Each figure is the median and the quartiles (25% and 75%) across programs, or a count of programs. Each figure comes from 50 or more programs, and the page gives its number of programs.
- Currency: each program uses the amounts in its shop currency. The USD figures use the latest rate on the read date (rates with report dates from January 18, 2019 to November 9, 2026), not the rate on the order date. A program with a referral in a currency that has no rate is left out of the USD figures, so those figures show a smaller number of programs. A program with referrals in two or more shop currencies is left out of the commission share, the new-customer share of sales and the top-affiliate shares.
- New customer: the referred order was the first order of that Shopify customer when Simple Affiliate recorded the referral. Referrals whose order had no customer, or whose Shopify customer Simple Affiliate could not find at that time, are left out of the new-customer figures.
- Referred sales: the order amount that the commission uses, less partial refunds. A referral is reversed when its order is cancelled, voided, refunded in full or restocked, or when the merchant reverses it by hand. Commission: the commission recorded on confirmed referrals, after partial refunds, not the amount paid out. The reversal share counts reversed referrals among confirmed and reversed referrals.
- Affiliates: the affiliates in the program, the shares of affiliates with a sale and the new-affiliate figures count the affiliates that signed up before the end of the period and have the status active or suspended on the read date, so deleted and pending affiliates are left out. The affiliates with one sale or more and the top-affiliate shares count each affiliate with a confirmed referral in the period, whatever its status now. A new affiliate signed up in the first nine months of the period, so each had 90 days or more to make a sale. Its first sale is its first confirmed referral before the end of the period.
- Settings: the counts use the stored settings of the default group on November 10, 2026, not the settings during the period. Some settings work only on a paid plan, and a setting that is on still counts in a store on a plan without that feature. A customer discount counts only when it has a value, and the median percent discount leaves out free shipping.
- Payout methods: the counts use the 339 programs with a payment paid in the period. A method is the main method of a program when it has more than half of the paid payments of the program. A manual payment is a payment that the merchant sends outside Simple Affiliate and marks as paid.
Data read on November 10, 2026. Simple Affiliate updates these figures one time each year.
Cite this page: Simple Affiliate Benchmark Report 2026, Simple Affiliate, https://simple-affiliate.com/pages/affiliate-program-benchmarks
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