It is no longer news that Amazon slashed commission rates for affiliates in 2020. This development left a lot of affiliate marketers and niche site owners in shock with lower affiliate commission rates and reduced payouts.
And a lot of affiliates have been on the lookout for Amazon affiliates alternatives which led me to create this post to help you out.
In this post, we’ll be taking a look at the top seven Amazon affiliates alternatives you should look into for a wide range of products, way higher payouts, and a suitable replacement for Amazon.
Let’s dive in and see which affiliate programs and networks made our list.
#1: eBay Affiliate Program
eBay is a large online platform where you get access to buy and sell varieties of products from any category you can think of. There are over one billion listings on eBay and you can find virtually any product you need.
And they have an affiliate program where you can be part of to make money from promoting the products on eBay.
This makes eBay a solid alternative to the Amazon associates program. The eBay in-house affiliate program known as the eBay Partner Network (EPN) is open to everyone with an eBay account.
How To Join?
You can apply to EPN once you have an active eBay account and If you don’t have one, you'll have to register on eBay to create an account.
Also, there are no strict requirements for joining the eBay Partner network. All the information you need about the eBay affiliate program is available on the EPN landing page and the network agreement page.
The eBay affiliate program uses cookies that are active for just a 24-hour referral period. Plus, eBay allows you to link directly to any particular listing. And they also give you a variety of banners in various sizes to feature on your website.
Commission Rate
eBay pays you various commissions based on the category the product is listed in, ranging from 50% to 70%. Products in categories such as ‘’Parts & Accessories‘’ & ‘’Fashion’’ have a 70% commission rate.
You also get a 100% bonus if a new or reactivated (inactive for a 12-month duration) eBay buyer makes the purchase.
eBay allows you to withdraw your affiliate commissions once you have made a minimum of $10. And you are allowed to withdraw your payments via PayPal or direct deposit (only available in 11 countries).
#2: Target Affiliate Program
The Target affiliate program is another perfect Amazon affiliate alternative. It has got a lot in common with Amazon especially in terms of the scope of products on the marketplace.
Target is a company that has been operating since 1902. But they didn't go online until 1999 when they opened their online store (target.com) and also launched the Target affiliate program soon after their launch.
Target is a good choice for affiliate marketers because you don't need to do much pre-selling and you get higher conversion rates.
So what exactly can you promote as a target affiliate and does it match up what you get in Amazon?
There's a lot of category with various products in each category making it a suitable Amazon alternative where your visitors can buy something from. These categories include:
- Clothing
- Furniture
- Home decoration
- Toys
- Electronics
- Video games
- Health
- Beauty
- Groceries
- And much more.
How to Join?
The Target affiliate program is managed by Impact Radius but you still need to register through the official Target website to be an affiliate. It is free to join and you need some prerequisites to be an approved Target affiliate and this includes:
- A family-friendly website
- Your website must have existing traffic predominantly from the US
Commission Rate
Now let’s look at how much you get paid as a Target affiliate. As a Target affiliate, you get paid for referring customers to Target’s online store based on the category the product belongs to. And the more sales you make, the higher your commission rate.
For instance, you make a 5% commission rate for a start making up to 10 sales for products in the ‘Home & Outdoor Living’ category This rate increases to 8% when you make up to 10,000 sales.
Some categories pay an exact commission rate like the ‘Health and Beauty’ category. You get a flat 1% commission for any amount of sales you make of products in this category.
And there are some certain categories that pay you exactly 0% commission rate and they include groceries, household essentials, baby care items, pets, and more.
#3: Walmart Affiliate Program
Walmart is a large brick-and-mortar retailer and they have an affiliate program that allows you to earn affiliate commissions when customers buy products from Walmart through your site.
How To Join?
Walmart uses Impact Radius to manage its affiliate program and you'll have to join via the Impact Radius network. To join, you'll need to complete their affiliate application and wait till you get approved. Their approval process takes no longer than 24 hours so be sure that you won't wait long to receive the verdict.
There are some requirements you need to satisfy before getting approved. You need a website to get accepted and your website should not promote illegal and sexually explicit activities. As a Walmart affiliate, you get promotional materials such as affiliate banners to promote products in the store.
Also, Walmart allows deep linking which means you can link directly to any particular product page you want to link to. Walmart also gives you data feeds and information on hot, fast-selling, and exclusive products.
Commission Rate
The commission rate of the Walmart affiliate program depends on the category the products belong to. For most products across various categories, the commission rate is 1% or 4%.
And Walmart has a three-day referral window and last click policy. This means the link of the affiliate last clicked by the customer to buy a Walmart product gets the commission.
According to Walmart's terms and conditions, you get paid approximately 60 days following the end of each calendar month. It takes quite a while compared to other affiliate programs.
#4: Commission Junction, CJ Affiliate Network
Commission Junction, CJ is one of the oldest affiliate networks in the world and it was founded over 20 years ago in California.
CJ is a really big network that specializes in pay-for-performance programs. It's quite different from other Amazon Associates due to its awesome real-time analytics, tons of products in various categories, royal treatment for premium publishers, and much more.
How To Join?
CJ Affiliate is free to join. As long as you are at least 18 years old and own an active website, you can sign up as a publisher. They’ll approve you even if you have a new website with little traffic. But if you don’t get results within your first 6 months, your account may get deactivated.
To sign up for CJ, go to their official website cj.com and register as a publisher with your personal information such as your name, email address, and more.
Next, confirm your CJ publisher account application via your email and ‘accept terms’ to complete registration. Once you’re signed up, go to your CJ account manager dashboard to complete your network profile so you can join desired affiliate programs.
You need to complete three sections in the network profile including website description, your promotion methods, and documents to show advertisers how you’re promoting and why you should be approved to join affiliate programs. Later on, you can edit your payment information, tax information for payout.
Commission Rate
CJ has various affiliate programs and you get paid based on the products you’re promoting. There’s a variety of programs including health, electronics to gardening, recycling, and much more. And most offers on the CJ affiliate network are cost per acquisition (CPA) (like pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, and pay-per-call).
To earn big on CJ as an affiliate, your website needs to get a ton of targeted traffic. CJ pays publishers via check, direct deposit, or Payoneer (for non-US residents).
And you get paid within 20 days of the end of the month once you have a minimum of $50 (direct deposit) or $100 (check) in total affiliate payout. As there are various affiliate programs on the CJ, all the affiliate commissions from various affiliate programs you’re part of will be put together. If you’re outside the US, you can get paid according to CJ affiliate’s standard payment schedule via Payoneer as it offers over 150 local currencies with zero clearing fees.
#5: B&H Affiliate Program
B&H is an online store where you can get all things related to photography and video, from cameras, video recorders, laptop bags, TVs, and more. And they have an affiliate program which allows you to earn when you get customers to purchase photo and video equipment from the B&H store.
This affiliate program is suitable for you if you have a site where you promote merchandise related to photos and videos.
How To Join
To sign up for the B&H affiliate program, go to their official site and register to be an affiliate. It is free to join and you get a dedicated affiliate manager as an affiliate along with customizable tools and links.
Be aware that you have to comply with all their local regulations and limitations when promoting their products to get sales.
Commission Rate
As a B&H Photo affiliate, you can earn up to 8% in affiliate commissions on every product sold via your website. And since B&H deals with small items, you get quicker payouts and only need to get up to $80 in commission to receive payments.
The B&H affiliate program is a win-win for everyone. From publishers, product owners, down to end customers. When you make sales, the company makes sales, the customer gets quality merchandise and of course, you get a commission.
Your commissions start from 2% and can increase potentially up to 8% when you perform well. You get to promote over 3,000 products from a long list of brands such as Audio Engine, Xuma, Impact, Bolt, Sensei, Pearstone, and more.
#6: Shareasale Affiliate Network
Established in 2000, ShareASale is an affiliate network acquired by Affiliate Window (Awin) for $35 million. On the site, you’ll find a lot of brands, most especially small & medium enterprises (SMEs) advertising products that you can promote as an affiliate on the affiliate network.
ShareASale is a random sampling of various high-quality merchants and companies with affiliate programs and they offer CPA, pay-per-call, and two-tier affiliate programs. Currently, they are around 4,500 merchants using ShareASale as their affiliate network to promote their products.
How To Join?
To sign up for a publisher account with ShareASale, you need to go to their official website and register as a publisher. Next, choose a username and preferred password.
Then, enter your email address, contact details, payment option, country of residence, and add your main affiliate website which will be used to verify your ShareASale account later.
The next and final step is to agree to their terms and conditions and submit your application for review. ShareASale normally takes 24 hours to approve new accounts so you’ll need to wait for that period to receive a verdict.
Upon approval, you’ll have a dashboard in your ShareASale account. The ShareASale dashboard is easy to use and shows you your current affiliate balance, updates for your ShareASale account, and more. You also get to see the top 10 most popular merchant programs on ShareASale with the ‘Trending Merchants’ feature.
Commissions Rate
ShareASale rewards you based on each affiliate program you join. You get to join affiliate programs listed on the site and even promote popular brand names like Namecheap, Wpengine, Qatar Airways, Thinkific, California Wine Club, Masterclass, and many more.
The commission you earn is dependent on the particular affiliate program you choose to promote. In getting paid, ShareASale issues affiliate payments on the 20th of every month. So, for every sale you make on September 20th, you’ll get paid on October 20th.
And concerning payment methods, you’re at liberty to choose between Payoneer, direct deposit, and mailed check. Before getting paid, you need to have a balance up to the payment threshold of $50 in your affiliate account.
#7: Wayfair Affiliate Program
Wayfair is an American-based retailer of home furnishings and décor items and they have millions of products with over 10,000 different suppliers. They have warehouses across the USA and also in Canada, UK, Ireland, and Germany.
Wayfair doesn't provide international shipping to countries where they don’t have warehouses currently, so you should join their affiliate program only if you have traffic from the countries listed above. The Wayfair affiliate program is yet another Amazon affiliate alternative and you can promote any of the products listed on their site as a Wayfair affiliate.
How To Join?
To join the Wayfair affiliate program, you have to register via CJ and sign up as a CJ publisher. Wayfair hosts its affiliate program on the affiliate network.
Once you register as a CJ publisher and you are approved, you can now promote products on the Wayfair and Wayfair’s sister companies including Birch Lane, Joss and Main, and All Modern. You get a 7-day cookie period as an affiliate, you can’t bid on Wayfair’s trademarked terms and they do not allow direct linking from your ads to their product listings.
Commission Rate
The Wayfair affiliate program offers you a 7% affiliate commission rate (a little lower than Amazon’s 8% on furniture) for every sale you refer to them in a seven-day referral period. But if your customer uses a Wayfair Pro account to order from the huge selection of products via your link, you won't get the commission.
Final Words
And those are the seven Amazon affiliate alternatives I think are worth checking out and joining. In case you need some more specific affiliate programs, a simple google search would do the trick.
Go on to google and type “niche name” + affiliate program, and you’ll find a ton of niche-specific affiliate programs to join in the results.
For instance, if you have a niche site about gardening and you need affiliate programs to promote on your site, a google search for “gardening affiliate programs” would give you the much-needed pointer.
Also, you can look out for private product and course creators, reach out to them and see if they have a referral system in place.
Here is my favorite private product that I promote and for starters, I always tell everyone to start with the $1.99 Insiders Guide Ebook, and that way you get the 15-day Business Builder Challenge for free and much more. Sounds too good to be true but I promise it's not.
Let me know in the comment section which Amazon affiliate alternative you’ll seriously consider.
Shelly Hopkins
