Please note that affiliate links may be included in some posts.
If you're an online publisher in the home & garden space, you're probably familiar with Wayfair.
This home goods e-commerce company launched in 2002 and specializes in home furnishings and décor items. According to Wikipedia, it has over ten million products from over 10,000 suppliers.
As opposed to some of the other physical-goods affiliate programs I've reviewed, Wayfair is actually a viable alternative to the Amazon Associates program for authority site publishers.
tl;dr Summary: Wayfair's home & garden specialization and product depth make it a solid option to promote. Its 7% commission rate is competitive with the commission from comparable Amazon Associate program categories.
I am a Wayfair affiliate- so I can provide some detailed insights.
As you can see in the screenshot below, it's converting at less than 1% for me:
While that's not amazing, they are one of the few physical goods Advertisers that are making an effort to compete with Amazon.
This includes some high-quality, branded content:
They also run television ads. All of this stuff matters- it increases their brand awareness and should theoretically help conversions when you drive traffic to their online store.
I should also note, once you've joined Wayfair, you also have access to Birch Lane, All Modern and Joss And Main eCommerce stores. It's also important to note, that there is a separate b2b Wayfair- it's called Wayfair for Business that offers a flat $40 per sale, and is currently ranked #71 by ShareASale's PowerRank, as of June 2018.
*Wayfair has moved to CJ.com, so sign up there if you want to join their affiliate program.
Wayfair Keyword Rankings
Below, I've compiled a list of Wayfair's 1,000 best keyword rankings, minus some brand terms.
Use the keyword research to get a sense of Wayfair's most popular products.
Wayfair Commission Structure
Below is a screenshot of Wayfair's affiliate commission structure and performance stats for the last 30 days from 6/7/2018 (remember Wayfair is now in CJ.com):
Wayfair provides a 7% commission with a 7 day cookie, converting at almost 2% with an average commission of $23.45.
It currently allows you to promote the U.S. and Canadian stores- so if you're an international affiliate, with international traffic, you'll want to factor that into your decision making process.
For example, if your site primarily gets traffic from India, Wayfair isn't going to be doing international deliveries to India- so Amazon would be a better option, since they do have an Amazon India affiliate program.
That said, according to their affiliate marketing landing page, the Wayfair affiliate program offers:
- the opportunity to market Wayfair.com, Wayfair.ca, JossAndMain.com, AllModern.com, BirchLane.com, and Wayfair’s Wedding Registry
- An in-house management to help you with registration, product linking, and content curation
- Straightforward sign-up, reliable tracking, and regular payments through ShareASale
- More than 1 million products available via data feed
- As much as 7% commissions with an average order size of $300
- As much as $10 for each and every wedding registry referred
Wayfair VS Amazon Affiliate
Below is the current Amazon Associates commission structure.
You can see that, head to head, Amazon's Outdoors category is currently providing 7% commissions and that the Furniture/Home/Home Improvement category is at 8%.
So Amazon competes strongly with Wayfair's 7% commission on its home and garden offerings.
| Product Category | Commission Rate |
|---|---|
| Amazon Gift Cards, Wine | 0% |
| Video Games & Video Game Consoles | 1% |
| Televisions, Digital Video Games | 2% |
| PC, PC Components, DVD & Blu-Ray | 2.5% |
| Amazon Fresh, Toys | 3% |
| Amazon Fire Tablet Devices, Dash Buttons, Amazon Kindle Devices | 4% |
| Physical Books, Health & Personal Care, Sports, Kitchen, Automotive, Baby Products | 4.5% |
| Digital Music, Grocery, Physical Music, Handmade, Digital Videos | 5% |
| Outdoors, Tools | 5.5% |
| Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business & Industrial Supplies | 6% |
| Apparel, Amazon Element Smart TV (with Fire TV), Amazon Fire TV Devices, Jewelry, Luggage, Shoes, Handbags & Accessories, Watches, Amazon Echo Devices | 7% |
| Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Pets Products, Pantry | 8% |
| Amazon Fashion Women, Men & Kids Private Label, Luxury Beauty, Amazon Coins | 10% |
| All Other Categories | 4% |
You can get an updated commission structure list for the Amazon Associates program here.
How To Join
If you want to join the Wayfair affiliate program, sign up to ​CJ.com and apply to join by searching the Merchants for 'Wayfair'.
Why Should You Promote It?
In my experience, if a physical-goods affiliate program is going to compete with the Amazon Associates program, it needs to compete with them on product category depth.
Meaning, Wayfair, on average, isn't going to beat Amazon on price, ease of use or shipping speed. Where it can compete is in its access to exclusive and different products.
One of my sites is a DIY site- so I pay attention to Wayfair's product catalog. If you search for Adirondack chairs on both Wayfair (click here) and Amazon (click here), you'll see that Wayfair has a diverse range of different options.
It's not an 'also ran' that tries to outperform Amazon on price and conversion %. It's doubling down on its niche specialty- which to my mind is the only way any eCommerce company stands a chance of competing with Amazon.
True, my sub 1% conversion rate isn't great- but it does diversify me from Amazon affiliate revenue.
And I frame Wayfair as a price comparison option- so, to my mind, I don't lose traffic by linking to it. Users are clicking through to Wayfair to compare prices and inventory before recirculating through my affiliate links to potentially convert on Amazon itself.
What Do They Offer?
In terms of product offers, you can see their full Department list here.
- Furniture
- Bed & Bath
- Décor & Pillows
- Rugs
- Lighting
- Home Improvement
- Appliances
- Outdoor
- Baby & Kids
- Storage & Organization
- Window Treatments
- Mattresses
- Pet
- Holiday Décor
- Commercial
Departments
Shop Wayfair for Departments to match every style and budget. Enjoy Free Shipping on most stuff, even big stuff.
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How To Promote It
The primary channels are SEO, Social and Email. As I've written about in my affiliate program reviews, the traffic acquisition method will determine promotional strategy.
For example, if you've got a home furnishings email list, I'd recommend subscribing to all of Wayfair's newsletters and paying attention to their affiliate announcements so you can market deals and promotions to your list.
For example, on their site there's a link to a Sales section:
this gives you access to a convenient run-down of their current discount promotional opportunities.
Always consult their affiliate agreement before implemeting a promotional strategy. For example, at the time of this writing, their email marketing guidelines stipulate that:
"Email Marketing & Publicity: If you intend to promote the Program via e-mail campaigns, you must adhere to the following: 1.You must abide by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Public Law No. 108-187). 2.E-mail must be sent on your behalf and must not imply that the e-mail is being sent on behalf of Wayfair. 3.We must be sent a copy of the e-mail. Reversal Policy: We reserve the right to reverse orders due to order cancellations, duplicate tracking, returns, disputed charges, Program violations as outlined in this Agreement, and for any other reason in our sole discretion. Deep Linking Restrictions: We currently allow deep linking to pages other than the main page of any of our websites."
They say that they require a "copy of the e-mail". I would just contact their affiliate support (affiliates@wayfair.com) to clarify this if you're going to do email marketing. Do they need a copy of every email you send before you send it?
Make sure you have some clarification on this before you try email marketing the Wayfair Affiliate Program.
SEO
If you're doing SEO, like I do, I generally will link to a product search path like this one for Adirondack chairs and tell readers to click to 'view Wayfair's prices'. You can see how I do that in this comparison table below:
In this example, I'm using NewEgg, but you get the idea. The table is Amazon products, but I insert a link to Wayfair as a price comparison option.
Search engine optimization and niche site marketing are great avenues for generating affiliate marketing revenue. I personally enjoy publishing long-form, technically optimized content- so this is the best choice for me. I'm not an email marketer and I don't enjoy building social communities and marketing my content that way.
Social
If you're a social marketer, be aware that Wayfair prohibits you, as of this writing in June 2018, of using affiliate links on social properties:
"Submitting affiliate links to social sharing sites such as Pinterest, Reddit.com, Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com, etc. is strictly prohibited. You shall not place links on your own Facebook page or Twitter feed" (Source).
Of course, you can link to your content, which links to Wayfair. Many affiliate programs prohibit sharing affiliate links on social platforms. The Amazon Associates program is becoming more progressive regarding social affiliate marketing (Source), but you'll need only promote on channels you've verified ownership of.
Summary
Overall, Wayfair is a strong option to consider- unlike some of the other affiliate programs I've reviewed that offer weak commissions with low conversion potential.
It's a great option if you're in the home & gardening niche- there are lots of crafty products to promote. And their category depth helps it compete with Amazon.
So, while it may not beat Amazon on conversion, you can at least promote different products with Wayfair, rather than promoting the same product that Amazon already has. Let me know what your experiences using Wayfair in the comments section!
Last Updated on March 13, 2021 by Ryan Nelson
Thanks Ryan for good information. I have one question. Which nationality Wayfair accept for an affiliate? Maybe they don’t accept Asia man, like me.
Wayfair lets you create U.S. and Canada affiliate links from within ShareASale- so you’ll want to have traffic from those countries. The only way to find out is to apply through ShareASale- so if you have an account already, just make sure you list out all your sites and discuss traffic source, if you think your location is an issue. In short, it’s more about the traffic you have than your location- but if you’re getting geographic Asian traffic, those users aren’t going to get deliveries from Wayfair anyway, so it’d be pointless to promote in that case.
I was just auto-declined as an affiliate for Wayfair through SAS and I can’t figure out why. I’m a successful Amazon affiliate and their products would fit well with the ones I already promote. Any tips or insights?
They moved to CJ Affiliate. Try applying there.
They moved to CJ affiliate- try applying there. I’d fill out my profile as much as possible so they have enough info to assess you on.
Anyone have issues with Wayfair affiliate through CJ? They decline my application and said “Thank you for the insight. Unfortunately, Wayfair looks to have a minimum of 50K unique monthly visitors for their publishers, as well as 50K followers on each social media accounts. Because of this we are unable to work with you at this time. As you continue to gain momentum in the network and are able to show a proven track record, please consider reapplying. We would be happy to reconsider your application then.”
Try reaching out to the Wayfair affiliate team directly: affiliates@wayfair.com.