The idea
Affiliate marketing is a brand paying a person — a creator, a website, a group admin — for customers that person brought. The person shares a link (or a code); when someone uses it and buys or signs up, the brand pays the agreed amount. No sale, no payment. That is the whole idea, and it has been the quiet engine of online retail for two decades.
The word 'affiliate' just means the person is affiliated with the brand's program. In India you will also hear 'referral', 'partner', 'ambassador' and 'creator program' for the same mechanism.
Who the players are
The brand (or merchant) sells something. The affiliate (or marketer, creator, publisher) shares the link. The customer buys. In between there is usually one of three things: a network, which aggregates many brands' programs and pays affiliates on the brands' behalf; a program the brand runs itself with software; or a platform like Shopmycode, where brands publish offers and marketers take them directly, with the platform counting and paying.
What a commission is
The reward: a fixed amount per result (₹150 per sign-up) or a percentage of the order (5% of a ₹2,000 order). Networks typically take a share of it before the affiliate is paid; on Shopmycode the marketer keeps the whole reward and the brand pays the platform's fee separately.
How the result is attributed
The link carries the affiliate's identity. When it is opened, the platform notes it; when the page reports a sign-up or the store reports an order, the result is matched to that link. Promo codes do the same job for people who type rather than tap. What no link can see is what happens inside another app unless that app reports it — honest platforms say so.
Affiliate marketing in India, specifically
Three things differ from the Western picture. Sharing happens in WhatsApp groups more than on websites, so the link has to work in a chat and the numbers have to show forwarding. Payouts have to be in rupees by UPI with tax deducted at source. And marketplaces (Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra) run their own affiliate programs, which report orders on their own timelines — so a platform has to show which results are live and which are waiting.
How to start
As a marketer: sign in, take an offer with a stated reward, share the link with the ready-made message, watch the opens. As a brand: publish an offer with a reward and a locked budget, and let marketers who fit take it. Both are free to start; only rewards cost money, and only brands pay.