‘Broader economic factors’ are putting pressure on Best Buy’s affiliate program

Earlier this month, Best Buy rolled out a new creator program called Best Buy Creator that allows participants to create virtual storefronts featuring products from the electronics retailer and earn money from sales made through those storefronts.

Around the same time that the new program rolled out, though, Best Buy’s long-standing affiliate program hit some bumps in the road. Last month, the retailer delayed payouts to members and earlier this month, it slashed payout rates, according to emails sent to program partners.

Due to "broader economic factors, Best Buy will be temporarily adjusting affiliate payouts starting this month” through early May to a “temporary 0% baseline,” according to one email from April, which Marketing Brew reviewed. According to a March email seen by Marketing Brew, commission payments earned by affiliate partners that month were temporarily delayed.

“This slight delay in payment is just a one-time occurrence; we anticipate everything back on schedule next month,” the email read. Those payments have since been paid out, Best Buy confirmed.

On the website of the affiliate marketing platform Impact, which manages Best Buy’s affiliate program, among others, information about the program’s incentive rates reflects that the rate across all categories is zero. Before the recent change, Best Buy’s affiliate rate was 0.5% for certain categories and 0% for others, according to a March 2025 Wayback Machine capture of the program’s FAQ page. (A brand’s publicly disclosed affiliate rates may be more of a starting point; Impact has a blog post dedicated to explaining ways creators can negotiate commission rates, for example.)

A spokesperson for Best Buy declined to provide a comment on the record about the changes.

Changing it up: The retailer’s affiliate program terms and conditions note that it can modify incentive rates at any time for its affiliate partners. In general, rates can vary considerably depending on the retailer, the partner, and the program itself. Target’s affiliate program boasts a commission rate of “up to 8%,” and earlier this month, Walmart’s affiliate program, which offers a commission rate of “up to 4%,” recently told program members that it would pay “up to 5%” on certain tech products through the end of April, according to an email reviewed by Marketing Brew.

“While we do not disclose our affiliate commission rates, we value the contributions of our affiliate partners and aim for the rates to reflect our current business objectives,” Walmart spokesperson Rebecca Thomason told Marketing Brew in an email.

A person within the affiliate industry described the temporary 0% baseline as “unheard of.”

Zoom out: Many retailers operate affiliate marketing programs, encouraging promotion of their items in exchange for small payouts to affiliate publishers or creators. This year, affiliate marketing tactics, including last-click attribution, which tracks which affiliate should be given credit for certain purchases, were thrust into the spotlight amid a highly publicized series of creator lawsuits claiming that browser extensions Honey and Capital One Shopping improperly collected affiliate revenue.

In general, though, affiliate payouts can translate to increased marketing costs, and it’s no secret that brands and retailers are grappling with the challenging current economic climate. In March, analyst Brian Wieser predicted that US ad revenue would grow just 3.6% this year, down from the 4.5% he forecast in December, due to economic conditions; an IAB report from February predicted that the retail, consumer electronics, and media sectors would see the largest reductions in ad spend by midyear due to economic uncertainty.

Earlier this month, Omnicom chairman and CEO John Wren cited “increased volatility in the markets” as impacting the agency’s business during its Q1 earnings call.