Affiliated sites are “sibling” sites that have largely independent catalog content that differs by theme or brand. A clothing manufacturer that wants to have separate sites for two different brands might use affiliated sites. In this example, there would typically be little or no overlap between the items sold at the two sites. The items might be similar across sites (for example, both sites might sell blue jeans), but each site would have its own products and SKUs.

Typically, affiliated sites are tied together fairly loosely. They may include cross-site links, and have shared user profiles and shopping carts, but catalog items are not shared.