By advertiser type · Stores & retailers
Stores & Retailers
with Affiliate Programs
Choosing Which Shop Each Link Points At
A brand sells its own product, so you pick the product. A store sells everybody's — which means the thing your reader wants is usually on several store campaigns at once, and the decision worth getting right is not which store to join. It is which store this particular link should send them to.
- Paid on an order that is kept
- Rates applied per item
- Approval is per campaign
- Qualifying action
- An order the store accepts and keeps
- The real choice
- Which store a link points at, not which to join
- The map
- A delivery list — where the store actually ships
- The upkeep
- Links age with the catalogue, not with the campaign
Settle this first
Two kinds of shop, two kinds of campaign
“Store” covers a retailer carrying thousands of other people's products and a shop selling only its own. They are priced differently and they are chosen differently, so work out which one you are reading before you compare anything.
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Kind one
The multi-brand retailer
One campaign standing over thousands of products from suppliers it does not own. Because of that the category rate table does the real work, not the headline rate: the product group your reader ends up buying is what sets what you earn.
Open the rate table before you compare one retailer with another.
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Kind two
The single-brand store
One catalogue, one price point, usually one rate — and often a separate amount for a first-time buyer. The rate is simple to read, so the question shifts to who your reader is: somebody new to that shop, or somebody it already had.
Here the payout turns on the shopper, not on the basket.
Both lines are the retail category's own, and it lists ten more shapes beside them — fashion, electronics, grocery, outlet and the rest, each with the thing that changes your terms: e-commerce and retail campaigns. What is open to applications right now is in the campaign index.
The thing that makes stores different
You are choosing a link, not a store
This is the one advertiser type where your reader could have bought the same item from three of your partners. Everything awkward about store campaigns, and everything useful, follows from that.
- 01
One item, several stores
A brand sells its own product, so picking a brand campaign is picking something to recommend. A store sells everybody's — the same item your reader wants is usually on more than one store campaign you can already link to. That changes what you are choosing.
- 02
So it is decided per page, not once
The store that suits a gift guide does not automatically suit a review, and neither answer survives a change of market. Treat a store campaign as a shortlist entry rather than a partner, and make the call again where the link actually goes.
- 03
The country list is a delivery list
In most categories a market list is commercial. Here it is where the store ships, and a click from a country it does not deliver to cannot convert at all. Check it against where your readers are, not against where you would like them to be.
- 04
The rate follows the item
Rates are applied per item and product groups can each carry their own, so the store with the better headline percentage may pay less on the exact thing your page is about. Two stores are only comparable once you are comparing the same category.
- 05
The credit does not always follow the click
A code entered at checkout can change who gets credited, and some campaigns issue a vanity code that credits you even when the buyer typed it straight in without clicking anything. The brief states the attribution rule — on a deal page it is worth more than the rate.
Rows three, four and five are the retail category's own rules rather than this page's advice — what a percentage is applied to, what the market list means in a business that ships boxes, and how a code at checkout is treated are all set out on e-commerce and retail campaigns. What follows here is only what to do with them when two stores are in front of you.
The decision aid
Seven signals, in the order they rule stores out
Run these top to bottom and most comparisons are over before the rate. The first three disqualify; the last four decide between what is left.
| Signal | Why it moves the decision | How to settle it |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery markets | A click from outside them cannot convert, however well the page is written. | Country list on the brief, checked against where your readers actually are |
| Stock and page life | A deep link to a sold-out or deleted product converts nothing and looks careless. | Link a level up, or put the product URLs on a re-check schedule |
| The rate for this item | Rates are applied per item, so the store's headline percentage may not be the one you earn. | Open the category rate table and compare the same product group |
| Who your reader is | Some campaigns add an amount for a first-time buyer and pay less on somebody the store already had. | Payout section, weighed against how familiar that shop already is to your audience |
| Codes on your channel | A code changes what the shopper sees, and can change who ends up credited for the order. | Voucher policy: which named code you may hold, and the date it dies |
| How deep you may link | Not every category is promotable, and feed access is granted per account rather than by default. | Creative section — deep links for editorial, the feeds for listings |
| The checkout itself | A store that cannot take the order cannot pay you, whatever the brief promises. | Place the click yourself and walk a basket to the payment step before publishing |
The last row is worth doing by hand. Every advertiser here is verified before its campaign is listed — the company, the product and a working billing page — but a checkout that is fine in one market can fail in another, and you will find that faster than a report will. The line-by-line reading of a retail brief is on the retail category page; the checklist that applies to every vertical is on affiliate programs, compared.
Where the link lands
Three depths, and the trade they make
Intent and durability pull in opposite directions on a store campaign, because the catalogue changes under your page whether or not you are watching. Pick the depth on purpose.
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Deepest
The product page
Most intent, shortest life.
The link that carries everything your article built, straight to the thing you wrote about. It also dies with the product: sold out, replaced or delisted, and the click lands on nothing. Worth it where the page is about one item and you will maintain it.
Reviews, single-product guides, social drops.
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Middle
The category page
Survives the catalogue.
A level up from the item, so stock changes underneath it without breaking the link. You lose some intent and gain a link you do not have to nurse. Check first that the category is promotable at all — the advertiser decides which ones are.
Round-ups, evergreen buying guides, seasonal pages.
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Shallowest
The storefront
Outlives almost everything.
The reader arrives with their own intent and finds the item themselves. Weakest conversion of the three and the strongest against churn, which makes it the right default for a sidebar, a resources list or a line that says where to buy.
Where-to-buy lines, sidebars, long-lived pages.
Whichever depth you pick, label it: each tracking link carries five sub ID slots you fill yourself, so a store, a page and a placement can each be a column in your own report instead of pooling into one number — tracking links has the anatomy and the test conversion. Listings that have to stay current on their own run on the feeds rather than on hand-built links.
Finding them
Three ways to answer “which stores”
No list of shops is published here, and one would be wrong within a season. These three routes stay true: one for right now, one for scale, and one for a shop you already have in mind.
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Route one
The campaign index
Filter by vertical, model and region and you are looking at what is open to applications now. Availability here moves by market and by season, so this is the only place that answers the question as it stands today rather than as it stood when a list was written.
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Route two
The feeds
Two of them, and they carry offers rather than a full catalogue: an offers feed with campaign, destination, payout model, countries and the incentive flag, and a coupon feed with live codes, their terms and their end dates. This is the route if you maintain a lot of links.
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Route three
The store's own website
For a shop that is not on this network, the answer is usually in its own footer — a partner or affiliate link, and the terms behind it. That check takes five minutes and works on any advertiser, which is why it has a page of its own rather than a paragraph here.
Upkeep
What to check, and what breaks later
Store links are the only ones on this network that can stop working without anybody doing anything wrong. The left list is a launch check; the right one is why a page that earned last year earns nothing now.
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Before a store link goes live
- The store ships to the markets your readers are actually in
- The product group you are writing about is in the rate table, not excluded
- The destination URL loads, and the item is genuinely in stock
- Any code you publish is the advertiser's own, named to you and in date
- A sub ID identifies this placement, not just this campaign
- You have clicked your own link and watched the order reach the payment step
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What quietly breaks one later
- The product sells out, is replaced, or its URL quietly 404s
- A code passes its end date and keeps sitting on your page
- The rate table is revised and your best category moves down it
- The store stops shipping to a market your page was written for
- A season ends and the delivery cut-off closes it days early
- The campaign changes source or terms and nobody tells your CMS
Only one of those six is a compliance problem, and it is the code: expired, invented or scraped codes invalidate every conversion they generate, so a stale one costs you the orders it brought in. The rest are maintenance — which is why a re-check cadence matters more on store campaigns than anywhere else. Deal and cashback placements have their own terms on coupon and cashback publishers.
Questions
Store and retailer questions
What publishers ask before they commit a page to a shop — including the one this page answers with three routes instead of a list.
What stores have affiliate programs?
Enough that a list is the wrong tool. A store's programme can be open in one market and closed in another, and can pause around a trading season, so any list is out of date before you have finished reading it. Use the campaign index for what is open to applications now, and if you are asking about one particular shop, check its own footer for a partner link.
Two stores sell the same thing. Which one should my link point at?
Work through it in this order: does it ship where your readers are, will the page still exist next month, what does its rate table pay on that exact product group, and is your reader likely new to that shop. The store that wins on all four is rarely the one with the biggest headline percentage.
Do big retailers pay better than single-brand stores?
No rates are published on this site, so treat any comparison as a per-item question rather than a per-store one. A multi-brand retailer usually pays from a category table, so what you earn depends on what your reader buys; a single-brand store usually pays one rate and may add an amount for a first-time buyer. Compare the same category or you are not comparing anything.
Do I apply to each store separately?
Yes — approval is per campaign, matched against the traffic sources you declared when you registered. A refusal on one store says nothing about the next, and access to one does not carry across to another even inside the same category.
Why did my store order not track?
The usual causes are a click from a country the store does not deliver to, a discount code entered at checkout that changed who was credited, or an order that was returned inside the window. The first two are written on the brief before you apply; the third shows up as a reversal with its reason.
Can I publish discount codes for a store?
Only codes the advertiser has issued, within the dates they set, on campaigns that accept that kind of placement. Expired, invented or scraped codes are a policy breach and invalidate every conversion they generate, so a code that outlives its window costs you the orders it brought in rather than earning a few extra.
When does a store commission actually get paid?
The conversion stays pending until the advertiser's return window closes and the order is confirmed as delivered and unrefunded. After that the hold period runs, and the balance joins the next payment run once it clears the minimum. A partial return reduces the commission rather than cancelling it.
Can I link straight to a product page?
On campaigns that allow it, and only into categories the advertiser has made promotable. Deep links carry the most intent and the least durability, so use them where the page is about that one item and you will keep it current — and link to the category instead where you will not.
Is there a feed of stores I can pull?
There are two, and they carry offers rather than a full product catalogue. The offers feed lists campaign, destination, payout model, countries and the incentive flag; the coupon feed lists live codes with their terms and end dates. Product-level promotion runs on deep links rather than on a feed.
I run a shop. Is this where I set up my own programme?
No — this page is for publishers sending traffic. A retailer looking to launch a programme starts on the retail and e-commerce brands page, which covers category rates, voucher governance and store integrations from the advertiser's side.
Keep reading
- E-commerce & retail campaigns The vertical hub: the basket, the rate table and the trading calendar
- Brands with affiliate programs The sibling advertiser type, and the five-minute check
- Affiliate programs, compared What every line of a campaign brief decides
- Coupon & cashback publishers Deal traffic: codes, the incentive tag and what it pays
- Tracking links Deep links, the five sub ID slots and the test conversion
- Payment schedule Holds, thresholds and when a run is paid
Shortlist the shops, then place the links
Create your publisher account, then apply to the store campaigns whose markets, categories and code rules fit the pages you already publish.