Avelon wins Best Value, Best Functionality & Features, Best Ease of Use and Best Customer Support on Capterra. XMiles: Automating Affiliate Partnerships & Reporting
XMiles is a specialist sports nutrition retailer supporting runners, cyclists, and endurance athletes in optimising their fuelling strategies. Stocking over 110 brands, XMiles combines a vast expert-backed product range with innovative tools like their Nutrition Calculator to make sports nutrition accessible and effective for all customers.
Matt Maidment, Head of Marketing at XMiles, describes his role as covering everything from campaign planning and retention to affiliate partnerships and platform integrations.
“I’m Matt Maidment, and I head up marketing at XMiles. My role covers everything from campaign planning and retention to affiliate partnerships and platform integrations.”
Before partnering with Avelon, XMiles faced operational challenges in scaling their affiliate programme. They relied heavily on Shopify Collabs combined with Excel spreadsheets to manage affiliates, report on performance, and handle outreach and contact management.
“Reporting was clunky, contact management was a pain, and we had limited visibility into performance,” Matt explains. “We’d export affiliate data, match it with orders in Excel, and try to build a picture of what was working. It was fine at a small scale, but the more affiliates we added, the harder it became to manage or grow.”
Decision process
Matt first heard about Avelon through an industry contact who recognised XMiles’ need for a more purpose-built affiliate solution. After a quick demo, it was clear to him that Avelon could solve their pain points.
“I was introduced to Avelon through another industry contact. After a quick demo, I could see straight away that it had everything we were missing.”
When deciding on a platform, XMiles considered various options, but Avelon stood out due to its tailored approach for sports and DTC brands.
“Avelon felt purpose-built for what we do. It wasn’t just a generic affiliate tool. The database of relevant creators, clean reporting dashboard, and the ability to integrate with platforms like Klaviyo made it an easy choice.”
Despite being confident in Avelon’s capabilities, Matt’s main concern was whether it would integrate seamlessly into their existing tech stack without creating more manual work for the team. However, these concerns were alleviated during onboarding.
“Honestly, the main concern was whether it would slot into our existing stack without adding more work. But that was put to rest during onboarding.”
Integration & experience
The onboarding process with Avelon was smooth, fast, and hands-on.
“It was smooth and fast. Andrew and the team handled most of the heavy lifting and were on hand throughout.”
Integration was straightforward. Avelon worked seamlessly alongside their existing operations and tools, allowing XMiles to unlock new efficiencies without changing core processes.
“Very easy. It just works alongside what we already had in place. And with the Klaviyo integration, we could start layering affiliate-specific email flows straight away.”
Implementation involved both Matt and XMiles’ founder, Anthony, ensuring strategic alignment across the leadership team. During setup, Avelon provided proactive support, particularly around XMiles’ unique use cases.
“Yes, we had a few custom use cases, like creating affiliate codes dynamically from URLs to prevent discount sites scraping them. Andrew built that for us, and it’s worked perfectly.”
Results & Impact
Since implementing Avelon, XMiles has transformed how it manages its affiliate and ambassador programmes. The platform has delivered significant operational efficiencies, improved reporting accuracy, and accelerated network growth.
“We’ve streamlined the whole affiliate process. Reporting is accurate, outreach is targeted, and we’ve massively grown our affiliate network through their database.”
One of the most noticeable changes has been time saved across day-to-day marketing activities.
“It’s saved hours each week. We’re no longer stuck in spreadsheets, and we’ve got real-time visibility across all affiliate activity.”
Importantly, Avelon has enabled XMiles to better understand performance, revenue attribution, and partner effectiveness.
“We’ve seen stronger revenue attribution and far better insight into what’s working. It’s helped us make better decisions on which partners to scale and where to invest more time.”
The platform has also unlocked goals that previously felt too manual or resource-intensive to achieve.
“Growing our ambassador and affiliate lists used to be time-consuming. With Avelon, we’ve reached new audiences without the manual outreach that used to take weeks.”
Unique outcomes
Avelon’s flexibility and technical capabilities have solved some of XMiles’ most critical challenges. For example, affiliate code scraping by discount sites was a recurring problem that compromised campaign integrity and tracking accuracy.
“Code scraping was a big issue for us. Avelon implemented a fix where affiliate codes are dynamically generated from tracked URLs, stopping discount sites from lifting and misusing them. It’s been a game-changer for tracking accuracy.”
This dynamic code solution has protected XMiles’ affiliate campaigns from misuse and ensured reliable attribution for partners, significantly improving their confidence in scaling promotions.
Andrew, founder of Avelon, commented:
“We loved working with Matt at XMiles on this feature, and there’s so much more we’re working on together. He didn’t just point out that something was happening, he actively thought of solutions, helped us develop the feature in the style he wanted and has been providing awesome feedback ever since. Smart Referral Pages have now been rolled out to all merchants, further eliminating promo code leaks within the sports industry.”
Future plans
Looking ahead, XMiles plans to continue scaling its affiliate and ambassador programmes through Avelon’s database while expanding its integrated email campaigns using Avelon’s Klaviyo integration.
“We’ll keep scaling the affiliate and ambassador programme using their database. We also plan to run more integrated email campaigns via Klaviyo based on Avelon data.”
Matt’s advice to other businesses considering Avelon is clear:
“It’s the best affiliate platform out there, especially if you’re in sports or DTC. You won’t get better support, and the feature set is spot on.”
If there is one thing he wishes he had known before starting, it’s the time and resource savings that came with switching.
“Honestly, just how much time and effort it would save. We should’ve switched sooner.”
Looking ahead, XMiles plans to continue scaling its affiliate and ambassador programmes through Avelon’s database while expanding its integrated email campaigns using Avelon’s Klaviyo integration.
“We’ll keep scaling the affiliate and ambassador programme using their database. We also plan to run more integrated email campaigns via Klaviyo based on Avelon data.”
Matt’s advice to other businesses considering Avelon is clear:
“It’s the best affiliate platform out there, especially if you’re in sports or DTC. You won’t get better support, and the feature set is spot on.”
If there is one thing he wishes he had known before starting, it’s the time and resource savings that came with switching.
“Honestly, just how much time and effort it would save. We should’ve switched sooner.”
Closing Reflection
In Matt’s words:
“Avelon makes affiliate marketing actually work – reporting, growth, and tracking, all in one place.”
Finally, he adds:
“Just a shoutout to Andrew and the team – always responsive, always improving the platform, and genuinely invested in our success.”