Events — 13 Jul 2023
How to Integrate Affiliate Products into Your WooCommerce Store
Nowadays, affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular marketing techniques to boost sales and generate more revenue. You can probably see affiliate marketing being used across a lot of channels.
One of the most common examples is YouTubers including affiliate links for recommended products or services in their video descriptions. And, whenever a customer purchases the product or services using that link they earn a commission.
Now, the reason it’s so popular is that it’s easy, profitable, and has a lot of potential. In fact, Over 73% of merchants believe affiliate marketing programs meet their revenue expectations.
Not only this, but stats reveal that affiliate marketing is estimated to be worth $12 billion globally.
So, all the more reason to try it. And if you have a WooCommerce store it’s quite simple to add affiliate or external products on your site as WooCommerce supports this unique feature.
But what are affiliate products, how are WooCommerce affiliate links beneficial, and how can you use WooCommerce for affiliate products?
Don’t fret. In this article, I’ll guide you through the entire process of adding affiliate products to your online store so that you can start generating more revenue.
But first, let’s learn a little more about affiliate marketing in WooCommerce.
Affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry, according to Statista.
But to put it simply, ‘Affiliate Marketing’ is the process in which you earn a commission for marketing and selling third-party products on your online store.
As an affiliate, you promote one or more of the merchant’s products to potential customers on your site, so they can make a purchase. And with each sale, you earn a profit. You can do it simply by linking the product on your site to the product that’s on the seller’s website.
The product that you’ll be selling as a WooCommerce affiliate product can be tangible or intangible like software, plugins, or other digital products.
Both types of products are great for generating extra revenue based on commission.
Further Reading: What is Affiliate Marketing and How to Get Started
But that’s not the only advantage of having a WooCommerce Affiliate Program.
Here are some more advantages of selling affiliate products in WooCommerce:
Read More: How to build a successful affiliate program in 8 steps
Now that we’ve understood the benefits of affiliate marketing in WooCommerce, let’s learn how to add external products to your store.
Adding WooCommerce affiliate products is quite simple. You can either use a plugin or do it manually. Here’s how you can add WooCommerce affiliate links manually:
1. Head to your WordPress dashboard area.
2. Click on Products > Add New
3. Navigate to the “Product data” field and select “External/Affiliate product” from the dropdown. You will see two new options — Product URL and Button text.
4. Next, add the basic product information, like the product name, description, category, feature image, product tags, etc. in respective fields.
5. Add the product’s affiliate link in the “Product URL”. It’s the same link as in your affiliate program’s dashboard.
6. Once that is done you can set the button text to say anything you like. For instance, it can say — “Shop from this buyer”.
7. In addition to that, you can provide the price details for the affiliate product. (Be cautious as the prices set by the actual merchant may change)
8. After you’ve added all the information, hit ‘Publish’.
Similarly, you can add more external/ affiliate products to your WooCommerce store.
Another way is to use a WooCommerce Affiliate plugin as mentioned above. Affiliate plugins not only help you in adding external products but equip you to run a fully-fledged affiliate program. From affiliate recruiting to commission payments, and tracking, they can handle everything.
So before discussing our shortlisted plugins, here are some of the essential features that you must check for before committing to a WooCommerce affiliate products plugin:
Even if you’re new at this, using an affiliate plugin will help you manage WooCommerce affiliate marketing effortlessly and make shopping at your online store easy.
Keeping this in mind, here are some of the plugins you can use to add external products to your WooCommerce store.
Affiliate for WooCommerce is a tool by StoreApps designed for merchants to add and manage affiliate products on their site. It helps turn customers into affiliates, release layouts, and approve affiliate requests, among other things.
Additionally, this extension helps save a lot of time by offering a sleek one-page UI which eliminates the need to switch between tabs for getting information.
Key features:
Price: $129
WooCommerce Amazon Affiliate is another plugin that you can use to list external products on your store. Using this extension users can sell Amazon products in their WooCommerce store and get commissions. Not only this, but you can also import plenty of products.
Also, this plugin allows you to check analytics. It has Amazon Associate Reports that provide you with metrics like revenue, clicks, and conversions.
Key features:
Price: $49
SUMO Affiliates Pro by Code Canyon supports WooCommerce merchants in running their affiliate programs. It’s a comprehensive WordPress plugin that is loaded with features to make affiliate management effortless. It helps users to manage current affiliate accounts and also set up new ones with ease.
This plugin offers a complete affiliate system for your WooCommerce store. And it allows members to become affiliates by registering on the site.
Key features:
Price: $49
The YITH WooCommerce Affiliates plugin is a solution designed specifically for WooCommerce and has made the job of utilizing affiliate marketing quite simple. It allows you to easily increase traffic, get new leads, and increase revenue.
Using this plugin you can easily manage affiliate marketing on your WooCommerce store. It helps you set up all information to be stored when an affiliate visits your site, such as name, conversion time, page, ID, etc. You can also use it to process payments by automatically issuing commissions on a specified date or limit.
Key Features:
Price: $ 139.99
ReferralCandy really helps to up your referral game. When used with WooCommerce, this plugin can increase your traffic and sales by taking your referral program to the next level.
Using this plugin, you can automate a lot of tasks like paying out referral fees. The reporting and analytics feature also helps you with detailed insights regarding top referrers and engaging leads.
It also protects your site from any fraudulent activity by scanning any suspicious behavior and instantly flagging it. Additionally, it easily integrates with multiple marketing apps such as MailChimp, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and others.
Key Features:
Price: $39
6. Tapfiliate
Tapfiliate’s Woocommerce plugin allows you to set up an affiliate program in a matter of minutes. It’s the best plugin for the no-code era.
It lets you easily create, track, and grow your affiliate marketing program. In addition to that, it’s very responsive and can handle refunds too. Using Tapfiliate for WooCommerce, you can easily manage all your affiliates in a single place.
Key Features:
Price: $59
7. AffiliateWP
Another of the best affiliate plugins is AffiliateWP. It’s power packed with features and built to grow your business. It’s highly customizable and allows you to add unlimited affiliates. The plugin is designed to make affiliate registration, onboarding, approval process, and payouts effortless.
AffiliateWP seamlessly integrates with WordPress and offers a dashboard using which you can track your affiliate marketing as well. It’s focused on increasing traffic, sales, and visibility.
Key Features:
Price: $149.50
Solid Affiliate is another WordPress plugin that lets you add affiliate links to WordPress sites. It’s a feature-rich, well-supported affiliate plugin that is built for WooCommerce.
It can help you build, track, and manage your affiliate program. You can easily track commission rates as well.
Key Features:
Price: $99
Further Reading: Top Affiliate Marketing Tools to Scale Up Your Partnership Journey
Growth is growth no matter how small it is. And continuous growth is critical for every online business.
So, if you want to grow your online business but don’t have the budget to invest in heavy marketing, you MUST explore affiliate marketing channels.
And, as you’ve already seen, it’s easy to add affiliate products to your WooCommerce store. All that’s left for you to do is explore your niche and select relevant products to add.
So what are you waiting for?
Channelize your affiliate networks and expand your WooCommerce business by adding and promoting external products on your online shop.
And if you need help with integrating any of the plugins or creating a custom feature specific to your needs, you can consult with our Woo Experts any time.
Written by
WisdmLabs is a team of expert WordPress Developers equipped to craft custom, scalable solutions for eLearning & eCommerce businesses.
Stay on top of the competition. Let us keep you updated with news, insights, and more
