This story was originally published on Glossy’s sibling publication, Modern Retail.
In a major step for the denim brand, American Eagle Outfitters has developed its own affiliate program to boost sales and connect with brand fans.
American Eagle recently formed an affiliate community for everyone from seasoned influencers to new creators. The brand soft-launched the program in March and will be marketing it more aggressively heading into the summer and the eventual back-to-school season, American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers told Modern Retail.
In exchange for plugging the brand on social media, members can receive a suite of perks, including early access to new American Eagle collections, exclusive discounts and commissions on merchandise sales. Creators can also build dedicated digital storefronts of their favorite American Eagle items, which shoppers can then browse and buy. The program is being branded as the “Live Your Life” affiliate community, a tie-in to American Eagle’s most recent marketing campaign.
American Eagle has partnered with affiliate networks before, including LTK and ShopMy. Those relationships have been “super successful,” Brommers said, and American Eagle will continue to work with other platforms. But the “Live Your Life” program marks the first time the brand has run its own affiliate community as it looks to create a deeper bond with customers during what Brommers previously called “an uncertain time in retail.” On March 12, American Eagle reported fourth-quarter comparable sales growth of 3% and warned of “less robust demand” at the beginning of 2025.
Brommers told Modern Retail that the new affiliate program “is an opportunity to help us scale from a commerce perspective and scale from a content perspective.”
He added that, based on how the creator and influencer space has changed over the course of his career, “I think we’re about to begin the next phase.” That entails “an affiliate commerce space, where friends and ambassadors of the brand can also be our business partners.”
The program is also American Eagle’s latest attempt to court social-savvy Gen Zers, its biggest demographic. A recent study by eMarketer found that 73% of U.S. Gen Zers make online purchases from creators. “Intuitively, it makes sense that, as we build trust in this community, there could be a real business opportunity here,” Brommers said.
Still, other generations are encouraged to apply for American Eagle’s program; its terms of service say it’s open to all applicants over the age of 18. Already, American Eagle is popular with millennials, and Gen Alpha is starting to shop the brand via their parents’ credit cards, Brommers said.
American Eagle is still in a “test-and-learn phase” of the affiliate program, Brommers said, so it is playing around with different commission options. “There’s no hard and fast number that we’re going out with,” Brommers explained. He also said American Eagle does not have a set number of influencers it wants to work with, although it has traditionally worked with 600 creators during any one season. “It’s not crazy for me to sit here and say that the community will ultimately be made up of thousands of creators, … but it’s quality over quantity,” Brommers said.
Notably, American Eagle is letting community members post as much as they want, as long as they stick to brand-safety rules like no offensive language. “When you’re too heavy-handed with a brief or styling [rules] or [instructions on] what you need to say, it doesn’t work,” Brommers said. “We do a lot of research on Gen Z, and I can tell you with complete conviction that Gen Z has a very high B.S. radar. That’s why it’s so important for these creators to be authentically them.”
This hands-off approach could pay off well for American Eagle, Erin Killian-Kristyniak, vp of global partnerships at the creator platform Partnerize, told Modern Retail. “Where I’ve seen the greatest success is when you open those gates and allow influencers to tell their story on your behalf in a different way, but you’re also providing the things they need,” she said.
American Eagle has traditionally worked with everyone from macro-influencers to nano-influencers, and that will remain the case. “The diversity of this community will be important for us,” Brommers said, explaining that the brand is looking for creators with varying reach in various locations. Historically, American Eagle has found that mid-level and micro-level influencers tend to “have the most impact on a local basis,” Brommers said.
American Eagle is updating its affiliate strategy amid a “broader shift across the industry,” said Krishna Subramanian, the co-founder and CEO of Captiv8, an end-to-end influencer marketing platform. In the past, many brands used affiliates for bottom-of-the-funnel marketing only. That’s starting to change, Subramanian told Modern Retail.
“Affiliate is becoming a core part of creator strategy, particularly for brands that want to scale full-funnel influence, from awareness to conversion, with measurable outcomes,” he explained.
Still, challenges abound for the affiliate marketing sector. In what could be seen as a road bump for American Eagle, the brand’s new affiliate program is debuting at a murky time for TikTok. A ban on the app in the U.S. has been postponed until mid-June. If it goes through, it could throw a wrench in how influencers disseminate content.
American Eagle is optimistic, though, about both TikTok and affiliate marketing, in general. “We’re working closely with the TikTok team, and right now, it’s business as usual until something happens,” Brommers said. “But creators aren’t going anywhere.”
