Ozon Launches Social Media Influencer Affiliate Program: Up to 50% Commission, Completely Eliminates Follower Threshold

[Ebrun Exclusive] On May 31st, Russian e-commerce platform Ozon announced the official launch of a new affiliate program for social media content creators, starting May 25th. This initiative opens content monetization opportunities to creators on two major local platforms, Max and VKontakte (VK).

According to the platform's published policy, participating creators can earn commissions based on orders generated after selecting products from the catalog and recommending them to their audience. For some product categories, the commission rate can be as high as around 50% of the product's selling price.

Notably, the program sets absolutely no minimum follower count, allowing any creator with self-employed status to join. This marks a stark contrast to the common industry practice of maintaining certain follower thresholds.

As disclosed by Ozon, the program, named 'Ozon Blogger,' supports various content formats commonly used by creators, including image-text posts, curated thematic collections, and short videos. Creators can focus solely on producing high-quality recommendation content, while the platform handles all technical aspects—including labeling advertising materials as per regulatory requirements, compiling statistical reports, and managing attribution-based settlements.

In their dedicated personal dashboard within the Ozon shopping app, creators can view the complete catalog of available products for promotion and access real-time, detailed performance data for each post, with clear feedback ranging from impressions to completed orders. Commissions are settled based on actual purchases completed by users via the creator's referral link, with specific rates varying by product category.

Anastasia Oborotova, Ozon's Director of Operations and Marketing, pointed out that an increasing number of users are discovering previously unfamiliar products and brands through creator recommendations, curated collections, and short videos. Consumers often make purchases only after a creator mentions or promotes a specific product.

The most striking aspect of this program is the complete removal of follower count as a participation barrier. Oborotova explicitly stated that whether a creator has just 10 followers or tens of thousands, as long as they have self-employed status, they can submit an application on the platform, specifying their content publishing platform and tax status. Upon review, they will gain full access to the creator dashboard.

This fully inclusive strategy indicates Ozon's intent to mobilize the vast potential of mid- to long-tail creators for driving sales. For comparison, VK's monetization platform, VK AdBlogger, previously lowered its access threshold from 1,000 followers to 100 followers, but still retained a certain screening boundary. In contrast, Ozon has completely eliminated the threshold in one go this time and set the upper commission limit at an attractive rate of around 50%, demonstrating a strong desire to rapidly gather creator resources.

In terms of traffic foundation, the partner platforms chosen by Ozon possess significant user reach. According to Mediascope data, Max's daily coverage among users aged 12 and above has reached 68 million, with a month-on-month growth of 10.6%. Combined with VK's deep-rooted presence in the Russian social media ecosystem, these two platforms provide ample exposure opportunities for creators participating in the program.

VK also stated that its platform algorithm will more actively promote content containing product cards, helping creators precisely target interested users. This means that even smaller creators without massive reach have the opportunity to monetize their content through their loyal audience.

In fact, this is not Ozon's first venture into social commerce and the creator economy.

In 2022, the company launched an internal social network with storefront elements, promising creators monthly earnings of up to 80,000 rubles. However, that project was shut down in February 2023, with the platform stating at the time that it would focus on developing other formats.

Between February and March of last year, Ozon also initiated a pilot program offering advertising credit rewards to sellers for promoting on social media. It encouraged sellers to place ads with product links on Telegram and VK, rewarding them with platform credits for internal promotions based on the influencer's audience size. This can be seen as a precursor to the new policy.

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