Can I set up an affiliate scheme for a single product on a multi-product site?

[jxm12]

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I have an ecommerce store (based on Actinic) which has one particular product that a) we sell loads of, and b) has a very good margin allowing a decent cut for an affiliate.

The problem is that we also sell other things on the site, but they have super low margins and therefore wouldn't be suitable for commissions.

So what I want to know is can I set up an affiliate scheme (either a bolt on to my website, or via a propper affiliate program) where it only pays commission on this item?

If so how does it work in practice? ie. if an affiliate redirects someone to my site and they buy the item plus some other items how does it know how much of the total order value to pay commission on? Just assuming that every sale should generate a fixed commission wouldn't work as a) the customer might buy more than one of the item, or b) buy lots of other items but not the item in question...

[John Jupp]

If you have just one main product to push then why not use Amazon? Selling on Amazon: No per-item listing fees when you Sell on Amazon

Amazon have their own affiliates who can promote it and earn commission from Amazon anyhow. That way you only need concern yourself with listing it.

[jxm12]

If you have just one main product to push then why not use Amazon?

Because:

1. They charge high fees
2. I disagree with their merchant policies with regard to problem orders and returns
3. I don't get any links in to my site
4. the order processing is time consuming compared to my highly automated ecommerce package

[Andrew Copeland]

It is technically possible to set up an affiliate program just for the one product. However, I would recommend considering a few things before going down this route as single-product affiliate programs can be more difficult to find traffic for (depending on the product) than multi-product programs.

1) Is the product widely used by consumers? The main reason to ask this is so that you have a clear understanding of how big the possible market for the product is. This will also help you determine how many affiliate sites would be a good fit for the product.

2) Be prepared to remove leakage. In most cases, it is technically possible to hide the other products on your site for affiliate traffic. Using local tracking, this would ensure that customers who are referred by an affiliate can only see the product you're offering commission on. This is best practice to ensure that affiliates are rewarded for their promotion activities and aren't sending potential customers to you only for them to buy one of the other no-commission products.

3) Have some realistic targets. Most (if not all) affiliate networks will charge fees of some sort. Knowing how many units of that single product you'd need to sell to cover those fees is imperative. Share this with the networks you're speaking to as they'll have a good idea of how many sales is realistic and, if the numbers don't match and the network is worth their salt, they won't take your money.

Hope this helps but feel free to give me a shout if you want to chat further.

Cheers

Andy