Affiliate commission structure optimisation: 1.8x peak revenue growth for a luxury gifting brand
A London luxury gifting brand with an established affiliate programme and a strong seasonal trade. The programme was stable but unoptimised: every partner, whatever their value, sat on the same flat 4% commission.
Vertical
Luxury Gifting
Focus
Commission restructure
1.8x
Peak-month revenue, YoY
2.1x
Peak-month orders, YoY
+59%
December sales, YoY
The approach
Audited every active partner by behaviour, not category: who introduces new audiences, who converts mid-funnel, who intercepts at checkout, who only fires on a discount.
Moved the programme to tiered commissions — checkout-intercept partners on a defensive rate; content, loyalty and affinity partners higher, each tier with a clear reason behind it.
Removed voucher sites that weren’t adding incremental sales.
Activated the partner mix ahead of every key trading period: rebriefed priority partners, refreshed creative, lined up exclusive offers — so incremental partners got visibility before generic discount sites did.
