WooCommerce can work with affiliate links, but it does not generate affiliate links for your own products by default.

This is where the question can get confusing. Some store owners want to add affiliate links to their WooCommerce site to promote products sold elsewhere. Others want to create affiliate links for their own products so outside partners can promote their store and earn commissions.

What Kind of Affiliate Links Do You Mean?

The answer depends on who is selling the product.

If you are promoting another company’s product, the affiliate link usually comes from that company’s affiliate program. You can place that link in a blog post, product description, or WooCommerce external product listing.

In that case, WooCommerce is simply displaying the link. It is not creating the affiliate link, tracking the referral, or calculating your commission. The other company’s affiliate platform handles all of that.

If you want other people to promote your WooCommerce products, the situation is different. You’ll need a way to create unique tracking links for each affiliate and connect those links to any order activity by customers referred to your store.

WooCommerce does not provide this functionality on its own. To get it, you’ll need to install an affiliate marketing plugin.

How Affiliate Link Generation Works With a Plugin

A WooCommerce affiliate plugin adds the missing system.

Once installed, the plugin lets affiliates register for your program. After approval, each affiliate receives a unique referral link. That link usually points to your store and includes an affiliate identifier that might be structured like this:

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

When someone clicks that link, the plugin records the visit. If the visitor later places a WooCommerce order, the plugin connects the sale to the correct affiliate and calculates the commission according to your rules.

This process turns a normal WooCommerce store into a trackable affiliate program.

Why WooCommerce Order Integration Matters

Affiliate links are only useful if the tracking behind them is reliable.

A good WooCommerce affiliate plugin should do more than count clicks. It should understand what happens after a customer reaches your store. That includes completed orders, failed payments, refunds, cancellations, discounts, coupons, and more.

If the order is refunded, the commission may need to be adjusted. If a coupon is used, the commission may need to be calculated from the discounted total. If different products have different rates, the plugin needs access to product-level order details.

Without that integration, affiliate tracking can become inaccurate or require manual cleanup.

Our Recommended Plugin for Generating WooCommerce Affiliate Links

For WooCommerce stores, we recommend Solid Affiliate.

Solid Affiliate is built specifically for WooCommerce, so it can generate affiliate links and connect them directly to WooCommerce orders. Affiliates get access to their own portal, where they can find referral links, review performance, and track earnings.

Store owners get tools for managing affiliates, referrals, commissions, reports, and payouts from inside WordPress.

Solid Affiliate also supports custom affiliate slugs, which can make referral links cleaner and easier for affiliates to share.

Final Thoughts

Can WooCommerce generate affiliate links?

No. Out of the box, WooCommerce can only display external affiliate links or create External/Affiliate products that point shoppers to another website. But if you want affiliates to promote your WooCommerce products using unique, trackable referral links, you need an affiliate plugin.

For most WooCommerce store owners, Solid Affiliate is the best option because it is built specifically for WooCommerce and ties all affiliate activity directly to real orders, including later adjustments to those orders.

For other options, see The 6 Best WooCommerce Affiliate Plugins.