By embedding an affiliate program directly into the Makro PRO App, the brand empowered its existing customers to become advocates, driving sales while earning performance-based commissions of 1%–5%.

When businesses think of affiliate marketing, they often look outward to creators, publishers, or external affiliates to promote their products. However, for brands with a large existing customer base and established owned channels, there is an often-overlooked asset: the customers who use the brand’s products and services every day.

Makro PRO took this approach, moving beyond viewing customers solely as the end point of a purchase. Instead, they enabled customers to become affiliates, recommending products and earning commissions based on performance, all while integrating the affiliate program into the Makro PRO App—a touchpoint customers already use.

This strategy arrived as affiliate commerce became a familiar behavior for consumers in the region. According to the Southeast Asia E-commerce Influencer Marketing Report 2025, 83% of consumers in Southeast Asia—and 83% in Thailand specifically—have purchased products via affiliate links. Furthermore, groceries rank in the top three categories for affiliate purchases in Southeast Asia, accounting for 36% of sales, trailing only Beauty & Personal Care and Fashion.

The challenge for Makro PRO was not to create entirely new behaviors, but to make it easy for their existing customer base to enter the affiliate journey and turn recommendations into measurable sales.

From “Customer Base” to Distribution Asset

Brands invest heavily in acquiring customers through e-commerce, mobile apps, loyalty programs, and CRM. However, the customer lifecycle is often viewed through a traditional lens: acquire, convert, and retain.

Affiliate marketing adds a new dimension to this cycle. Some customers don’t just have to be buyers; they can become advocates who share their product experiences and earn rewards when those recommendations drive performance.

This concept aligns with regional recommendation behaviors. Research on customer referral marketing in Singapore shows that 83% of consumers consider recommendations and referrals important to their purchasing decisions, while 55% are already participating in referral programs. Factors such as ease of use and clear instructions are key to increasing participation.

For Makro PRO, the focus wasn't just on “recruiting affiliates,” but on viewing their owned customer base as a distribution asset. Customers who already trust the brand can transition from consumers to advocates, creating a new customer acquisition loop within the existing ecosystem.

Launching the Affiliate Channel via the Makro PRO App: Bringing the program closer to the customer journey.

What sets Makro PRO’s strategy apart from a standalone affiliate landing page is the integration of the program into the Makro PRO App, a touchpoint customers are already using.

From a UX perspective, this is crucial. Every extra step between “interest” and “action” creates friction. If a customer has to leave the app to find a program, sign up on a different system, and then return to find products, the journey becomes unnecessarily long. By placing the affiliate opportunity within a familiar environment, the path from customer to affiliate is significantly shortened.

The goal was not just to promote the existence of an affiliate program, but to weave it into the existing customer experience.

Customers can discover the program, join, select products, share recommendations, and generate performance results within a seamlessly connected ecosystem.

This is also significant for brand-owned commerce. Instead of relying entirely on third-party platform distribution, brands can leverage their own traffic, user relationships, and touchpoints to drive additional affiliate activity.

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The program is powered by Priceza Affiliate Partnership Management Platform (Shopfluence), an affiliate marketing software designed to manage the entire program lifecycle—from affiliate registration, tracking, and transaction attribution to commission management and performance reporting.
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When affiliates are integrated into the customer ecosystem, success must be measured by sales, not just the number of sign-ups.

Opening an affiliate program to customers is only the beginning, as the number of applicants does not indicate whether the strategy is actually generating business value.

The ultimate metric Makro PRO uses to measure success is affiliate-driven performance, which saw GMV from affiliates grow by 100% month-on-month in Q3 2026.

100% MoM

GMV from Affiliate Growth

Q3 2026

This should be the hero result of the article, as it directly links strategy to business outcomes.

The significance of this figure lies not just in the "100% growth," but in the fact that the affiliate program has evolved beyond a simple in-app engagement feature. It is now driving commerce outcomes that can be measured in terms of GMV.

This aligns with the broader direction of affiliate marketing. The State of Affiliate Marketing 2025 report, which surveyed over 1,500 marketers, publishers, and creators across eight countries, found that 74% of brands generate 11–30% of their total revenue from affiliate marketing, reflecting a shift in many organizations from viewing affiliates as a tactical channel to a revenue-generating one.

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Performance-based Economics: Paying commissions only when performance is achieved.

Another reason the affiliate model is attractive to businesses is that the cost structure is directly tied to performance, unlike media models where brands must purchase exposure before knowing if a transaction will occur.

Makro PRO sets commission rates between 1%–5%, ensuring that affiliate rewards are proportional to the sales generated by the program, while allowing the brand to tailor incentives to specific product categories or objectives.

Looking at the returns, the program achieved:

50x ROI from Campaign

These two figures should be presented together, as they transform the case from a simple growth story into a growth and economics story

Brands no longer just ask how much sales an affiliate program can generate, but also, "Under what cost model is this sales growth achieved, and how worthwhile is the return?"

In the context of the affiliate market, performance-based compensation remains a core pillar. The Affiliate Benchmark 2025 analysis by impact.com found that commissions remain the primary component of brand spend in affiliate programs, accounting for 86% of affiliate spend in the analyzed dataset. While this benchmark is based on North American retail brands rather than Thailand, it illustrates a model where rewards are systematically tied to partner performance.

I recommend not adding another infographic as it will start to look cluttered. Instead, use the three Graphic Impact elements above and continue the economics narrative in the text.

What the Makro PRO case study tells brands that already have an established customer base.

The most interesting takeaway from this case isn't that every brand should adopt an affiliate model exactly like Makro PRO's, but rather how it shifts the perspective on the assets a business already possesses.

Businesses often evaluate their customer base based on member count, purchase frequency, or customer lifetime value. However, in a commerce model where customers can create content, share links, and recommend products, some customers may hold value in another dimension: their potential as a distribution channel.

It may be time for brands to ask more than just “How much does this customer spend with us?” and start asking:

“Can this customer help bring the next customer to us?”

The Makro PRO case demonstrates one way to answer that question by integrating affiliate features into the existing customer experience, supported by technology for tracking and compensation, and using business outcomes as the measure of success.

The results: 100% MoM Affiliate GMV growth in Q3 2026, a 1%–5% commission rate, and a 50X ROI from the campaign.

For brands that already have an app, loyalty program, membership, or CRM database, this is a compelling question to consider: how much further can the customer base you’ve built over the years be leveraged from an audience asset into a performance distribution asset?

From Customer Relationship to Customer-powered Commerce

Affiliate marketing is moving beyond the traditional image of having the brand on one side and professional affiliates or creators on the other.

As technology makes registration, tracking, attribution, and commission payouts manageable at scale, the lines between customers, advocates, creators, and affiliates are beginning to blur.

Makro PRO showcases one of the most interesting models of this shift: starting with an existing customer base, embedding affiliate features into the app they already use, and enabling existing customer relationships to generate an additional layer of commerce value.

Affiliate marketing, therefore, doesn't have to be just a channel for "finding people to help sell."

It can serve as the infrastructure that allows people who already have a relationship with the brand to directly contribute to the brand's growth.

Looking to leverage your customer base for your brand's affiliate program?

Priceza Affiliate Partnership Management Platform (Shopfluence) is an affiliate marketing software designed to build and manage end-to-end affiliate programs, covering everything from affiliate registration, tracking, transaction attribution, and performance reporting to commission management.

For businesses looking to build a brand-owned affiliate program and convert partner activity into measurable business performance.

Talk to Priceza about your Affiliate Program

Source

Makro PRO Affiliate Program Performance Data, Q3 2026; Priceza Affiliate Partnership Management Platform (Shopfluence). Background on Makro PRO Owned Audience, Owned Channel and Affiliate Program infrastructure adapted from the previous Makro PRO Case Study draft.

External market context: Cube Southeast Asia E-commerce Influencer Marketing Report 2025; impact.com Customer Referral Marketing in Singapore; State of Affiliate Marketing 2025; Affiliate Benchmark 2025.

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