How affiliate links work.

The basic mechanism

An affiliate link is a standard web URL that includes parameters identifying the referring publisher. When a buyer clicks the link and proceeds to purchase, the retailer’s e-commerce platform records the referring publisher and, on completion of the sale, pays a commission to that publisher based on a pre-agreed percentage of order value or a fixed amount per transaction. The buyer pays exactly the price the retailer normally charges; the commission is paid by the retailer out of the retailer’s marketing budget, not added to the buyer’s total.

The role of affiliate networks

In practice, affiliate relationships are intermediated through specialised networks: Awin, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Advertising, Tradedoubler, Impact, and others. The network handles publisher onboarding, link generation, click and sale tracking, fraud prevention, commission calculation, and payment. For a retailer, this is significantly more efficient than negotiating directly with thousands of individual publishers. For a publisher, the network provides a consolidated dashboard across many retailer programmes and consistent payment infrastructure.

Commission economics

Commission rates vary by category and retailer, typically ranging from 1 to 12 percent of net order value, with luxury and high-margin categories occasionally above and groceries and consumables below that range. Average published commission rates across European retailer programmes cluster around 3–6 percent. The commission is paid only on completed, non-returned orders; cancelled or returned purchases reverse the commission. Cookie windows (commonly 24 hours to 30 days, set per programme) determine how long after a click an attributed purchase remains creditable to the referring publisher.

Why prices do not increase

The most consistent question from buyers concerns whether affiliate participation raises the price they pay. It does not. Retailers operate customer-acquisition budgets that already account for affiliate commission alongside paid search, display advertising, and other channels. The commission is a substitute for advertising spend the retailer would otherwise allocate to Google, Meta, or comparable platforms. From the buyer’s perspective the price displayed on the retailer’s checkout is independent of whether they arrived via an affiliate link, a paid advertisement, organic search, or direct navigation. Affiliate-driven traffic is in many cases more economically efficient for the retailer than other paid channels, which is why the model persists.

Disclosure requirements

Under EU consumer-protection rules (the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and national implementations) and standards set by national consumer authorities such as the UK’s ASA, the German Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, and equivalents, affiliate relationships must be disclosed to users where they could influence editorial judgement or recommendation. The common conventions are explicit “affiliate link” or “sponsored” labelling, a general disclosure on the site’s about or footer pages, and clearly marked advertorial content. A reputable affiliate publisher discloses its model openly; the absence of any disclosure is the warning sign, not the presence of affiliate links themselves.

What this means for Marketiq

Marketiq operates as an affiliate publisher: when a search result is clicked and the buyer subsequently completes a purchase at the destination retailer, Marketiq receives a small commission from the retailer’s affiliate programme. The buyer’s price is unaffected by this. The model funds ongoing operation of the search service — server infrastructure, multilingual indexing, data pipelines — without requiring subscription or paywall on the comparison interface itself. Marketiq does not bias rankings in favour of higher-commission retailers; the ordering by price (and relevance) is independent of the commission rate paid by each retailer.

The buyer’s rational interest

For a buyer, affiliate-supported comparison sites have a structural alignment of interests with the buyer: the service is paid when the buyer actually buys, which requires showing accurate prices, real availability, and useful comparison. Misrepresentation drives both regulator and platform-network scrutiny, and undermines the publisher’s long-term commission stream. The buyer therefore benefits from the same accuracy incentive the retailer- funded model creates. Independent comparison and transparent attribution together produce a workable arrangement.