How do I actually set up an affiliate program for my D2C brand, and what commission should I pay affiliates?
The short answer
Install an affiliate app on your stack - GoAffPro is the default free-to-start option for Shopify D2C in India, with Impact.com or GRIN worth the switch once you're doing serious affiliate-driven volume - give every affiliate a unique link or coupon, and pay out monthly, net of returns. Commission-wise, Indian D2C converges around 10-20% of order value: beauty and fashion sit at 8-15%, tighten it for thin-margin categories like electronics (3-6%), and structure it as new-customer-heavy (15-25%) versus returning-customer-light (5-10%) so you're not paying full commission on repeat buyers who'd have bought anyway. Cap the payout against CM2, not gross margin, or the program eats itself alive.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
Why we picked it
The most usable commission-rate reference out there - real industry benchmarks (5-15% for physical goods, higher for digital) plus a start-from-profit-not-revenue method for setting your own number. Use this before you pick a percentage out of thin air.
Why we picked it
vCommission runs affiliate programs for Indian D2C names like Swiss Beauty and Giva, so this isn't theory - it's the commission-model playbook (CPS vs CPA, new-vs-repeat tiering) pulled from actual Indian campaigns. Read this before you set a flat percentage and regret it in month two.
Why we picked it
The default Shopify affiliate app for Indian D2C brands starting out - the free tier gives you unlimited affiliates, link/coupon tracking and a signup portal, so you can launch an affiliate program in an afternoon instead of building attribution from scratch. Upgrade to paid tiers only once you need tiered commissions or multi-level recruitment.
Why we picked it
GRIN is the category-defining creator-and-affiliate management platform for e-commerce - brands on it reportedly drove billions in affiliate-attributed revenue last year, largely by automating the product seeding and payouts that eat founder time. Worth knowing even before you can afford it, because it sets the bar for what a 'real' program looks like operationally.
