Daraz Affiliate vs Markaz Affiliate — Which Pays Better?

Neither program publishes a single number that settles this, and any blog quoting you exact percentages is quoting a rate that may already have changed. What decides your earnings is not the headline commission — it is what you are paid for, whether the order has to be paid online, and how much of the sale you control.

The short version: a marketplace affiliate program like Daraz pays you a commission on sales tracked to your link, from a very large catalogue you have no control over. The Markaz affiliate program pays you for sharing products that get delivered and paid for at the door in PKR, and it lets you graduate into reselling, where you set the price and keep the margin instead of a fixed cut.

Below: how each side pays, the six terms that decide your payout, and the arithmetic to compare them with your own numbers.

First, check the rates yourself

Affiliate commission rates move. They change by category, by campaign, by season, and programs update their terms pages without telling anyone. So treat every rate you read in an article — including a comparison article — as out of date until you have seen it on the program's own terms page.

What does not move much is the structure of a program: what counts as a qualifying sale, how long your link keeps credit, what happens when the buyer returns the item, and when the money reaches you. Structure is what this comparison is about, because structure is what quietly decides whether a good month pays out or evaporates.

How a marketplace affiliate program pays

Daraz runs the model most people picture when they hear "affiliate". You get a tracked link, you share it, and if someone buys through it you earn a commission on that order. The mechanics behind that sentence are where the money is won or lost:

• Tracking is by link. If the buyer opens your link, then closes the app and comes back the next day through a search, the credit is usually gone. Anything you share by screenshot, voice note or word of mouth earns nothing, because there was no link to follow.
• Credit expires. Every program has an attribution window — the period after the click during which a purchase still counts as yours. A short window suits impulse buys; a long one suits things people think about for a week.
• Rates are tiered by category. Marketplaces almost always pay a different percentage on electronics than on fashion or groceries, because their own margins differ. The category your audience buys matters more than the top rate advertised anywhere.
• Cancelled and returned orders come back off. Commission is normally confirmed after the return window closes, not when the order is placed. A big month can shrink after returns are counted.
• There is a payout threshold. Balances usually have to reach a minimum before they are paid out, and payment lands on a fixed cycle rather than on the day of the sale.
• Exclusions apply. Your own purchases, certain categories, coupon and voucher traffic, and sometimes paid ads on the brand's own name are commonly excluded.

None of this makes it a bad program. A marketplace catalogue is enormous, the brand is familiar, and if your audience already shops online with a card or a wallet, a tracked link is a light way to earn. It suits publishers — a blog, a deals page, a YouTube channel, a big Facebook page — where traffic is high and you are not talking to buyers one by one.

How the Markaz affiliate program pays

Markaz is built around how most of Pakistan actually buys: someone sees a product in a WhatsApp group or on a Facebook page, asks two questions, and pays the rider in cash when the parcel arrives. The affiliate program sits on top of that.

You join free, pick products from the Markaz wholesale shop, and share them with your followers, friends or group. Markaz handles the supplier, the packing and the delivery. The customer pays cash on delivery in PKR — no card, no bank transfer, no online account needed at their end. Delivery inside Pakistan usually runs 3–5 days; items sourced from China take longer, around 10–17 days. There is a 7-day return window and buyer protection, which matters more than it sounds: an audience that knows it can send something back says yes more often.

Two structural differences follow from that. First, your buyer does not need to be a card user, which in Pakistan is most of the market. Second, there is no minimum order anywhere in the chain, so you are never asked to buy stock to earn.

Browse the product categories before you join — the fastest way to judge any program is to check whether it stocks things you could talk about honestly for a month. If you want the wider view, our roundup of the best affiliate programs in Pakistan lists what to look for across the market, not just here.

Side by side: what actually differs

The rows below are structural, so they stay true when a rate card changes.

Dimension	Daraz affiliate	Markaz affiliate
What you are paid for	Commission on orders tracked to your link	A reward on orders you refer and that get delivered
Rate	Set by the program, tiered by category — check current terms	Set by the program — check the affiliate page
How the buyer pays	Marketplace checkout, online payment or COD depending on the order	Cash on delivery in PKR across Pakistan
How the sale is tracked	Your link, inside an attribution window	Through your Markaz account and the orders you place or refer
Cost to join	Free	Free — no joining fee, no stock, no minimum order
Control over your cut	None — the rate is fixed by category	Fixed as an affiliate; as a reseller you set your own price
Who handles delivery and returns	The marketplace and its sellers	Markaz — 3–5 days in Pakistan, 7-day return window
Best fit	Publishers with traffic and an online-paying audience	People who sell by conversation — WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, family networks

The six terms that decide what you actually get paid

Before you join anything, get an answer to these six. They are worth more than a percentage:

1. What counts as a qualifying sale? An order placed, an order shipped, or an order delivered and kept. The gap between the first and the last is every cancelled and returned parcel.
2. How long does my credit last after a click? The attribution window. Short windows punish considered purchases.
3. What is clawed back? Returns, refunds, cancellations, fraudulent orders — and how long the hold period is before the money is confirmed.
4. What is excluded? Categories, your own orders, voucher traffic, and any restriction on how you may promote.
5. What is the payout threshold, and how am I paid? A bank account, a mobile wallet, or store credit are very different outcomes. Store credit is not income.
6. When does the money actually land? Weekly, monthly, or 30–45 days after the month closes. Cash flow is the difference between a side income and a hobby.

Ask these of Daraz, of Markaz, and of any program that messages you promising more. A program that answers all six clearly is usually the one worth your time.

Which one fits your audience

This is the part most comparisons skip, and it decides more than the rate does.

• Your audience pays online, browses deals, and buys electronics or branded goods. A marketplace affiliate link fits. The catalogue is huge and the brand needs no explanation.
• Your audience is a WhatsApp group, a Facebook page or a TikTok following that pays at the door. Markaz fits, because cash on delivery is the default rather than an option, and you can answer questions about a product you actually chose.
• You have real traffic — a blog, a channel, a big page. Run both. Link the marketplace for branded searches, share Markaz products where you can add a recommendation in your own words.
• You have a small but trusting audience. Trust converts far better than reach, and that is where sharing a specific product beats dropping a generic link. Our guide to starting affiliate marketing in Pakistan covers the first-week steps.

Work out your own number

Comparing two programs on their advertised rate is the wrong sum. Use this one instead:

Monthly earnings = people who see it × the share who buy × average order value × your effective rate × the share that stays delivered.

An illustrative example — every figure here is invented to show the method, so put your own in: say 2,000 people see your posts in a month and 2% order, that is 40 orders. At an average order value of PKR 1,500 that is PKR 60,000 of sales. At an effective rate of 5% you have earned PKR 3,000 — but if a tenth of those orders are refused or returned, you are paid on 36 of them, so about PKR 2,700.

Run that sum twice, once per program, using each program's real rate and your own honest conversion. Two things usually jump out. Average order value moves the answer more than the rate does — a program with a lower percentage on bigger baskets can pay more. And the delivered share is not a rounding error; it is the difference between the number you predicted and the number you were paid.

The bigger lever: commission vs margin

Here is the honest limit of affiliate earning. A commission is a fixed slice of someone else's price. However good you get at selling, your cut per order stays what the program says it is.

Reselling changes that. You pick a product at the catalogue price, set the selling price yourself, and keep the difference. You still hold no stock — you order after the customer has confirmed, and the courier collects the cash — but the margin is your decision instead of a rate card. That is the ceiling most people hit after a few months of sharing links, and it is why the Markaz reseller program exists alongside the affiliate one. If you want to run it like a proper store, with your own catalogue and order flow, the dropshipping portal is the next step up.

The two models are not rivals. A common path is to start as an affiliate to learn what your audience actually buys, then resell those same products at your own price once you know. We compare the two side by side in affiliate marketing vs reselling in Pakistan, and the seller-side economics of the two platforms — fees, COD, margins — are broken down in Daraz vs Markaz for resellers.

Getting paid on cash on delivery

One practical point that catches new affiliates in Pakistan. When the buyer pays at the door, nobody gets paid on the day of the sale. The courier delivers, collects the cash, and remits it up the chain; your earning is confirmed after that, and after the return window has passed.

Plan for that gap. Treat money as earned when it is in your account, not when a parcel is dispatched. And spend your effort on the things that keep parcels from coming back — confirming the order on a quick call, writing the full amount in the chat, getting a complete address with a landmark. If cash on delivery is new to you, the COD dropshipping guide for Pakistan covers the whole flow.

How to start this week

1. Pick one audience and one category. Not five. The person who shares kitchen items every day beats the person who shares everything once.
2. Join free and read the terms. Sign up on the Markaz affiliate page and get answers to the six questions above before you share anything. Nothing legitimate charges you a joining fee — if a program asks for money to let you earn, it is selling memberships, not products.
3. Order one thing yourself. One sample tells you more about a program than a week of reading. You see the packing, the delivery time and the return process the way your buyer will.
4. Share with a recommendation, not a link dump. Two lines on why you picked it, one honest note on what it is not. That is the entire difference between a 0.5% and a 3% conversion.
5. Track what sells for four weeks. Then either double down on that category, or move those same products into reselling and set your own margin.

If you have no budget at all, that is not a blocker — see affiliate marketing without investment in Pakistan for the free-start version.

Common questions

So which one pays better?

For most people selling through conversation in Pakistan, Markaz pays better in practice, because cash on delivery removes the payment barrier and reselling lets you set your own margin instead of accepting a fixed cut. For a publisher with high traffic and an audience that pays online, a marketplace affiliate link can out-earn it on volume. Run the sum above with your own numbers rather than taking either answer on trust.

Can I be in both programs?

Yes. They are not exclusive, and running both for a month is the cheapest way to find out which one your audience responds to.

Do I need a website or a company?

No. A WhatsApp group, a Facebook page or a TikTok account is enough to start on either side. No registration, no shop, no stock.

Do I need to buy the products first?

No. As an affiliate you never touch stock. As a Markaz reseller you order only after your customer has confirmed, with no minimum order, so nothing leaves your pocket to make a sale.

How long until I see money?

Longer than you expect on any COD program. The parcel has to be delivered and the return window has to close before earnings are confirmed, then the program's payout cycle runs. Ask for the exact timing before you join.

The bottom line

Do not choose on the advertised percentage. Choose on the four things that decide your payout: whether your audience can pay the way the program requires, whether the catalogue holds products you can recommend honestly, how much of an order survives returns, and whether you can eventually control your own margin. On the first and the last of those, Markaz has the structural advantage in Pakistan. On catalogue size and brand familiarity, the marketplace does. Start free on the side that matches your audience, run it for a month, and let your own numbers settle the argument.