What percentage of my total eCommerce revenue should come from affiliate marketing in 2026?

In this guide, we’ll address what percentage of your eCommerce revenue should come from affiliate marketing, the commission that you should be offering affiliates, what split of your affiliate revenue should come from publishers, content creators and podcasts – and even whether you should be paying upfront for affiliates in 2026.

Whether you’re in the sports, fitness, food, health & beauty, wellbeing or any eCommerce industry – we dig deep into the statistics to give you the answer.

So, what percentage of my revenue should come from affiliate marketing in 2026?

The short answer to this question is: it totally depends on a huge variety of factors. There is no one size fits all and affiliate marketing truly is a ‘you get back what you put in’ type of funnel – but in this article we’ll outline exactly what the average percentage of total revenue comes from affiliates for every industry we work in – and what fuels each programs ability to drive such high numbers.

Affiliates on Avelon come under three categories:

  1. Publishers – online magazines such as GQ, Esquire, Cycling Weekly, Men’s Health etc
  2. Content creators – such as Rick Shiels Media and many other ‘influencers’
  3. Podcasts – such as Tea & Trails podcast
Publishers drive the most sales out of any affiliate category. They really are the ‘golden bullet’ and if you can get mentioned within a review or a buyers guide, we call that ‘evergreen affiliates’.

Please be aware: Avelon is a premium publisher, ambassador and content creator affiliate network. We do not work with cashback, voucher codes, browser extensions or any bottom of funnel affiliates. Our data and findings are based exclusively on the affiliate types we work with.

You can also explore our top sports and endurance affiliate programs of 2026 here. It gives an overview of what the best affiliate programs are offering in terms of commission, fixed fees and cpc (cost per click) rates.

Average revenue percentage from affiliates

The average percentages below outline our workings with our current brands (450+ in Feb 2026). 

Whilst this is a good indication to start with, please be aware that some brands within each category have incredibly profitable affiliate programs whilst some may not put too much effort into their program and just let it run on auto pilot.

Industry
Percentage of total revenue 2025
Percentage of total revenue 2024
Percentage of total revenue 2023
Apparel
13.7%
13.2%
11.9%
Bicycles
10.1%
9.0%
8.4%
Eyewear
6.1%
4.5%
4.2%
Retailer (sports)
11.9%
9%
8.9%
Nutrition
22%
19.5%
18.6%
Yoga
28%
30%
22.8%

As you can see, nutrition has the highest reliance on affiliates for turnover. 

This is due to a low cost per product, so nutrition companies can partner with ambassadors and publishers to generate product reviews easily – and as nutrition is a consumable which needs to be purchased every few weeks, nutrition brands understand they need to offer a high commission to the affiliate to drive their promotions.

Is there a revenue split between ambassadors, publishers and podcasts?

Yes, there is a split between ambassadors and publishers in every industry, but we’ll look into what the general split is overall below. If you’d like in-depth data on who drives the most sales, just keep reading.

We’ll analyse how these numbers change year on year from 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026.

The below table outlines what percentage of sales come from content creators, publishers and podcasts in the affiliate industry in 2024.

Type
Percentage of total sales
Content creators
88.12%
Publishers
11.68%
Podcasts
0.20%

The below table is from 2025

Type
Percentage of total sales
Content creators
55.93%
Publishers
47.85%
Podcasts
6.22%

The below table is from 2026 (so far)

Type
Percentage of total sales
Content creators
35.06%
Publishers
58.55%
Podcasts
6.39%

The most significant change is how publishers are driving more sales from 2024 to 2026 – rapidly growing from 11.68% of total sales to 58.55% of total sales. This isn’t replicated across the entire industry, however – as all other affiliate networks openly admit that 70% of all sales are attributed to cashback programs. 

What's the average commission for affiliates in each industry?

The average commission for each industry varies on different factors. These factors are most commonly dictated by:

  1. Type of affiliate
  2. Profit margin
  3. Whether a discount code is provided
  4. Negotiation between the affiliate and the merchant
Why does the type of affiliate matter to the amount of commission? Well, it all depends on the strategy of the affiliate program set out by the merchant. If the merchant is looked for new customers and is looking to raise brand awareness, then they may go after ‘Youtube Creators’ who expect higher commissions and some upfront payments. 

If the merchant is purely looking to be included within price comparison widgets on articles and buyers guides, then they may offer a lower commission because the publisher isn’t creating content specifically for them.

We’ll outline the average commission in the below table:

Industry
Commission average
Apparel (cycling)
19.5%
Bicycles
4.5%
Eyewear
20%
Retailer (sports)
8.8%
Nutrition
23.3%
Yoga
18%

It’s also worth noting that these commission percentages are average across Avelon, not across the entire affiliate industry. As Avelon works primarily on a Revenue Share, brands are able to offer much higher commissions than any other platform, without huge upfront costs. 

The comparison between Avelon and the industry, on average, is listed below:

Industry
Avelon
Average affiliate industry
Apparel (cycling)
19.5%
7.5%
Bicycles
4.5%
2.9%
Eyewear
20%
6%
Retailer (sports)
8.8%
2%
Nutrition
23.3%
6.5%
Yoga
18%
10%

The reason for Avelon’s brands having the ability to offer much higher commissions are because Avelon does not charge large monthly subscriptions or a lot of hidden fees. We also don’t work with sub-networks that take a cut of the commission and we also don’t charge commissions for making international payments. What affiliates see on the platform is the exact amount they’ll be paid.

Do I have to pay commission on shipping costs in affiliate marketing?

No – you do not pay commission on shipping costs with Avelon. We remove shipping costs from the calculation of commission through in-depth integrations with your eCommerce provider. If you have a custom integration, we’ll show you exactly how to remove shipping from the total calculation.

For Affiliate 101 questions, we recommend heading to our Brand FAQs.

What discount code % do I have to give my ambassadors and affiliates?

The average discount across the entire affiliate industry is 15%.

One thing to bear in mind is that you should offer affiliates a higher discount percentage than what is readily available on your website, otherwise affiliates will get annoyed and they won’t be attributed any sales.

It’s also worth thinking about what your affiliate marketing strategy actually is. Are you looking for more sales from new customers, or looking to re-engage existing customers? 

If the former is what you’re looking for, then we recommend providing the affiliate a higher commission % and a high discount amount – therefore, treating affiliate marketing as a low-risk, but high CPA advertising exercise.

Industry
Average discount code %
Apparel (cycling)
15%
Bicycles
7.5%
Eyewear
20%
Retailer (sports)
10%
Nutrition
22%
Yoga
15%

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