PARTNERSHIP GROWTH

Is affiliate marketing an attractive growth channel for all ecommerce brands?

Short answer? No.

Still interested in who? That’s great… keep reading.

It’s not simply about product-partner-fit. Your products may well be suited for affiliate marketing, but are your margins? is your mindset? is your attention?

I’ve been doing this now for 25 years. I know there’s no ‘best play’ when it comes to building and growing a scaleable affiliate strategy. It’s down to market, market size, competitor activity, margins… the list goes on. I certainly won’t recommend affiliate marketing as a growth channel to every ecommerce business.

Here’s why…

✅ Low-margin, low-price businesses
– If your average order value (AOV) is small and margins are razor thin (e.g., selling commodity office supplies or budget home goods), paying commissions to affiliates can quickly erase any profit.
– Even if you limit commissions, affiliates won’t be motivated to promote your products because the potential payout is too small.

✅ Hyper-niche B2B products with long sales cycles
– If you sell something like industrial machinery parts or enterprise-level software subscriptions, affiliate marketing rarely works. Affiliates generally thrive on volume and faster conversions, not deals that take months and multiple stakeholders.

✅ Brands with severe supply chain or fulfillment issues
– If you’re constantly out of stock or have long, unpredictable shipping times, affiliate promotions can backfire. Affiliates will drive traffic to your site only to frustrate their audience, hurting both your reputation and the affiliate’s trust.

✅ Heavily regulated or restricted products
– Think weapons, vaping products, or adult-only items: many ad networks, affiliate platforms and influencers avoid or prohibit promotion of these products entirely. Even if you find affiliates, they’ll struggle to reach audiences without violating ad or platform policies.

✅ Brands prioritising exclusivity or scarcity
– Luxury brands that rely on tightly controlled distribution or brand mystique (e.g., Hermès or Rolex) often avoid affiliate programs, since the discount-heavy, wide-reach nature of affiliate marketing can undermine their positioning. Does that mean affiliate marketing isn’t suited to luxury brands? Not at all. You do need to ensure that the element of exclusivity is reflected in your approach to vetting affiliates. You can run on an invite-only basis. It’s by far the most lucrative and purposeful way of growing your partnership program.

✅ Brands without clear, consistent messaging or positioning
– If your brand identity is muddled or still evolving, giving affiliates creative control can create confusion and inconsistency in-market. Better to solidify your story first. Seriously, I’ll repeat this on every newsletter, article or webinar I create… affiliate marketing isn’t a channel that’s going to suddenly fix your bigger picture ecommerce challenges. Without clarity and healthy conversion rates you will quickly lose trust with those affiliates that could easily be your best performers if you simply focused your core marketing strategy first.

✅ Companies without the bandwidth to manage relationships
– Even automated platforms need human oversight: approving partners, checking for brand alignment, paying commissions, monitoring compliance, etc. If you’re a very early-stage brand with no capacity for this, launching an affiliate program too soon can distract you from critical foundational work. The secret sauce to your affiliate success is as much about the ingredients of communications than they are of your product. I’ve seen amazing affiliate marketers spend their days talking, updating and investing energies in solidifying partnerships as apposed to driving new affiliate registrations. I can’t emphasise this enough.

Bottom line?

If your margins can’t support commissions, your product isn’t suitable for influencer or content-driven sales, or you lack the operational readiness to run a program well, affiliate marketing will probably waste time and money… and may even damage your brand.