Affiliate Summit West 2026 (ASW26) didn’t introduce entirely new ideas; it confirmed which ones are now impossible to ignore.

Our experts break down five trends from ASW26 that will define how performance marketing actually works in 2026. We cover where retail media and affiliate are converging, why zero-click journeys demand a rethink of measurement, how creator storefronts are becoming real points of sale, where AI is already driving practical gains, and why testing—not prediction—is the most reliable path forward. For each trend, we share what it means and what brands, networks, and publishers should do next.

Where Retail Media Meets Affiliate

Retail media and affiliate are converging: the same partners now sit at the intersection of retail media budgets, affiliate payouts, and creator programs.

• “Retail media in affiliate” is a growth opportunity, especially when supplier‑funded brand dollars can be channeled through affiliate‑style mechanics and measurement.
• The biggest brake on progress isn’t demand; it’s fragmentation: different definitions, siloed budgets, and limited data standardization (placements, new versus returning, impressions, etc). 

So, what’s a marketer to do?

Turn fragmented channel investments into a single, measurable commerce engine that drives incremental growth while reducing waste and duplication. Here’s how:

• Manage retail media, affiliate, and creators as a single commerce media portfolio. Define shared goals, roles, and blended KPIs across all three, and allocate budgets based on unified measurement, combining EMRgeTM Modern MMM+ to understand cross-channel contribution, geo-based testing to validate incrementality, and partner-level ROI analysis to guide where dollars scale most efficiently.
• Operationalize joint retail media, affiliate, and creator packages. Bundle on‑site placements, off‑site media, and creator amplification under a single brief and measurement plan to avoid double‑paying for the same exposure.

Measuring Performance in a Zero‑Click World

AI overviews, chatbots, and assistants are inserting a new decision layer between consumers and brands, breaking the old linear “search → click → convert” model.

• Influence is now often created long before—or without—a tracked click, as creators, content, and publishers shape demand inside AI surfaces that most reporting doesn’t capture.
• If brands keep optimizing only to last‑click ROAS, they’ll under‑invest in the partners and surfaces that move decisions in an AI‑mediated journey. 

So, what’s a marketer to do?

Ensure brands can measure and fund true influence across AI-mediated journeys, capturing demand that happens before the click and visibility that happens without one.

• Evolve measurement beyond last‑click. Use Ovative’s EMRgeTM Modern MMM+, geo tests, and partner‑level analysis to capture pre‑click impact, halo, and incrementality so “influence before click” is valued, and funded, alongside classic performance.
• Design for AI visibility and authority. Clean up product feeds and site structure and prioritize partners whose content is likely to be cited in AI answers, so your brand shows up in “zero‑click” moments. 

Storefronts as the New Checkout

Creator storefronts, live shopping, and social commerce are becoming the new “front doors” to checkout, especially for Gen Z audiences who trust people more than platforms.

• In many journeys, discovery, consideration, and purchase now collapse inside creator environments, with affiliate tracking powering monetization under the hood. 
• Programs that still treat creators as one‑off awareness plays miss the full‑funnel value they can drive as ongoing shelves, salespeople, and storytellers. 

So, what’s a marketer to do?

Turn creators from one-off activations into scalable, measurable growth partners that earn sustained investment across the full funnel.

• Build and mature in‑house creator affiliate networks and storefront programs. Give creators structured product catalogs, differentiated commissions, and repeatable packages, including retail media and brand event tie‑ins.
• Measure creators like top publishers. Track new‑to‑brand, cross‑channel halo, and contribution to enterprise KPIs, not just last‑click CPA, and bring that story into budget conversations alongside other performance channels.

Turning AI Hype into Everyday Automation

AI delivers impact when it’s applied to workflow—quietly automating reporting, strengthening data, scaling creative testing, and speeding up decisions—rather than chasing hype.

• Affiliate and creator teams are stretched. Without automation, it’s hard to run the volume of tests and optimizations needed to keep up with fast‑changing environments, e.g., TikTok Shop, live commerce, etc. 
• Ungoverned AI introduces risk, i.e., brand misalignment, accuracy issues, and data/privacy concerns, especially in regulated categories. 

So, what’s a marketer to do?

Scale AI-driven learning quickly and responsibly, unlocking speed and insight without introducing unnecessary risk.

• Use AI to fuel a learning‑first testing culture. Let AI help prioritize hypotheses, generate variants, and accelerate analysis so teams can “test big to learn big” without burning out on manual work. 
• Wrap AI in strong data and compliance guardrails. Align with legal, privacy, and brand teams on approved use cases, data handling, and QA so AI‑driven speed strengthens, rather than undermines, performance and trust. 
• Use affiliate as a budget‑safe AI testing ground. Pilot AI‑driven initiatives within affiliate programs, where its pay‑for‑performance model limit risks, before rolling into channels that require heavier upfront or CPC/CPM investment.

Testing into Volatility, Not Around It

In 2025, few things went to plan. Shifting tariffs, unpredictable Cyber Week performance, tighter consumer spend, and evolving channel dynamics made traditional, “lock it in and hope” annual plans feel brittle.

• Holiday behavior was especially noisy. Early promos created fatigue and confusion around the best time to buy, while end-of-year clearance pushes created high YOY revenue days, highlighting how quickly demand can move when timing and intent line up. 
• Marketing leaders emphasized a culture of testing for learning, not just winning. Many environments will continue to change fast, so best practices don’t persist. The organization’s capacity to learn and adapt matters most.  

So, what’s a marketer to do?

Turn volatility into a repeatable learning advantage, making smarter decisions faster, even when conditions refuse to stay stable.

• Use volatility as a testbed, not an excuse. Treat early season moments, like pre-Cyber Week promotions and pre-event pushes, as structured experiments to test into Cyber 10, with clear, hypothesis-driven learning around price sensitivity, timing, and messaging. This way, the “main event” is informed by real signals rather than guesswork. 
• Anchor, then amplify. Build clear anchor offers, products, and messages that orient customers, then amplify what’s working across channels and partners instead of pushing a blur of overlapping deals that drive confusion and fatigue. 
• Build a test & scale culture. Ovative experts have built a scalable testing operating system to help brands identify what actually drives incrementality, prove it with confidence, and translate learning into faster, higher-value growth decisions. While in fast-moving environments like TikTok Shop, best practices don’t persist, organizational learning does: 
• Set explicit hypotheses and success metrics for each test, e.g. promo structure, creative, partner mix, timing. 
• Use scrappy but directional measurement when needed, e.g. watching revenue uplifts, talking to customers, and running post-shopping surveys, especially where tracking is noisy. 
• Document and roll forward learnings so each season builds and scales on the last, rather than starting from scratch. 
• Design plans that can flex. Build annual and peak-season plans with intentional flex points—budget and partner allocations that can shift quickly as you see which promos, creators, and placements resonate in-market—rather than overcommitting to rigid strategies that can’t adapt when behavior changes midseason. 

Applying These Trends to Your 2026 Growth Plan

Performance marketing may be more fragmented and volatile than ever, but growth still favors brands that integrate channels, measure what truly moves decisions, and build the ability to test and adapt faster than the market.  

Need help putting this into practice? Ovative’s experts help brands turn these trends into action, building unified measurement, scalable creator commerce programs, and testing systems that drive confident decisions and durable growth.