Ten steps, and none of them need a developer
To start an affiliate program as a merchant: connect your payment platform, set one commission rule, write your terms, create a signup page, and invite your first partners. On Stripe or Shopify that takes under an hour with no developer. The slow part is not the setup, it is recruiting the first ten partners.
Looking to join an affiliate program and earn commissions instead? This guide is for merchants setting one up.
Quick answer
Four things. Software provides all four; a spreadsheet provides the first one badly and none of the others.
Track sales back to a partner
A link, a coupon code, or both. Both is the right answer.
A commission rule
Percentage or flat, one-time or recurring, capped if recurring scares you.
A way to pay people
PayPal, Wise, bank or credits, plus tax forms for US partners.
Somewhere to sign up
A branded portal where partners see their own numbers.
The setup
It advances on its own. Three of the ten show the actual screen.
What counts as a sale?
Everything downstream inherits this answer. Stores usually mean the first order. Subscriptions choose between trial signup and first payment, and the choice changes who you attract: paying on signup recruits volume, paying on conversion recruits buyers. Sales-led products should pay on the booked call, the last event a partner can influence.
Links AND codes
Links are the default everyone sets up. Codes are what people skip, and in ecommerce a big share of affiliate sales arrive as a code typed at checkout. A link-only program never sees them, and partners watch their sales go uncredited. Both costs nothing extra.
Coupon tracking is on every plan. Automatic per-affiliate generation starts on Business.
Start from gross margin, not a competitor's rate card. Then pick the structure, which moves the offer more than the percentage: if an uncapped recurring rate scares your margin, cap it by payments instead of lowering it. A high rate for twelve payments recruits better than a low one forever, and costs less.
The attribution window
The window decides how long after a click a sale still credits the partner. Sixty days is the default and configurable on every plan. Once you have data, measure how many conversions land after day 7, 30 and 60, and size the window to the tail you actually have.
I was looking to build an online portal for affiliates to track their sales and Referly saved me so much work! There's so many amazing extra features like custom domains and fully customisable affiliate rates. Additionally, the API allowed us to integrate this directly into our app turning each of our users into affiliates!
Alistair Heath
Hapcha
Stripe connects in one click, Shopify through the official app, no developer and no code change. WooCommerce, Paddle, Chargebee, Polar and Zylvie are first-class too; a custom stack needs one line of JavaScript. Do this before inviting anyone, because commissions, refunds and payouts all derive from what this connection sees.
Four things in writing
Four things in writing before any partner joins: which promotion methods are banned (branded paid search is the usual fight), what happens to a commission on refund, when money actually goes out, and what ends the relationship. Publish them. The partners you want read terms before applying.
How partners get paid
Three settings decide how long a partner waits for money: the holding period (lets refunds land first), payout terms from NET 0 to NET 60, and the minimum threshold. Set the threshold low enough that a first payout is actually reachable, or small partners stop promoting.
Automated payouts through PayPal and Wise start on the Business plan. The entry plan pays manually with proof attached.
Tax paperwork, collected
US partners need a W-9, everyone else a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E, and your accountant sets the thresholds. Referly collects the forms in the partner portal with the tax ID encrypted at rest, and generates EU self-billing invoices with VAT validation where they apply.
Tax form collection and EU invoicing start on the Business plan.
Partners judge the program by this page. The portal is branded, runs in 15 languages, and takes custom application questions on every plan. Three good questions filter better than any approval policy. Review applications while you learn who converts, then switch auto-approval on.
Your own portal domain starts on the Business plan; the branded portal itself is on every plan.
The step that decides it
The team is very proactive in developing it and adding new features. But the customer support? Outstanding. I love the openness and the willingness to help even with little things.
Hilmee
Founder
Nine steps take an afternoon. This one takes a quarter, and it is the only one that decides whether the program works. Start with the people already connected to you: customers, creators covering your category, affiliates who opted into being found. Cold outreach comes last, not first.
What counts as a sale?
Everything downstream inherits this answer. Stores usually mean the first order. Subscriptions choose between trial signup and first payment, and the choice changes who you attract: paying on signup recruits volume, paying on conversion recruits buyers. Sales-led products should pay on the booked call, the last event a partner can influence.
Links AND codes
Links are the default everyone sets up. Codes are what people skip, and in ecommerce a big share of affiliate sales arrive as a code typed at checkout. A link-only program never sees them, and partners watch their sales go uncredited. Both costs nothing extra.
Coupon tracking is on every plan. Automatic per-affiliate generation starts on Business.
Start from gross margin, not a competitor's rate card. Then pick the structure, which moves the offer more than the percentage: if an uncapped recurring rate scares your margin, cap it by payments instead of lowering it. A high rate for twelve payments recruits better than a low one forever, and costs less.
The attribution window
The window decides how long after a click a sale still credits the partner. Sixty days is the default and configurable on every plan. Once you have data, measure how many conversions land after day 7, 30 and 60, and size the window to the tail you actually have.
I was looking to build an online portal for affiliates to track their sales and Referly saved me so much work! There's so many amazing extra features like custom domains and fully customisable affiliate rates. Additionally, the API allowed us to integrate this directly into our app turning each of our users into affiliates!
Alistair Heath
Hapcha
Stripe connects in one click, Shopify through the official app, no developer and no code change. WooCommerce, Paddle, Chargebee, Polar and Zylvie are first-class too; a custom stack needs one line of JavaScript. Do this before inviting anyone, because commissions, refunds and payouts all derive from what this connection sees.
Four things in writing
Four things in writing before any partner joins: which promotion methods are banned (branded paid search is the usual fight), what happens to a commission on refund, when money actually goes out, and what ends the relationship. Publish them. The partners you want read terms before applying.
How partners get paid
Three settings decide how long a partner waits for money: the holding period (lets refunds land first), payout terms from NET 0 to NET 60, and the minimum threshold. Set the threshold low enough that a first payout is actually reachable, or small partners stop promoting.
Automated payouts through PayPal and Wise start on the Business plan. The entry plan pays manually with proof attached.
Tax paperwork, collected
US partners need a W-9, everyone else a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E, and your accountant sets the thresholds. Referly collects the forms in the partner portal with the tax ID encrypted at rest, and generates EU self-billing invoices with VAT validation where they apply.
Tax form collection and EU invoicing start on the Business plan.
Partners judge the program by this page. The portal is branded, runs in 15 languages, and takes custom application questions on every plan. Three good questions filter better than any approval policy. Review applications while you learn who converts, then switch auto-approval on.
Your own portal domain starts on the Business plan; the branded portal itself is on every plan.
The step that decides it
The team is very proactive in developing it and adding new features. But the customer support? Outstanding. I love the openness and the willingness to help even with little things.
Hilmee
Founder
Nine steps take an afternoon. This one takes a quarter, and it is the only one that decides whether the program works. Start with the people already connected to you: customers, creators covering your category, affiliates who opted into being found. Cold outreach comes last, not first.
The number
Start from your margin, then let the structure do the work. The capped line stopping is the whole argument.
Commission paid per customer, first 24 months
IllustrativeMonth 12 is where the capped 25% stops accruing. Until then it pays the partner MORE than the uncapped 20%. Stronger recruiting offer, lower lifetime cost.
| Month | 20% one-time | 20% recurring, uncapped | 25% recurring, capped at 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10 | $10 | $12 |
| 2 | $10 | $20 | $25 |
| 3 | $10 | $29 | $37 |
| 4 | $10 | $39 | $49 |
| 5 | $10 | $49 | $61 |
| 6 | $10 | $59 | $74 |
| 7 | $10 | $69 | $86 |
| 8 | $10 | $78 | $98 |
| 9 | $10 | $88 | $110 |
| 10 | $10 | $98 | $123 |
| 11 | $10 | $108 | $135 |
| 12 | $10 | $118 | $147 |
| 13 | $10 | $127 | $147 |
| 14 | $10 | $137 | $147 |
| 15 | $10 | $147 | $147 |
| 16 | $10 | $157 | $147 |
| 17 | $10 | $167 | $147 |
| 18 | $10 | $176 | $147 |
| 19 | $10 | $186 | $147 |
| 20 | $10 | $196 | $147 |
| 21 | $10 | $206 | $147 |
| 22 | $10 | $216 | $147 |
| 23 | $10 | $225 | $147 |
| 24 | $10 | $235 | $147 |
20% one-time
$9.80 per customer, ever
20% recurring, uncapped
$235 over two years, open-ended liability
25% capped at 12 payments
Bigger headline, bounded cost. The recruiting winner
Step-down schedules start on the Business plan.
Do you need software?
Honestly: a spreadsheet is fine for five partners. It stops being fine at the first refund, the first international payout and the first W-9.
 From $75/mo, 0% of sales | SpreadsheetsYour Sunday | A managed agency$3,000 to $8,000/mo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attribution | Every click, coupon and renewal, automatic | “Did this sale come from Maya?” | A monthly PDF |
| Paying partners | One batch via PayPal or Wise | Forty manual transfers | Baked into the retainer |
| Tax forms | W-9s and W-8s collected in the portal | A folder of emailed PDFs | Their problem, at their price |
| Partner experience | A branded portal on your domain | A shared spreadsheet | You never talk to them |
| Refunds | Detected, commission reversed | You remember, or you don't | Reconciled a month later |
Referly pricing is read from the plan registry at build time. The agency range is a typical published retainer, not a quote.
A realistic timeline
The first payout is usually smaller than the software fee. That is week four working correctly.
Connect and configure
Platform connected, one commission rule, coupon tracking on. Test the whole path in test mode before anyone sees it.
Terms, portal, invitations
Terms written, signup page branded, assets uploaded, first ten invitations out.
First clicks, first hold
A sale attributes and the commission sits on hold. That is the refund window doing its job.
First payout, first W-9
The first batch goes out and it is smaller than the software fee. Normal. Revenue is a month-three question.
The expensive ones
1. Launching without coupon tracking
Partners watch code-driven sales go uncredited and conclude your tracking is broken. For their purposes, it is.
2. A window nobody would accept
Seven days looks prudent internally and reads as bad faith externally. It is the term most likely to be screenshotted.
3. No clawback clause in the terms
Refunds reverse commissions automatically on every plan. If the terms never said so, the first reversal is an argument.
4. Approving everyone
Open approval fills the roster with coupon sites. Three good application questions filter better than any policy.
5. No fraud rules
Email and IP matching between buyer and affiliate runs on every plan. Unconfigured, self-referrals get paid.
6. Treating launch as the finish line
Almost every stalled program is fully configured. What it lacks is partners, and setup produces none.
FAQ
The ones that come up before anyone has connected anything.
14-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
Not on Stripe or Shopify. Stripe connects in one click and Shopify through the official app; both start attributing sales without anyone touching your code. A custom stack needs one line of JavaScript on your site, and there is a REST API and webhooks for anything more involved, those start on the Business plan.
Next
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