Avelon wins Best Value, Best Functionality & Features, Best Ease of Use and Best Customer Support on Capterra. What percentage of my total eCommerce revenue should come from affiliate marketing?
What percentage of my total revenue should come from affiliates?
The short answer to this question is: it totally depends on a huge variety of factors. Affiliate marketing truly is a ‘you get back what you put in’ type of marketing, but in this article we’ll outline exactly what the average percentage of total revenue comes from affiliates for every industry we work in.
Please be aware: Avelon is a sports specific affiliate platform, so all statistics are related to sports.
Average revenue percentage from affiliates
The average percentages below outline our workings with our current brands (150+). 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 2024
|
Percentage of total revenue 2023
|
|---|---|---|
|
Apparel (cycling)
|
13.2%
|
11.9%
|
|
Bicycles
|
9%
|
8.4%
|
|
Eyewear
|
4.5%
|
4.2%
|
|
Retailer (sports)
|
9%
|
8.9%
|
|
Nutrition
|
32%
|
24%
|
|
Yoga
|
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 split between ambassadors and publishers?
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.
It’s worth keeping in mind that we use the term affiliate and publisher in two different ways. Affiliates are content creators, ambassadors and are classed as a general human being. Publishers are magazines, websites etc and are classed as this because they publish content on a large scale.
|
Type
|
Percentage of total sales
|
|---|---|
|
Affiliates
|
88.32%
|
|
Publishers
|
11.68%
|
The above data is taken from 1st January 2024 to 22nd May 2024.
What's the average commission for affiliates in each industry?
The average commission for each industry varies greatly depending on a myriad of factors, including; type of affiliate, profit margin, whether a discount code is provided any many more. We’ll outline the average commission in the below table:
|
Industry
|
Percentage of total revenue 2024
|
|---|---|
|
Apparel (cycling)
|
19.5%
|
|
Bicycles
|
8.2%
|
|
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
|
8.2%
|
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.
What's the average discount affiliates offer to their audience?
The average discount across the entire affiliate industry is around 10%, but it’s totally up to you, as a brand, what you’d like to offer affiliates. 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
|
Percentage of total revenue 2024
|
|---|---|
|
Apparel (cycling)
|
15%
|
|
Bicycles
|
7.5%
|
|
Eyewear
|
20%
|
|
Retailer (sports)
|
10%
|
|
Nutrition
|
22%
|
|
Yoga
|
15%
|
Can you help me make a decision?
Of course, Avelon can help you set up and run your affiliate program. If you’d like to have a chat with a member of the team, just reach out via the button below. When you onboard onto Avelon, we’ll assess everything about the business to make sure you’re happy with what we’re putting in place.