Commerce Merchants

3 Ways to Select Merchants for Your Affiliate Program

Sovrn Commerce Team // June 21, 2022

When you’re just starting out with affiliate marketing, the process of selecting merchant partners may feel overwhelming. After all, getting approved for Sovrn Commerce gives you immediate access to thousands of top brands and merchants, and each one offers a unique set of deals, discounts, and commission rates.

But we don’t leave you to navigate the selection process on your own. Sovrn provides tools and support to help you find the merchants that best align with your commerce content strategy — and those that can help to maximize your earnings.  

Here are three ideas to help you find the best merchant partners for your commerce program.

1. Browse the Approved Merchants dashboard

Our easy-to-use Approved Merchants dashboard lets you identify merchants who sell your target products with just a few clicks. You can also explore detailed information about each merchant, including commission rates, payment methods, approved countries, affiliation status and more to help you make smart merchant selections.

While it may seem logical to simply choose merchants with the highest commission rates, there are other factors to consider. The Approved Merchants dashboard also displays metrics like average conversion rate, average order value, and earnings per click for every merchant, to give you a more holistic view of your potential affiliate earnings. 

2. Install our Chrome extension

Researching possible merchant partners is as easy as shopping online with our Chrome extension. Simply search for the product you want to feature, then navigate to the product page with any merchant. If they’re part of our vast merchant network, you can view commission rates and other earnings information, instantly create an affiliate link, and share across your website and social channels.

You can even see other merchants who sell the same product, to compare potential earnings and identify the partner who will pay you the most.

3. Access exclusive merchant programs

As your affiliate program matures, you may have the opportunity to partner with merchants that aren’t available to everyone. Sovrn has relationships with thousands of exclusive merchants outside of our standard Approved Merchants list. These “closed” merchant programs are highly selective about their affiliate partners — and they pay higher commission rates that reflect their premium status. 

Each of these closed programs has its own unique approval criteria, which may include specific requirements around audience quality, site traffic, content, conversion rate, and more. Our support team can help to evaluate your affiliate performance and determine whether you qualify to work with any of these closed-merchant programs.

Ready to earn more affiliate revenue with Sovrn?

The Sovrn Commerce platform is the fastest, most flexible way to build and manage your affiliate marketing program. As a Sovrn affiliate partner, you have access to a wide variety of innovative tools and capabilities to enhance your affiliate program, including:

  • Shopping Galleries: Create a customized carousel to highlight products from one or more merchants. The more products you offer, the better the opportunity to increase dwell time and revenue.
  • Comparisons: This tool lets you deliver a great shopping experience by displaying “real-time” product prices and removing out-of-stock products, then automatically showing alternative retailers selling the same product.
  • UTM tracking: Track affiliate link performance using five UTM parameters. Break down performance data and get granular insights on every link to easily assess what’s working — and what’s not.
  • Robust reporting: Optimizing your affiliate program is easy when you have the right data. Commerce reporting functionality includes five new reports for detailed insights on merchant approvals, merchants at risk, non-monetized clicks, and more.

If you’re a current Sovrn Commerce affiliate partner, feel free to reach out with questions. Our support team is standing by to help you reach your audience and meet your revenue goals. 

If you’re not already earning with Sovrn Commerce, sign up for a free account! It only takes a few minutes. And once you’re approved, you can start earning right away.

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