Affiliate marketing in Vietnam: how brands pay for sales, and what a commission report does not show

A head office that asks for an affiliate programme in Vietnam usually has a picture from elsewhere: a network of publishers, a tracking link on the brand's own website, a commission paid on each sale. That exists here. But most affiliate selling in Vietnam happens somewhere else, inside Shopee and TikTok Shop, under rules the marketplaces set.

The difference matters because the programme's report is produced by the same platform that takes a share of every order. It is accurate about what it counts. What it counts is not the same as what the brand gained.

This piece describes what "affiliate" means in Vietnam, how the two main marketplace programmes pay, why the cost per order they report is flattering, and what a brand should control from the start.

"Affiliate" in Vietnam covers three arrangements

The word is used for three things that are set up, paid and measured differently.

For a foreign brand selling mainly through marketplaces, the first column is where the money goes. The third column usually runs on top of it: a creator is invited, briefed and sent samples, and is paid through the marketplace's affiliate commission, sometimes with a fixed fee for the content itself.

How Shopee's programme pays

Shopee's affiliate programme pays a commission on valid orders placed through an affiliate's link. According to Shopee's help centre, the shopper has to complete the order within seven days of clicking that affiliate's link for it to be credited.

The commission has two parts: a rate paid by Shopee, and an optional additional rate, called XTRA commission, which the seller sets and funds for its own shop or products. Both are fixed at the rates in force when the order is placed. XTRA commission only applies to orders placed during the period the seller offers it, and only when the affiliate links to the shop or product page rather than to Shopee's home or category pages.

For a brand, three things follow. The part Shopee pays costs the brand nothing directly, so affiliates will promote products regardless. The XTRA part is the brand's lever, and its main effect is to move affiliates' attention towards the brand's products during the dates it chooses. And the seven-day window means an affiliate is credited for an order the shopper may have decided on for other reasons within that week.

How TikTok Shop's pays

On TikTok Shop, the seller sets the commission. It can open a rate to any creator who wants to promote the product, or offer a different rate to creators it invites, usually with free samples. Creators then sell through short videos and livestreams with the product linked, and the commission comes off each order.

Two features make TikTok Shop's affiliate spend larger than it first appears. The commission is often the main way a brand pays for content at all, so a low rate means few creators and little content. And because the content is what reaches shoppers, the affiliate programme and the brand's own videos compete for the same attention: a brand that pays creators well may find its own account matters less, and the reverse.

Why the reported cost per order flatters the programme

An affiliate report lists orders that followed a click on an affiliate link, and the commission paid on each. Divide one by the other and the cost per order is usually lower than any advertising line. That comparison is misleading for a structural reason: the report cannot tell an order the affiliate caused from an order it merely touched.

Three kinds of order inflate it:

• Shoppers who were already buying. Someone who searched for the product, saw a creator's video with a link, and clicked it to reach the store is credited to the creator, although the search came first.
• Coupon and deal pages. Pages that collect discount codes catch shoppers at the last step, after they have decided, and are credited with the order.
• Buying through one's own link. Where rules allow or enforcement is loose, some buyers and resellers use affiliate links to earn back part of their own purchase.

None of these is fraud in the sense of fake orders. The orders are real. They are simply orders the brand would largely have had without paying commission on them.

A worked example: cost per order against cost per additional order

The figures below are illustrative, built for this example rather than taken from any brand.

A brand sells a product at 300,000 dong and pays affiliates 12% of the selling price, 36,000 dong per order. In one month, the affiliate report shows 2,000 orders, and commission of 72 million dong. Cost per reported order: 36,000 dong, far below the 90,000 dong its search advertising costs per order.

Then the brand runs a test: for four weeks it removes its extra commission in half of its product range and leaves it on the other half, which sells similarly. Total orders in the half without extra commission fall by less than the affiliate report would suggest. Working it through, the brand estimates that about 40% of affiliate-credited orders would have happened anyway.

At 60,000 dong per additional order the programme is still cheaper than search advertising at 90,000 dong, so the brand keeps it. It also learns that the gap is much smaller than the report implied, and that raising commission further buys less than it appears to. A different brand, in a category where most shoppers search by name, might find that most affiliate orders would have happened anyway, and reach the opposite conclusion.

The test design matters more than the figures: change one thing, in one part of the range or one region, and read the result in total orders from the sales ledger, not in the affiliate report.

Setting commission without teaching the market to wait

Commission is a price the brand pays, and like any price it changes behaviour. A few principles hold across categories:

• Set rates from margin, not from what competitors offer. The contribution each order leaves after platform fees, the brand's share of vouchers and product cost is the ceiling. Decide how much of it you will pay for an order that may not be additional.
• Pay more where the programme adds most. New products, products shoppers do not yet search for, and products that need demonstration gain most from affiliates. Best-sellers that already sell by search gain least.
• Time-box extra commission. An extra rate that never ends becomes the normal rate, and affiliates stop promoting the brand when it is withdrawn.
• Cap what stacks. An affiliate discount code on top of a platform voucher on top of a campaign-day price can take the selling price below the floor the brand set for every channel, including distributors.

Six controls a head office should ask for

These are the things worth writing down before the programme grows, whoever runs it:

1. Who holds the programme settings. The seller account holds commission rates and affiliate history. If a distributor or agency operates the store, agree in writing what the brand can see and what transfers if the relationship ends. 2. A price floor after all discounts, checked monthly across platforms and affiliate codes. 3. An approved-claims list. What creators may and may not say about the product, especially in regulated categories such as cosmetics, supplements and food. 4. Disclosure. Vietnam's amended Advertising Law, in force from 1 January 2026, requires people promoting products on social media to check the product and its documents first, and to announce that the content is advertising before and while it runs. The brand's brief should require it, and someone should check. 5. Sample and fee tracking. Free samples and fixed fees to creators are part of the programme's cost and belong in the same report as commission. 6. Affiliate share of total orders, every month. If the share rises while total orders do not, the programme is being credited with sales it is not adding.

How these fit into what the head office sees each month, and which numbers to trust, is covered in the measurement cluster. How affiliate orders sit alongside advertising inside Shopee and TikTok Shop is covered in the marketplace cluster.

When a distributor holds the store

Many foreign brands enter Vietnam through a distributor, and the distributor often opens and operates the marketplace stores. The affiliate programme then belongs to whoever holds the seller account, which is usually not the brand.

Three questions are worth settling in writing before the programme starts:

• Who funds the extra commission. If the distributor pays it from its own margin, it will set rates to protect that margin, and may stop when a quarter looks weak. If the brand funds it through a marketing contribution, the brand should approve rates and dates, and see what was paid.
• Who can see the programme. Commission rates, the list of affiliates, and the orders each one was credited with sit in the seller back office. The brand needs read access, or a monthly export in a fixed format, not a summary slide.
• What happens to it if the relationship ends. Affiliate history, creator relationships and the store's review record do not move to a new distributor on their own. An agreement that is silent on this leaves the brand starting from zero with the next partner.

A distributor running the programme well is common. The risk is not bad faith; it is that the brand ends up paying for a programme it cannot read, in a store it does not hold. The same questions apply to the store itself and to the advertising account, and they are part of choosing and contracting a partner in the first place, which the market entry cluster covers from the brand's side.

Who should run it

Four parties commonly run affiliate programmes for foreign brands in Vietnam: the brand's own local team, its digital agency, its distributor, or a specialist affiliate agency or network. Any of them can do it well. The question that decides most outcomes is not who runs it, but whether the brand can see the programme's settings and results directly, and whether the person running it is paid in a way that rewards additional orders rather than reported ones.

A fee tied to affiliate-credited revenue rewards credited revenue, including orders that would have happened anyway. That is not a reason to refuse it, but it is a reason to judge the programme on total orders, and to have someone who is not paid on it read the numbers.

Where this work stops

MWY does not recruit or manage affiliates or creators, run affiliate programmes, operate stores, or take commission from any platform, network, agency or creator.

Reading what an affiliate programme actually adds, from the settlement, affiliate and sales reports, designing the tests that show it, and holding the monthly head-office report to that figure is part of Vietnam Marketing Advisory & Oversight. Deciding where affiliates fit in a launch plan, alongside advertising and the choice of platforms, is part of Go-to-Market Strategy.