The fashion industry online is always a strong performer. Who doesn’t want to look good?
Fashion is a great affiliate niche that is evergreen and constantly adding new products.
We did a roundup of some of the best affiliate programs for fashion bloggers and niche marketers.
Fashion Affiliate Programs
Fashion commissions have a widespread from 2% to 20% for custom specialty affiliate programs. Like most things affiliate it is best to focus and specialize.
Why Fashion Affiliate Programs
Fashion has many desirable characteristics in niche marketing and blogging …
- Evergreen — Always new customers entering the market. Always new seasons of clothes.
- Trending — Many styles and fashions can trend and have big upticks to leverage. They can even go viral.
- Higher Ticket — Average sales prices for many fashion categories are attractive. For many they are an important career element.
- High Margin — Fashion retailers enjoy high margins and can afford higher commission than categories like electronics.
One of the best things about the fashion niches is the many opportunities for social and video marketing. Nothing is more visual than fashion so that opens up Pinterest and Instagram. Fashion also is a solid women’s niche again making Pinterest a hot social channel.
Videos are a natural for fashion items as well.
Let’s take a look at fashion from an affiliate marketers perspective.
Go to our affiliate programs page for more program reviews.
Designer Fashion Affiliate Programs
Saks 5th Avenue
Commission Rate: 3%
Cookie Length: 14 days
Affiliate Info: Saks 5th Avenue Affiliate Program
Saks is a luxury department store with a big emphasis on fashion clothing. They represent some of the best brands in the industry so if you want to refer a prospect to an Armani suite — Saks can help with that.
Neiman Marcus
Commission Rate: 6%
Cookie Length: 5 days
Affiliate Info: Neiman at Rakuten Marketing
Neiman Marcus is an iconic brand which represents all of the tp designers. They also have an awesome clearance group called Last Call. Fashion requires a constant turnover of inventory and styles. This is where you can get great deals on high fashion from great designers. It will have walked the runway last year not this — I can live with that.
Nordstrom
Commission Rate: Tiered 2%-11%
Cookie Length:14 days
Affiliate Info: Nordstrom at Rakuten Marketing
Nordstrom is a luxury retailer. A place to find the top designers. Though a few categories pay more the typical category is only 2%
Jimmy Choo
Commission Rate: 8%
Cookie Length: 14 days
Affiliate Info: Jimmy Choo Affiliate Program
How much are Jimmy Choo shoes? If you have to ask … Many gals are shoe lovers. I get it as I have a thing about men’s shoes. Jimmy Choo is a leading trend setter in the shoe industry.
General Fashion Affiliate Programs
Macys
Commission Rate: 3%
Cookie Length: 10 days
Affiliate Info: Macy’s Affilaite Program
Macy’s is an institution. They are a huge brand that is great to be associated with. Keep an eye on the new arrivals and update your audience.
Zaful
Commission Rate: new customer 16%
Cookie Length: 60 days
Affiliate Info: ZAFUL Affiliate Page
Zaful is an leading online fashion retailer with a great affiliate program. For new customers you receive 16%! That is worth creating a campaign for. Existing customers still earn a generous 8%. They also allow you to enroll at CJ Affiliate or ShareASale as well as other affiliate networks listed on ZAFUL affiliate page.
Old Navy/Gap
Commission Rate: up to 4%
Cookie Length: 1 day
Affiliate Info: Old Navy Affiliate Program
Who doesn’t like Old Navy and The Gap? They have great values on everyday clothing for your kids of all ages. The perfect back to school retailer. They could be a bit more generous with the cookie period. The 4% commission is understandable given their price point and lower margins.
Wolaco
Commission Rate: 10%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: WOLACO Affiliate Program
Way of Life Athletic is a trending fashion company for active individuals. They are best known for their original product — compression workout shorts. A hybrid between function and style, the shorts have one pocket for your phone, the other for your keys, cash and credit cards.
Plus Size Affiliate Programs
Lane Bryant
Commission Rate: 4%
Cookie Length: 14 days
Affiliate Info: Lane Bryant Affiliate Program
Lane Bryant has fashion-forward women’s clothes in size 10-28. They are one of the leading plus size retailers with everything from party and office-wear to boudoir attire.
ELOQUII
Commission Rate: 5%
Cookie Length: 7 days
Affiliate Info: ELOQUII Affiliate Program
ELOQUII is looking for creative, stylish and fashion-loving websites and blogs preferably in the areas of fashion, lifestyle, design, beauty and style.
Just My Size
Commission Rate: 4%
Cookie Length: 45 days
Affiliate Info: Just My Size Affiliate Program
Just My Size offers plus size clothing, panties, bras & more at Just My Size. Free shipping on 60$ or more!
Society Plus
Commission Rate: up to 10%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Society Plus Affiliate Program
Society plus is a fairly new retailer launched in 2015, Society+ They bill themselves as “a plus size e-commerce retailer and lifestyle brand.” They enthusiastically focus on body positivity and on-trend plus size female fashion.
Mens Fashion Affiliate Programs
Mr. Porter
Commission Rate: up to 90%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Mr. Porter Affiliate Program
Mr. Porter is the place for fashion, fashion news, tips and trends — all for men. Sorry gals but we need all the help we can get. They have a great blog that has tips and trends.
Calvin Klein
Commission Rate: 3%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Calvin Klein Affiliate Program
Calvin Klein is an iconic designer that gives off an metropolitan elegance when worn. Their affiliate program is managed by Rakuten who did a feature article in their blog about CK.
Brooks Brothers
Commission Rate: 6%
Cookie Length: 7 days
Affiliate Info: Brooks Brothers Affiliate Program
Brooks Brothers is where men go for timeless classic designs of the most modern and high-quality material and construction. A bit boxier than an Armani or Canali suit with more room for athletic and larger men.
Sportswear & Athletic Affiliate Programs
Nike
Commission Rate: up to 11%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Nike Affiliate Program (EU)
Just do it. Sorry couldn’t resist but that is the appeal of Nike. A world-class brand with great products at premium prices. The perfect recipe for aligned affiliates. Right now there is only a UK/EU affiliate program
Adidas
Commission Rate: up to 90%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Adidas Affiliate Program
Adidas has a dedicated page for affiliates to introduce them to the program managed by Impact. They do want a close overlap with their products and philosophy … ” Since 1949 we’ve created new athletic footwear, sport-centric fashion and accessories designed to help people harness the power of sport in their life”
UnderArmour
Commission Rate: 5%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: UA at Awin, UA at CJ
A relative new-comer. UnderArmour has many fans among youthful men and women. One interesting thing about their affiliate program is that you CAN make purchases through your own affiliate links. That’s a first for me.
Reebok
Commission Rate: 7%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Reebok Affiliate Program
With a 7% commission and average order size over $100 Reebok is a great partner for your affiliate portfolio, They offer a product datafeed to display the latest products on your site.
Fashion Shoes Affiliate Programs
ShoesPie
Commission Rate: 11%
Cookie Length: 60 days
Affiliate Info: ShoesPie Affiliate Program Page
Online shoe retailer ShoesPie has an amazing collection of shoes in every style, size and color. If you need shoes for an event or just want something fresh you can find it at ShoesPie … without the big designer prices. And their commission program rocks. Not only do you get 11% and a 60-day cookie, but it is a two-tiered system so if you are a top affiliates you get additional overrides and bonus …
- monthly net sale>= 3000, bonus= $50
- monthly net sale>= 5000, bonus= $100
- monthly net sale>= 10000, bonus= $200
- monthly net sale>= 20000, bonus= $700
- monthly net sale>= 40000, bonus= $1000
Xero Shoes
Commission Rate: 10%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Xero Shoes Direct Affiliate Program
Xero Shoes Avant Affiliate Program
These were a Shark Tank participant and have a clever company around freeing your feet. Always good to have a hook and angle when writing so this might be a good novelty piece. A really nice feature is that you get lifetime commissions. The customer you send is yours for all future purchases — nice. Xero has a dedicated affiliate page with more information.
DSW
Commission Rate: up to 10%
Cookie Length: 14 days
Affiliate Info: DSW Affiliate Program
I am addicted to DSW, I wonder if there is a support group?. Though i almost always go there to hunt for specials on the clearance rack, I do also get great deals in the general section. They have a wide range of designer brands that I like including Cole Hann, Bally, Ferragamo and more. They have a dedicated affiliate page with more information.
How to Market Fashion Affiliate Products
Content Marketing
Fashion is a broad niche with lots of competition. You also have the vendors and retailers trying to get SEO traffic.
Best to concentrate on low competition lower volume keywords. A search like “best interview suit” has over 10,000 monthly searches but over 1 million pages with that keyword in the page title. This is just one measure of competitiveness but there sure is a lot of content on the subject. Better to look for low competition keywords.
Lower Competition Keywords
Look for low competition keywords like the ones below.
- best golf shoes — 8,000/mo
- best prom dress – 1,200/mo
- jeans for athletic build – 150/mo
- summer dress hats for men 600/mo
Consider using a process like the Keyword Golden Ration (KGR) method. This helps to find topics that don’t have a lot of competing traffic.
Direct Linking (Deep Linking)
Whenever possible link directly to the product. Don’t just link to the fashion sites home page. All of the networks allow this you just need to follow their deep-linking instructions.
Social Media
Fashion is such a visual niche that it screams for social outreach. It is the perfect Pinterest niche. For Facebook consider live Facebook events to showcase new arrivals or great deals.
Look to automate your Pins for the best effect and traffic. You can use a tool like Viraltag automate all of your social media posting.
YouTube
Again being so visual YouTube is a natural. Do a kids runway event or some other fun activity. You are only limited by your imagination.
What Promotions Don’t Work?
For content marketing campaigns that are designed for organic SEO traffic, your keyword selection is critical. If you write about a broad topic with lots of competition from authority sites you will end up past page 5 somewhere if you rank at all. You get no traffic. You get no sales. You must find keywords that you can compete for that still have some traffic. Don’t be afraid of keywords with low traffic like 100 searched per month. You will likely rank for many other keywords in a successful post.
Putting banners and sidebar widget ads on unrelated pages does not convert. People are snow-blind to these spaces, particularly if the article is not about the same product.
Ads in Facebook or Google going directly to the affiliate offer do not convert well and will be hard to get a good ROI on. Particularly in niches like fashion with commissions around 10%. Ads are more effective when driving traffic to a landing page or article on your site. There the prospect gets warmed before sending them to an offer. They also can get “pixeled” for FaceBook retargeting and maybe an email opt-in.
Wrapping Up
Fashion is a powerful evergreen niche. It is a bit competitive so start with lower competition products and keywords. Unlike niches like info-products or micro-health niches, it has a near-endless supply of visual opportunities for social media.
Fashion buyers are also a loyal group. If someone finds a particular designer that is the perfect fit or look for them they will return every season. This creates an ongoing demand you can tap in to.
Start now, be patient and create a great audience to market to.
Affiliate Networks Discussed
Most of the retailers use affiliate networks to manage their affiliate programs for them. In this fashion affiliate program roundup, the retailers were in the networks below.
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Impact (Formerly Impact Radius) —
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Pepperjam —
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Rakuten —
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CJ Affiliate —
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ShareASale —
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Awin
Why are fashion affiliate programs attractive?
Fashion is high margin, evergreen and constantly changing.
Are fashion affiliate programs high-paying?
They tend to pay above average commissions. With designer fashions paying the best.
Do you need a website to be successful with fashion?
Almost all affiliates will benefit from a website. Fashion being so visual though, it is great for social media marketers as well as vloggers.
