A 27% wake-up call. That’s what hit Indian exporters when the U.S. announced its latest reciprocal tariff in 2025. Almost overnight, cross-border commerce was thrown into chaos, and affiliates felt the aftershocks.
As global brands scale back and international offers lose profitability, Indian affiliates are facing a hard truth: the traditional model of relying on imported products and global campaigns is no longer built to withstand today’s economic volatility.
vCommission’s India COD Ecom provides a robust solution, offering affiliates a tariff-proof advantage. With a performance-first, locally-focused model, vCommission ensures affiliates can continue generating revenue while minimising the impact of rising costs and unpredictable global supply chains.
Let’s break down how the new tariff regime is reshaping affiliate marketing in India, and how vCommission’s India COD Ecom Model is helping them stay ahead.
In 2025, India’s affiliate and trade ecosystem was shaken by two major policy changes: a 27% reciprocal tariff imposed by the United States on Indian exports, and India’s removal of exemptions on low-value imports from China. These shifts have sharply increased the cost of cross-border commerce, especially in categories like electronics, apparel, and fast-moving consumer goods.
For affiliate marketers, this means the old model, built on fast, cheap imports and high-margin international offers, is no longer sustainable. As brands like Shein and Temu scale back affiliate incentives, marketers are facing rising costs, tighter margins, and logistical hurdles that make international campaigns harder to execute.
Here’s what affiliates are now up against:
1. Increased Product Costs: Tariffs inflate the base price of imported goods, reducing profit margins for brands and commissions for affiliates. Higher prices mean fewer conversions and weaker ROI on international offers.
2. Fewer Global Offers: As international companies downsize or withdraw from India, affiliates have fewer high-converting global offers to promote. The result is a pivot to domestic offers that are stable but no longer highly competitive.
3. Crowded Domestic Campaigns: With more affiliates chasing the same local offers, competition is intensifying. Affiliates must now differentiate with stronger creatives, sharper targeting, and deeper engagement strategies.
4. Higher Risk of Failures: Shipping delays, customs blocks, and tariff disputes lead to cancelled orders and delivery issues. This erodes consumer trust and slashes potential payouts for affiliates.
5. Shrinking Affiliate Budgets: Global brands, under pressure from rising operational costs, are trimming their marketing spends, including affiliate payouts. That means lower commissions and fewer campaign slots for affiliates relying on international traffic.
According to Statista, over 60% of all e-commerce transactions in India are COD-based, with the number reaching 80% in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, where trust in online payments remains a significant barrier. For affiliates, COD offers a significant opportunity in a challenging E-commerce market in India.
Here’s why Ecommerce COD growth in India is more relevant than ever:
1. No Prepayment Friction: COD eliminates the prepayment friction that many Indian consumers experience when shopping online. When consumers don’t need to pay upfront, they are more likely to make a purchase, resulting in fewer drop-offs and higher conversion rates. With COD, affiliates can convert hesitant shoppers into loyal buyers, which ultimately drives more revenue.
2. Increased Order Volume: COD campaigns tend to generate higher order volumes than prepaid campaigns, especially when marketed through influencers or social media platforms. Mobile-first audiences, particularly in non-metro cities, tend to prefer COD due to the reduced financial risk. This enables affiliates to reach a larger audience with fewer barriers to entry.
3. Shielded from International Tariff Volatility: Affiliates using the COD model are shielded from international tariff hikes, customs hold-ups, and increased shipping costs because products are sourced and delivered locally. This is the right strategy in today’s volatile E-commerce market in India since it gives affiliates a stable environment in which to run ads without worrying about rising global prices.
Affiliate COD Ecommerce in India gives the power to run fast-moving, scalable campaigns with consistent payouts and minimal risk, making it a highly viable option in 2025’s tariff-driven landscape.
As India’s leading affiliate network, vCommission has developed a performance-first ecosystem that leverages India COD Ecom to offer affiliates a tariff-proof model. Here’s how vCommission is leading the way and transforming the affiliate marketing experience for Indian affiliates:
vCommission has strategically aligned its offerings with the rapidly growing e-commerce sector in India. vCommission guarantees affiliates steady margins and regular payouts by collaborating with domestic brands and goods that are unaffected by foreign tariffs. Because of this dedication to local fulfilment, affiliates can concentrate on promoting high-conversion, high-margin products by mitigating the effects of international price increases, shipping delays, and customs duties.
vCommission provides affiliates with a suite of powerful performance tools, including real-time tracking, advanced reporting, and smart optimisation to ensure campaigns are running at peak efficiency. Affiliates can make data-driven decisions to optimise their campaigns for higher conversion rates and better ROI.
This is how:
Because vCommission’s COD Ecom in India infrastructure is designed to be as efficient as possible, affiliates can use India’s most reliable payment option. Particularly in regions with low levels of trust in online payments, vCommission guarantees seamless transactions and increased conversion rates by collaborating with regional fulfilment providers.
vCommission’s order staging system informs affiliates about the status of their orders by following these three steps:
Step 1: Order placed
Step 2: Order confirmed & shipped
Step 3: Order received
Processing payments on time is one of the main issues that affiliates worry about. This is resolved by vCommission, which guarantees affiliates receive payment within seven days of delivery acknowledgement. Affiliates may scale their campaigns, reinvest their revenues quickly, and keep a consistent cash flow to expand their businesses thanks to our swift payout system.
vCommission’s platform is made to be flexible and adaptable, enabling affiliates to easily adjust to shifting market conditions in an affiliate market as dynamic as India. The adaptable tools offered by vCommission ensure that affiliates grow their businesses without being constrained by external disturbances, whether they are testing new traffic sources, improving ad creatives, or leveraging new trends.
The tariff changes in 2025 have made it harder for affiliate marketers in India, especially those relying on international offers. However, the vCommission’s India COD Ecom model offers a strong, tariff-proof solution to help affiliates stay competitive in this challenging market.
By focusing on local fulfilment, offering smooth COD payment options, and providing performance tools, vCommission helps affiliates run stable, high-conversion campaigns with less risk. As global offers decline, local opportunities become more important, and vCommission ensures affiliates can stay profitable and grow, even with these challenges.
The future of Affiliate COD Ecommerce in India is changing, and vCommission is leading the way with a sustainable, performance-focused approach.
