Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are the year’s most competitive sales days. Brands must stand out to capture customer attention and drive real revenue.
For Relax Sauna, a leading distributor of infrared saunas and therapeutic devices in North America, BFCM consistently delivers their strongest performance of the year.
The company uses a strategic affiliate program to maximize this critical shopping period. They work with influencers in the alternative health and athlete space to reach health-conscious consumers.
To understand how Relax Sauna turns BFCM 2024 into their peak season, let’s examine the challenges they face and the proven strategies they use to overcome them.
The Context – Building a Health-Focused Affiliate Network
Relax Sauna sells infrared saunas and infrared devices like lamps to customers across North America.
As Corey Daniels, their tech specialist and affiliate program manager, explained, their products serve a specific purpose: “It’s very beneficial for people who don’t get a lot of exercise. So it heats up the body and they can burn calories and get circulation going that way.”
The company targets the alternative health and athlete space, working primarily with influencers who understand the wellness benefits of infrared technology.
To accommodate different types of partners, Relax Sauna created a two-tier program structure:
Affiliate tier: Open to anyone with a 12% commission rate. No requirements for previous ownership or business credentials.
Reseller tier: Reserved for partners who own both a sauna and a business (such as wellness centers, gyms, or content creators). These partners receive full wholesale commissions, enabling them to integrate products into their facilities or promote more aggressively.
This tiered approach allows the company to scale partnerships while rewarding those who make deeper commitments to the brand.
The BFCM Challenge – Managing Tracking with Shared Discount Codes
With an established affiliate network in place, Relax Sauna faced a critical challenge during BFCM: ensuring affiliates used their tracking links properly alongside shared discount codes.
The root of the problem lay in how the promotion was structured. The company provided all affiliates with the same Black Friday discount code to share with their audiences. While this simplified the customer experience, it created a tracking blind spot.
As Corey Daniels – the affiliate manager at Relax Sauna explained, “Since they’re all using the same discount code, it won’t track that way so they have to use their link in order to get credit.”
When customers applied the discount code at checkout without first clicking an affiliate’s unique link, the system had no way to attribute the sale to the right partner.
This meant affiliates who drove sales wouldn’t receive proper commission. And the company couldn’t accurately measure which partners were performing well.
The solution was educational. Corey identified the core challenge as “making sure they’re aware of the promotion and that they know how to use the referral link.”
The Strategy – Clear Communication and High-Touch Support
To overcome the tracking challenge and maximize BFCM performance, Relax Sauna implemented a multi-faceted approach centered on communication, incentives, and personal engagement.
Affiliate Education and Awareness
The foundation of their strategy was ensuring every affiliate understood exactly how to participate in the BFCM campaign.
The company made the mechanics crystal clear: affiliates would receive the special Black Friday discount code to share with their audiences, but they had to use their unique tracking links alongside the code.
As Corey noted, “I would just let them know what the discount code is for the special and then let them know that they should use their link when they share.”
This simple but essential clarification prevented tracking errors and ensured affiliates received proper credit for their sales.
For affiliates who wanted more flexibility, Relax Sauna also offered to create custom discount codes upon request.
Strategic Timing & The Brand Owner Involvement
During BFCM, Relax Sauna takes a hands-on approach: the owner personally joins top affiliates on their podcasts and shows.
The timing couldn’t be better.
“BFCM is when the owner goes on the most podcasts and shows to promote the saunas“, Corey explained “So yeah, that’s our busiest time of year. Because it’s when people are getting ready to order them so they get there in time before Christmas.”
Here’s how it works.
High-performing affiliates host the owner on their platforms, where he discusses the benefits of saunas with their audiences. “Affiliates will have him on as a guest,” Corey noted.
This creates a win-win situation.
Affiliates get high-quality content from the owner himself to share with followers. And that proves Relax Sauna values their best partners enough to invest the owner’s time.
Product Access for Influencers
To support partners who wanted to create authentic content, Relax Sauna developed a flexible product loan system.
For influencers with large followings, the company provides saunas on a loan basis. “We basically give it to them like a loan and then out of their first commissions, they repay us the wholesale out of their first commission,” Corey explained.
This approach ensured the company recovered costs through future commissions while removing the financial barrier for influencers.
Influencers could create genuine content with the actual product. Then they keep it permanently once they generate enough sales to cover the wholesale cost.
The Results
Relax Sauna’s BFCM 2024 campaign delivered strong results, continuing their pattern of making this season their biggest sales period every year.
Year after year, they see the same positive trend. “We normally see an uptick each year in BFCM,” Corey confirmed.
The formula works because everything aligns at once.
- Customers are actively shopping for holiday presents.
- All affiliates are promoting together.
- And especially, the owner is appearing on podcasts to reach new audiences directly.
Individual affiliate performance tells the real story. One of their top partner generated $240,000 in commission during BFCM 2024 alone.
Looking Ahead – 2026 BFCM Expectations
As BFCM 2026 approached, Relax Sauna had clear expectations based on their consistent track record.
The game plan stayed consistent: give all affiliates the same Black Friday discount code, ensure they use their tracking links, and schedule the owner for podcast appearances with top performers.
The team also tackled a backend improvement.
By leveraging UpPromote’s Wise payment feature, they could process commission payouts faster and more reliably. Getting affiliates paid quickly and smoothly isn’t just good practice—it keeps partnerships strong and encourages ongoing participation
Ellie Tran, a seasoned SEO content writer with three years of experience in the eCommerce world. Being a part of the UpPromote team, Ellie wants to assist Shopify merchants in achieving success through useful content & actionable insights. Ellie's commitment to learning never stops; she's always eager to gain more knowledge about SEO and content marketing to create valuable content for users. When she's not working on content, Ellie enjoys baking and exploring new places.
