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The eBay Partner Network (EPN) is eBay's own affiliate program: approved publishers and creators earn commission on sales they send to eBay, with no published follower minimum. Commission is category-based (typically 1-4%) with a per-transaction dollar cap of $100-$550, and the cookie window is just 24 hours — one of the shortest in affiliate marketing. Don't confuse it with eBay's newer, separate Ambassador Program, which pays a flat 7.5%.
The eBay Partner Network (EPN) is eBay's own affiliate program: anyone with a blog, website, social profile or app can apply, and approved publishers and creators earn commission on sales they send to eBay, with no published follower minimum. Commission is category-based — typically 1-4% of the sale price — but carries a per-transaction dollar cap of roughly $100-$550, and the cookie window is just 24 hours, resetting on every new click. That makes EPN the shortest cookie window in the marketplace-affiliate cluster this Academy already covers — see the Amazon Influencer Program, Etsy's Creator Collective and Shopify Collabs for the others.
EPN is structured as a classic affiliate network rather than an application-based creator program: anything from a blog or website to a social profile or app can apply through an online application describing the site or channel and its promotional methods. eBay doesn't publish a follower minimum — that sets EPN apart from Etsy's Creator Collective, which requires at least 500 followers and an 18+ age minimum. Applications are typically reviewed within a few days, and content must be original and free of adult material, hate speech, violence or illegal content.
eBay's own full rate table lives at partnernetwork.ebay.com/our-program/rate-card, but the page blocked direct fetch during research for this article — the figures below are cross-checked across several independent sources rather than confirmed directly on eBay's own page, under the same sourcing caveat this Academy has already applied to Etsy and other marketplace programs whose own pages couldn't be fetched directly either.
| Typical level | |
|---|---|
| Commission rate | 1-4% of the sale price, depending on category |
| Per-transaction dollar cap | $100-$550, depending on category |
| Example: Computers, Tablets & Networking | 1.5% commission, $550 cap |
The cap is the detail that matters most: on an expensive item, eBay doesn't keep paying the percentage upward forever — commission stops at the cap regardless of how high the sale price climbs. See the worked example below for what that means in practice.
EPN's cookie window runs 24 hours from click to purchase — per several independent sources, one of the shortest in affiliate marketing compared with Etsy's 30 days on the website and 7 days in the app, or the typically longer windows on Shopify Collabs and most general networks. The window also resets on every new click, so a visitor who clicks several times over several days without buying never builds up a longer credited window — only the most recent click counts.
In practice: a viewer who sees a recommendation on Monday and buys on Wednesday (48 hours later) triggers no commission at all, whereas the same behaviour would earn full commission under Etsy's 30-day window.
Per several independent sources, commission is paid monthly, typically around the 10th of the month — but for earnings from two months prior, meaning a 40-70 day delay between a sale and getting paid for it. The minimum payout is $10, one of the lowest in the industry, and payment runs via bank transfer or PayPal (with a fee of up to 2%, capped at $20, per the same sources).
Since April 2025, eBay has run a separate, newer program: the Ambassador Program, expanded to all US users during 2025. Per eBay's own description (quoted by eBay's own press office), "ePN is primarily designed for managed partners, including professional marketers and publishers," while "the Ambassador Program welcomes all affiliates, content creators, and eBay buyers and sellers" with a "simplified, mobile-friendly, and self-service affiliate experience." The Ambassador Program pays a flat commission of up to 7.5% on qualifying purchases within the same 24-hour window as EPN, but is limited to select categories with a curated item selection — unlike EPN's broader category access. The program's availability outside the US wasn't confirmed in the research behind this article.
eBay also removed a Seller Incentive in August 2025 that previously credited sellers' Final Value Fees when they promoted their own items through EPN links — per eBay's own communication, with just two days' notice. Even a seller using the Ambassador Program today to promote their own items will often find the 7.5% cap doesn't fully cover Final Value Fees across most categories anymore, per the same source.
eBay published an updated EPN Network Agreement on 22 January 2026, effective for existing partners from 26 January 2026 — per industry outlet Value Added Resource's review of eBay's own agreement text, the update makes two concrete changes relevant to a creator or brand working with EPN today:
That second point follows the same principle that already applies to any paid recommendation in Denmark and the EU — see influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU — but is worth knowing specifically, because it's eBay's own contractual requirement for where and how the label sits in the content, not just a statutory disclosure duty.
eBay has no Danish marketplace — there's no ebay.dk. EPN is instead organised as a federation of local programs tied to eBay's country-specific domains (including ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr — and ebay.se for Sweden, but no Danish equivalent). A Danish creator or brand wanting to use EPN therefore needs to sign up through one of these programs — in practice usually ebay.de, given its geographic proximity — after which, per EPN's own setup, commission can be earned across several of the other country-specific programs under the same sign-up.
For a Danish brand that already sells on ebay.de or another European eBay domain, EPN is relevant as another layer of sales-driven exposure, alongside the other marketplace-affiliate programs this Academy covers. For a brand that sells exclusively through its own webshop in Denmark, it isn't relevant unless it also lists products on eBay.
| eBay Partner Network | Amazon Influencer Program | Etsy Creator Collective | Shopify Collabs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Follower requirement | No official minimum | No official minimum (rarely under ~1,000 in practice) | 500 followers, 18+ | Historically had a minimum, but closed to new sign-ups as of writing |
| Cookie window | 24 hours, resets on each click | 24 hours for the onsite bonus | 30 days (website) / 7 days (app) | Not published by Shopify itself in this research |
| Commission structure | 1-4%, with a per-transaction dollar cap ($100-$550) | Category-based, roughly 1-20% (not public without login) | Category-based, typically around 4% | 2.9% fee on the commission itself, not the sale |
| Danish marketplace | No ebay.dk — access via ebay.de/ebay.co.uk/ebay.com | No amazon.dk — access via amazon.de | Global marketplace, no Denmark-specific program found | No confirmed Denmark availability for the network, per its own research |
The figures below are hypothetical and for illustration only — not data from eBay itself about what any real creator earns, and not figures from a Make Influence customer.
Assume a creator recommends a used laptop in the Computers, Tablets & Networking category (1.5% commission, $550 cap) at a $9,000 sale price:
Now assume the creator instead recommends an item in a category with a higher 3% rate and the same $550 cap, at a $20,000 sale price:
The cap only bites at high sale prices in categories with a relatively high percentage rate — for most ordinary items under a couple thousand dollars, it makes no difference.
IF you already sell on ebay.de or another European eBay domain and want more recommendations without briefing every individual creator → EPN is a relevant, low-risk addition, provided the commission cap doesn't erode the economics on your highest-value items.
IF your audience typically researches a purchase over several days rather than buying on impulse within a day → the short 24-hour cookie window will likely under-report the real sales impact compared with a network with a longer window.
IF you sell expensive items in a category with a low dollar cap → run the commission math for your typical sale price before building a campaign around EPN, since the cap can meaningfully reduce the real payout.
IF you sell exclusively through your own webshop in Denmark with no plans to list on eBay → EPN isn't relevant to you right now.
Make Influence doesn't run the eBay Partner Network and has no visibility into eBay's internal approval or payout process — it's an eBay-owned, eBay-run program outside our curated model. Our experience from similar platform-native commission programs (the Amazon Influencer Program, Etsy's Creator Collective) is that the short 24-hour cookie window makes EPN less suited to products with a long consideration period, and that the dollar cap is worth running the numbers on before building a campaign around expensive categories.
No. eBay doesn't publish an official follower minimum — that applies to both websites/blogs and social profiles, unlike, for example, Etsy's Creator Collective, which requires at least 500 followers.
24 hours. The window also resets on every new click, so only the most recent click counts — one of the shortest cookie windows in the marketplace-affiliate cluster this Academy covers.
No. Per eBay's own description, EPN is primarily designed for managed partners and professional publishers, while the Ambassador Program is a newer, self-service program for all affiliates and creators with a flat 7.5% rate, limited to select categories.
Only through one of eBay's country-specific programs, typically ebay.de, since there's no ebay.dk. Per EPN's own setup, commission can be earned across multiple country programs under the same sign-up.
Yes. Commission carries a per-transaction dollar cap of roughly $100-$550 depending on category — see the worked example above for when that actually bites.
EPN doesn't require a follower minimum and has a much shorter 24-hour cookie window against Etsy's 30 days on the website; in exchange, Etsy has a documented follower requirement (500) and a simpler, more consistent commission rate without the same dollar cap. See Etsy's Creator Collective for the full comparison.
Not found in this research. EPN is organised per country domain, and eBay has a Swedish domain (ebay.se) but no Danish one. See affiliate influencer marketing: how the model works for the general networks (Awin, Adtraction, Partner-ads) that do have a documented Danish presence.
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