Kajabi Affiliate Payouts
A global-to-global payout system enabling merchants anywhere in the world to automatically pay commissions to their affiliates anywhere in the world, directly through the Kajabi platform.
The Problem
Kajabi merchants running affiliate programs had no native way to pay out commissions through the platform. Affiliates drive a significant share of sales for many creators and course sellers, but the payout side of the equation was entirely manual: merchants calculating commissions by hand, issuing bank transfers or PayPal payments outside of Kajabi, and managing payout schedules in spreadsheets. For merchants with affiliates in multiple countries, this was operationally unmanageable and created real financial risk around accuracy and timeliness. It was also a retention problem: merchants who outgrew the manual workaround would leave the platform entirely to find a tool that handled both the sales and the payouts natively.
The Solution
A ground-up build of Kajabi's affiliate engine that automatically calculates the commission when a buyer purchases through an affiliate's link, routes the correct net amount to the merchant, and queues the affiliate payout according to the merchant's configured schedule and delay. The system supports any commission rate, one-time or subscription offer types, and pays out to affiliates globally, making it a true global-to-global payout solution regardless of where the merchant or affiliate is located.
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Digital Academy
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Jordan Lee
Canada · Affiliate
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Expires 09/27
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Kajabi Affiliate Engine
Under the Hood
Hero
Digital Academy
Merchant
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Affiliate
Jordan Lee
Canada
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Awaiting payment…
My Role
I led this initiative end-to-end, from problem definition, research, and scoping, through execution and go-to-market, coordinating with Engineering, Design, Finance, Legal, and CX. This feature required deep work on the payout infrastructure to support international affiliates, as well as careful design of the merchant-facing configuration model (commission rates, payout delays, and payout schedules) to give merchants the control they needed without adding unnecessary complexity.
Impact
Affiliate payouts became a core retention and revenue lever for Kajabi Payments. Merchants who activated the affiliate feature stayed longer and grew faster than those who didn't.
4×
Longer retention for merchants using the affiliate feature vs. those without
40%
More revenue earned by merchants using the affiliate platform vs. those without
Learnings
Affiliate programs are inherently complex, and the business-side education (how to structure a program, set commission rates, and recruit the right affiliates) is equally if not more important than the software itself. The product has to teach as much as it enables.
Risk prevention is non-negotiable. Without guardrails against fraudulent affiliate activity and commission abuse, merchants are exposed to real credit losses. Building those protections in from the start isn't optional; it's a core part of the feature.
Affiliate programs for Kajabi merchants are closer to sales training programs than they are to refer-a-friend schemes. Real results come when merchants invest time in actively training and equipping their affiliates, regardless of how many they have. The product has to support that dynamic, not just the mechanics of commission tracking.