WooCommerce does not offer affiliate link functionality out of the box, but it can work with affiliate links in two different ways, depending on what you’re trying to do.

Two Different Meanings of “Affiliate Links”

When people ask whether WooCommerce has affiliate links, they usually mean one of the following:

1. Using Affiliate Links to Promote Other People’s Products

Yes—you can add affiliate links to other people's products inside your WooCommerce site.

Typically, you do this as follows:

• Sign up to become an affiliate marketer for another vendor
• Obtain a URL from that vendor that includes an affiliate ID
• Add a link to that URL in a blog post or product description on your WooCommerce site

However, this isn’t really a WooCommerce feature. It’s just standard link usage within WordPress content. WooCommerce doesn’t track clicks, conversions, or commissions for these links by default.

There is also a WooCommerce feature called External/Affiliate Products, which lets you display a product on your site with a link to another website to complete the purchase.

2. Creating Affiliate Links for Your Products for Other People to Use on Their Site

This is what most people mean when asking whether WooCommerce has affiliate links, but WooCommerce does not offer this functionality by default.

If you want other people to promote your WooCommerce products and earn commissions, then you’ll need to install an affiliate marketing plugin that can:

• Generate unique referral links for each affiliate
• Track which clicks lead to purchases
• Calculate commissions based on actual orders
• Manage payouts and reporting

Our recommended plugin for this is Solid Affiliate. In the next section, we describe how to create an affiliate link using this plugin.

Creating Affiliate Links in WooCommerce Using Solid Affiliate

Once installed, Solid Affiliate automatically creates a complete affiliate system inside your WooCommerce store.

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

• Affiliates sign up through your site
• Each affiliate is assigned a unique referral link, which they embed in content on their own site(s)
• When someone clicks that link to visit your store, all their interactions are tracked
• If the visitor makes a purchase, the system records the referral
• A commission is calculated based on the actual order

All of this happens automatically, with no manual tracking required.

Generating Affiliate Links

Each affiliate gets his or her own unique tracking link, typically structured like this:

https://yourstore.com/?ref=affiliateID

This is available in the Affiliate Portal:

If you don't like that format, you can create your own custom slugs:

You then embed either the default URL or the version using your custom slug in blog posts, social media, or email campaigns.

Because Solid Affiliate is deeply integrated with WooCommerce, these links connect directly to your store’s order system.

Why Integration Matters

Unlike generic affiliate tools, Solid Affiliate is designed specifically for WooCommerce. This allows it to:

• Track real purchases, not just clicks
  Affiliate referrals are tied directly to WooCommerce orders.
• Calculate commissions accurately
  Discounts, taxes, and product types are all handled correctly.
• Adjust for refunds and cancellations
  If an order changes, commissions are updated automatically.
• Work with your existing setup
  Product variations, coupons, and other WooCommerce features are fully supported.
• Run entirely inside WordPress
  No external platforms or complicated integrations are required.

Because of this, affiliate links generated by Solid Affiliate are more reliable and easier to manage than those created by tools not built specifically for WooCommerce.

This high level of integration also leads to superb interfaces like these:

Final Thoughts

WooCommerce itself doesn’t generate affiliate links for your products, but with the right plugin, it can power a complete affiliate marketing system.

If your goal is to have others promote your store using trackable referral links, a plugin like Solid Affiliate makes this process straightforward and fully integrated with your existing setup.

For other options, see our article, The 8 Best WooCommerce Affiliate Plugins.