In short
Yes, though not in the way the question usually implies. Links remain one of the signals Google uses, and for a store they matter most at the level of the domain and the main category pages rather than individual products, which almost never attract links on their own. That changes the strategy: earn mentions that lift the whole site, then use internal linking to pass that standing down to the pages that sell. Before investing in links, check whether links are actually your constraint, because for many stores the gap is structure and content.
Links work at the level of the site and the category, not the product
Nobody links to a product page for a mid-range garden hose. They link to a brand, a guide, a tool, a piece of research or a story. That is the first thing to accept about ecommerce link building: the assets that attract links are usually not the assets that take the order.
What happens instead is transfer. A store that is referenced by trade publications, suppliers, associations and specialist writers accumulates standing at the domain level, and that standing supports every page on the site, including the ones nobody would ever cite. The category pages benefit next, especially where an external link points at a category rather than the homepage.
So the practical model is two-stage. Attract references to things worth referencing, then make sure your internal linking actually carries that value to the commercial pages: navigation that reaches subcategories, breadcrumbs, contextual links inside guides, and related product modules that link with descriptive anchor text.
Stores skip the second stage more often than the first. A site with good external coverage and a flat internal structure leaves most of the benefit sitting on the homepage.
What actually earns links for a store
Start with the relationships that already exist. Brands you stock often maintain stockist or dealer pages and will list a retailer who asks. Trade associations, certification bodies, buying groups and franchise networks publish member directories. Suppliers write about new retail partners. None of this is glamorous and all of it is legitimate, relevant and durable.
Next come the assets. A calculator that solves a real sizing or compatibility problem, a specification comparison nobody else has assembled, a fitment database, an original piece of analysis drawn from data your store genuinely holds. These get referenced because they save someone work, and they keep earning references for years.
Then there is the coverage route: sending products to reviewers and specialists in your category, contributing genuine expertise to journalists covering your sector, and sponsoring or supporting things you actually care about locally. Product seeding works when the product is good and the reviewer is free to say what they think.
One more source is worth naming because stores overlook it: fixing broken and unlinked mentions. Suppliers, press and forums frequently name a store without linking, and a polite request converts a fair share of those into links at no cost.
What to stay away from
Anything bought at scale. Paid links passing ranking signals, link networks, mass guest posting on sites that exist to sell placements, and directory blasts all fall under Google's link spam policies, and its systems are designed to discount them. The realistic downside is not usually a dramatic penalty but wasted money, since discounted links do nothing.
Be careful with affiliate and coupon arrangements, which are normal parts of ecommerce but should use links that do not pass ranking signals, as the platforms and Google's guidance expect. The same applies to sponsored content and gifted product coverage, where the publisher should mark the link appropriately. That marking does not make the coverage worthless; it is simply the honest description of the relationship.
Avoid anchor text engineering. A natural link profile contains brand names, bare URLs and descriptive phrases, and a page whose incoming links all use the same commercial phrase looks manufactured because it is.
Finally, resist judging progress by counting. Ten links from sites that matter in your category outweigh several hundred from places that would link to anyone, and a rising total that is made of the latter tells you nothing about whether rankings will move.
Deciding whether links are your constraint at all
Do this before spending anything. Take five commercial terms that matter, look at the pages ranking on the first page, and compare them to your equivalent page on three dimensions: the depth and specificity of the page itself, the internal structure around it, and the number of distinct sites linking to it.
If the ranking pages have richer content, subcategory structure and buying guidance while yours is a bare grid, links are not your problem and building them will not fix it. If your page is comparable in every respect and the only visible difference is that the others are referenced widely while nobody has heard of you, that is a genuine authority gap.
The pattern in most audits we run is that the first situation is far more common than the second. It is also cheaper to fix, faster to see results from, and entirely under your control.
When the gap is real, treat it as a long program rather than a campaign. Authority accumulates over quarters through consistent, publishable work, and the useful measure is the number of distinct relevant domains referencing you over time, not the total count of links.
Related questions
How many links does a product page need to rank?
There is no number, and most ranking product pages have none of their own. They rank on the strength of the site, the relevance of the page and the internal links pointing at it. If a specific product term is genuinely competitive, the usual route is a strong category page above it and a guide that references the product in context.
Do links marked nofollow or sponsored have any value?
They do not pass ranking signals in the way an ordinary link does, and Google treats those attributes as hints about the relationship. They still bring visitors, build familiarity with your brand and often lead to other coverage that is not marked. Judging a placement only by its attribute misses most of what it is worth.
Is guest posting still worth doing for an online store?
It depends entirely on the publication. Writing something genuinely useful for a respected outlet in your category is worthwhile for the audience as much as the link. Placing the same article across a network of sites that accept anything is the pattern Google's spam policies describe, and it takes time that would be better spent on your own pages.