What is Shopify affiliate program and How Does it Works?

Who doesn’t love to earn easy money? Well, with the rise of digital media, entrepreneurs and businesses have some tempting propositions to earn money using multiple platforms, and the Shopify affiliate program is one of them.

Once you have a functional professionally website  designed by Shopify, you have been able to drive some significant traffic to the website and have made some initial sales, you should be looking forward to the next logical steps to grow your business.

Over the years, affiliate programs have served as one of the most efficient ways to earn passive income with minimal resources. The process itself is quite simple, where you got to promote the business/product of the referral program through your website content (blogs, videos, ebooks, etc.) and in return get the commission for any sales made.

What is an affiliate program?

I like to call affiliate programs a reward-based system, whereby, businesses are encouraged to promote products or services of a referral program, in exchange for a certain commission percentage.

To put it in perspective, any visitor that signs up for your affiliate program will be directed to the referral Shopify store via a special referral link. Now, if this potential lead is converted into sales (he opted to buy the Shopify plan), you will be making money for the referral.

Generally, the reward of the affiliate program is offered in a flat dollar amount (like in the Shopify affiliate program), however, there could be parallel arrangements as well, like offering discount coupons, or a free shopping spree, etc. For instance, Target offers its affiliates with promos on top of the commission.

The affiliate program is equally popular and widely used in B2C or B2B businesses, however, it’s more effective and reward-generating for the consumer products industry. According to the statistics, over 60% of affiliate programs are for B2C businesses, whereas, less than 20% of affiliate programs are associated with B2B services or products.

Benefits of affiliate marketing

One study by Business Insider specifically researched the impacts of affiliate marketing for referral businesses. It was found that affiliate marketing can increase sales by as much as 16% for the businesses.

And to give a real-world example for the effectiveness of affiliate programs, the WireCutter, which today is owned by New York Times was able to generate as much as $150 million back in 2015, using referral links.

How does the Shopify affiliate program work?

Shopify affiliate program is undoubtedly one of the most rewarding affiliate programs, which is part of the company’s broader partners program.

The ultimate aim of the Shopify affiliate program is to leverage the influence and authority of marketers, consultants, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and service providers towards its paid subscription plans.

The affiliate program Shopify is open for all entrepreneurs, bloggers, or service providers to join for free. However, there are certain prerequisites which are needed to be met before anyone gets accepted to the program.

As one may expect from a company that’s focused on quality and customer service, the affiliate program for Shopify comes with stringent scrutiny of partners before they are accepted as affiliate partners.

What are the Shopify affiliate program requirements?

To be accepted as a Shopify affiliate program partner you need to:

– Own and run a functional website, blog, or forum with minimum monthly traffic

– The content on your website or blog must be informational, and original

– Maintain a sizeable monthly audience, subscribed to your platform via email listing or social media platforms

– Be familiar with the working of Shopify or any other ecommerce platform

– Agree with the terms of agreement for the Shopify affiliate program

Apart from these approval prerequisites for the Shopify affiliate program, you also need to have an active Shopify account (if you don’t have one, you can create one free account).

You will also need to submit the contact information along with your business bottom lines, as well as, your previous experience with other ecommerce platforms (if any).

Once you submit all the required information, there will be a manual review of your platform to evaluate if you are eligible to be accepted for the Shopify affiliate program or not.

Since you will be applying for the affiliate program only, you would need to choose “referring merchants as an affiliate” for your business goals.

Once you are done with the form submission, you will be redirected to even a more detailed application form on the Shopify Partner Dashboard.

Here, you will be required to submit the details about your personal business including;

– The type of content you publish on your website, blog, forums

– Your existing and planned traffic sources

It’s important because the uniqueness of the content and your marketing strategy will determine the customer’s buying process.

Once you are done with this step, simply submit the form and wait for the team at Shopify to evaluate your application.

Applications for Shopify affiliate programs are normally evaluated and responded to within five working days (in some cases there may be some delays as well).

Nonetheless, if you get approved for the Shopify affiliate program, you will be able to login to the affiliate dashboard where you may access the affiliate link and start marketing the Shopify plans.

How much can you make with the Shopify affiliate program?

If we go by the Shopify affiliate program review, it’s easy to say that the leading ecommerce web development platform is also the leading platform for affiliate programs in the industry.

After following the extensive application submission process, you will be notified via email for the acceptance of your application. Once accepted, you may log in to the Shopify affiliate dashboard to access the unique Shopify “Affiliate Link”, which you will be sharing with the users through blogs, websites, videos, vlogs, educational courses, e-books, or any other medium you want to use.

Shopify affiliates get paid for two months’ value of the subscription fee against the referred Shopify merchant. This means the higher the value of the subscription plan the higher the affiliate money you get.

For instance, if a referred merchant using your link purchase a “Standard Shopify Plan”, you may get as much as $598, whereas, if the referred merchant opted for enterprise plan “Shopify Plus” you will get one 100% bounty of the subscription fee for one month, which is around $2000.

So, basically, there is no upper cap on the amount you may make with your Shopify affiliate program; it’s all about your ability to promote. The more plans you are able to sell, the more you earn.

How to implement an affiliate program Shopify?

While the process of signing up for the Shopify affiliate program is simple, you can always opt for third-party affiliate program apps for creating your affiliate program Shopify. These partner apps are great to know what is the best affiliate program for Shopify webshop, as well as, can help detail effective ways to advertise the Shopify affiliate program. You can choose from various Shopify affiliate program apps available at Shopify Store, and carry on with the onboarding process to create your affiliate program customized to your business.

Again, the choice of the Shopify affiliate program app is totally up to your choice and there are plenty of options to choose from. Below we have come up with some of the more popular and widely used Shopify affiliate program apps that can help you get started with your affiliate program.

1. Refersion

Refersion is a robust and comprehensive referral platform. The platform comes with a five-star rating for over 100 reviews, making it a hot choice for businesses interested in the Shopify affiliate program. The best part about Refersion is its ability to scale with your business, which allows businesses to start with a free plan and upgrade to paid plans as they expand the affiliate offerings.

2. LeadDyno

LeadDyno is yet another hugely popular powerful Shopify affiliate marketing app. The app can be easily integrated with the Shopify store with few clicks and offer high-level customization options. The app has a one-click function to payout the affiliates using PayPal or other platforms.

3. Omnistar

Omnistar is the preferred Shopify affiliate app for thousands of businesses across the United States and elsewhere. This is certainly a powerful and comprehensive platform that you won’t want to skip during the testing and comparison stages. The app has bagged some big names like Cisco and Macy’s, which definitely improves the overall value proposition of Omnistar as a competent and worthy Shopify affiliate program app.

4. Affiliatly

Affiliatly comes with an incredibly intuitive and interactive interface. Combined this with its amazingly rational prices, and it definitely is a worthy Shopify affiliate program app to explore. Affiliatly is relatively a new affiliate app as compared to some of the other apps in this list, however, it packs the punch for its functionalities, features, and reliability. The app also offers a 30days free trial period.

5. Enlistly

Lastly, we have Enlistly making up our top five Shopify affiliate program apps. The app is specifically useful for stores dealing with custom commission rates and multiple transaction types. Enlistly comes with a neat and intuitive interface and an affordable pricing plan starts at $9.99 per month.

How to Set Up Your Shopify Affiliate Program

Ok, now that you are done with implementing the Shopify affiliate program, you must be wondering where to start with the affiliate marketing, right? While getting affiliation for the Shopify program may be easier, setting up the affiliate marketing strategy that can help you make dollars out of the affiliate program isn’t such easy.

You need to pin down a definite marketing strategy to work with, including determining the right target audience, finalizing the marketing platforms, evaluating different products, and various other considerations. Below are some Shopify affiliate program marketing guidelines that may help you get started with your sales.

–         Build Rapport:

Just like you need a positive rapport to attract clients to your business, you would need to establish your rapport as an authority and expert on any field of your choice to be able to convince the audience in purchasing the products/services you are marketing. For instance, since you will be promoting Shopify’s paid plans, you first need to create your authority on comparing various platforms and detailing every bit of comparison details about all the different platforms available to users. Once you are able to convince users with the superior features and functionalities of the Shopify platform, only then you can push them to purchase the plans via your referral link.

–         Personalize Your Affiliate Program: 

Personalization is the key to success in digital marketing. Gone are the days of cold-call emailing or mass marketing campaigns. Today, the digital audience likes to interact with businesses that offer them personalized services. To achieve this, you would need to reach out to your audience on email listing or subscription via personalized message and have them convince about your authority in the subject matter. Don’t rush to market the referral program, rather just make them feel comfortable about your content and the knowledge you are offering and recommend them the platform subtly, keeping the comparison option open.

–         Ask Influencers for Reviews: 

Influencer marketing is a real thing, which works quite similarly to affiliate programs. Influencers have a large following and established authority in specific domains, which may come in handy to promote your business. The key here is to choose the right influencer with the right audience for your Shopify affiliate program. Once identified, ask them for a review or rating for your website through social media channels. This will significantly up the ante for your business reputation; driving much traffic to your platform.

How to Find the Right Affiliates

Once you are accepted for the Shopify affiliate program, it’s time for you to start the marketing campaign to make money out of the affiliate program. Here are some channels that can help you get the initial traction you need to start making money.

Social Media

Social media offers businesses the best marketing platforms they need to reach a wider audience. With billions of active monthly users, you can ignore the significance of affiliate marketing campaigns on social medial platforms.

Your social media handle can be used to introduce the Shopify affiliate program to the audience. You may start an aggressive campaign promoting the Shopify plans using interactive graphics, detailing the program features, and creating useful infographics. Social platforms also give you a chance to interact with customers personally, answering their queries, and helping them with any doubts or problems faced.

–         Your Website

While social media platforms are great to reach a wider audience, your website still remains the core digital platform where you built your rapport and loyal audience. Since you got accepted for the Shopify affiliate program, you must be having decent traffic to your website, and you should introduce them to the Shopify plans right away.

Again, the key to success will remain a subtle marketing approach where you start offering your audience the comparisons, guides, and tutorials about the different platforms and recommended them with the best practices for eCommerce business needs. You can start writing blogs for comparing different ecommerce platforms and recommending Shopify plans. To add a little more temptation, you can offer them some promo (free e-book, free subscription) for subscribing to the Shopify platform through your link. Overall, it will depend on your strategy and approach to convince the audience for the platform.

–         Email Campaigns

An email campaign is one of the most powerful marketing techniques, provided it is used with the right strategy. The key to success with email campaigns is to personalize the script to get connected with the users. According to statistics, email campaigns when done correctly can boost the subscription rates by as much as over 10%. Just make sure you are able to personalize each message and add powerful Call To Actions (CTs) to close the deal.

How much does the Shopify affiliate program cost?

The Shopify affiliate program is free of cost for all businesses and entrepreneurs looking to earn some passive income by promoting Shopify’s paid plans. Shopify affiliates can earn up to two months of paid subscription bounty for each user who purchased a paid plan via a unique referral link.

Key Takeaways

Affiliate programs are great for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to earn some passive income with not many resources. Just like everything Shopify, the affiliate program offered by the leading Shopify web development platform also comes with high-value propositions for affiliates.

The key to success in the Shopify affiliate program is your ability to come up with a definitive and strong affiliate marketing strategy and employing the right resources to establish your rapport. Remember, affiliate marketing never works overnight, rather you would have to build your rapport and create a loyal customer base to truly enjoy the perks of the Shopify affiliate program.

How does the amazon affiliate program work in Shopify?

Users with an amazon affiliate program can link with Shopify using third-party integration apps available at Shopify Store. There is also a specific Amazon Sales Channel, which can be explored to view more options.

How do I start my affiliate program Shopify?

To start your affiliate program Shopify, you can choose one of the many Shopify affiliate program apps available at the Shopify store. These apps won’t just help you to implement your affiliate program, but also assist you in marketing and tracking commissions.

How to make money with the Shopify affiliate program?

You can easily earn passive income by becoming an affiliate for Shopify paid plans and then promoting the plans through your content (website, blogs, videos, tutorials, vlogs, etc.). You can also adopt various digital marketing techniques like social media marketing or email marketing to further improve your audience reach and sales opportunities.