India’s biggest online marketplaces have signed up a huge number of creators. Keeping them could be harder. According to Storyboard18‘s Indrani Bose, the commission-based affiliate programs run by Amazon and Flipkart are raising questions about whether those platforms can hold on to influencers over the long run, as more established creators push for guaranteed fees instead of payouts that depend only on sales.

Industry executives told Storyboard18 that the model works well for e-commerce platforms that want sales without big upfront costs. But they say it puts a disproportionate share of the financial risk on creators, especially nano and micro influencers.

The commission math

How much a creator earns depends heavily on what they’re selling. Amit Dhawan, co-founder of Crack’d, said Amazon India’s published commission rates run from about 1% on mobile phones to 7.5–8% in categories like fashion and beauty. Flipkart pays around 8% in fashion and lifestyle, with much lower payouts on electronics and phones.

Storyboard18 spelled out what that means. A creator who drives 100 qualifying orders with an average basket of Rs 2,000 would make Rs 16,000 at an 8% commission. At 1%, the same sales would bring in just Rs 2,000.

“Affiliate marketing is emerging as an important monetisation layer for India’s creator economy, but we need to distinguish between access to monetisation and the ability to build a sustainable income from it,” Dhawan said.

More creators, uneven paydays

The pool of creators keeps growing. Citing the 2026 ISB–Hashfame study, Dhawan said India now has an estimated 4.12 million creators, up from 0.96 million in 2020. But according to the same study figures, about 85% of non-metro creators didn’t complete a single paid campaign in a year.

Darshana Bhalla of celebrity talent management company D’Artist said affiliate programs give smaller influencers an easy way to start earning “without waiting for brands to offer fixed-fee partnerships.” Still, she said lasting success depends on predictable income, not occasional commissions.

Brand and marketing communications strategist Shreya Badola suggested a simple test. “If you want to know how well it’s working for creators, don’t go by how many signed up for the programme but look how many creators are still in it a year later,” she said.

Who carries the risk

The main complaint is that commission-only deals let platforms and brands benefit from creator marketing without guaranteeing pay for the work. “Earning commission on products you’d recommend anyway is one thing. Spending time and money to make an ad with no guaranteed payment is another,” Badola said.

Attribution is another sore spot. A shopper might find a product through a creator, research it on their own and buy it later through another channel. In that case the creator helped make the sale but gets no credit for it.

The hybrid model

Executives expect pay to shift toward a mix of both: a guaranteed fee for producing content and reaching an audience, plus commission on sales. “Naturally, established creators will seek guaranteed fees, minimum commitments and longer-term partnerships. But I don’t think this means they will abandon affiliate commerce,” Bhalla said.

The same idea is coming up in wider debates about creator pricing. In a Nov. 2 analysis, Agency Reporter described a hybrid structure “emerging as a practical middle ground,” in which creators get a guaranteed base fee for their time and production effort, with extra pay tied to agreed performance goals. It also warned that creators don’t control everything that affects results, including platform distribution, product availability, pricing and a brand’s checkout process.

To keep creators, Dhawan said, platforms will need transparent attribution, competitive commissions, reliable payment cycles and useful analytics. “Ultimately, platforms may own the transaction, but creators often create the intent,” he said.

The takeaway

Getting creators to sign up for affiliate programs is the easy part. The real test for Amazon, Flipkart and any platform built on commissions is whether creators can make a steady living there. As Bhalla put it, “The creator economy cannot be built entirely on commissions.” Creators who know what their audience is worth now have a reason to ask for a base fee up front.

Image: “Cardboard boxes” by Henry Söderlund, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped and resized.