Shopify Affiliate Program Review | An In-Depth Guide (2024)

Shopify is one of the largest platforms online for building websites, especially online shops. The commerce platform works for a wide range of businesses, regardless of their size, and the fact that it is so user-friendly is what has made it so popular over the years.

Naturally, there are many Shopify alternatives out there, including for their affiliate program. If you tend to write about marketing, e-commerce, and increasing passive income opportunities, the Shopify affiliate program might be for you.

Read on to find out everything you should know about it!

Shopify Affiliate Program Review

What is Shopify?

As we have already noted in the introduction, Shopify basically sells e-commerce software to all sorts of ideal users, whether they be small business owners or people looking to sell their courses, or potentially large companies that are just switching to selling their products online.

It’s been more than 15 years since Shopify was created and during that time, the platform ended up being used by more than three million websites.

The only platform that still surpasses Shopify when it comes to the number of users and how widespread it is across the Internet is WooCommerce.

In other words, if you become a Shopify affiliate, the only thing that you should never worry about is suggesting a service to your followers that they have never heard of before or that doesn’t deal with issues properly – since customer service is known to be close to excellent with this brand.

What services can you recommend to your audience?

There are three main plans available on the Shopify platform and they address different needs while also being priced individually. The Basic plan costs $32 per month and comes with a free trial. It includes only two staff accounts, basic reports, along with a maximum of 1,000 inventory locations.

The Shopify plan is billed at $92 per month. The features are a bit more generous in this case, since it comes with as many as five staff accounts and professional reports, but the same maximum 1,000 inventory locations that can be found in the Basic subscription, too.

Then, there’s the Advanced plan, which costs $399 per month, and which obviously addresses the requirements of larger businesses. This one includes a custom report builder and 15 staff accounts and the same number of inventory locations previously mentioned.

24/7 support is available for all of the plans showcased here, along with unlimited products, an online store, one public storefront, manual order creation, discount codes, and a free SSL certificate. A variety of other features are included, ranging from abandoned cart recovery to gift cards.

Becoming a Shopify affiliate

Even though until somewhat recently (2022), Shopify used to run the affiliate program on its own website, the company is now working with a separate affiliate platform called Impact. We have reviewed this network in the past, so if you’re interested in finding out more about it, give that article a read.

For seasoned affiliate marketers, using a separate platform is a net advantage, especially if they have several websites monetized through various programs and that are all available in the same place.

On Impact, you will be able to find all the info you need to know about your Shopify affiliate tracking and Shopify affiliate commissions.

As for the requirements, they are more or less decent. You need to own a blog or a website, have an audience (although it is not specified if you need to have a set number of followers or traffic every month), and not engage in any shady techniques like spam or misleading statements about the brand.

If you’re asking yourself how much time you need to wait before getting a reply as to whether you are accepted into the program or not, processing applications typically lasts less than a week.

Shopify affiliate commission – What you should know

So, are you going to be able to make a fortune with this affiliate program? As you probably know if you’ve used this monetization method before, it usually pays off to use several different programs rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket.

However, for every paid plan that you refer to Shopify, you can make a commission rate of $150, which we would say is actually worth writing home about compared to what other programs are now offering.

While a small share of the future payments would have been appreciated, you can’t expect any recurring commissions from Shopify. The cookie lasts for one month, which isn’t a surprise, either, so try to make sure that your audience decides during the first 30 days after they’ve clicked on your Shopify affiliate link.

Shopify affiliate payout

Given the fact that Shopify relies on the Impact Radius platform for the management of the program, there’s the possibility of you receiving your earnings through two main methods – PayPal or bank account transfers. You might even be able to use an account such as Wise or Payoneer if you don’t have an account in a set currency that you should be paid in.

As for thresholds, you’ll be happy to know that the limit is just $10. Things have changed a lot over time in terms of payment since Shopify used to pay its affiliates only through PayPal, which is problematic off the bat.

You couldn’t have withdrawn your earnings before making at least $25, but even so – since the commission rate for every sale is $150, that’s not an issue per se.

As an affiliate, you have the freedom to select your own limit in the sense that you can receive your earnings automatically when you reach a certain point or you can be paid bi-weekly by the platform automatically.

Pros and cons of using the Shopify affiliate program for monetization

Any money-making opportunity comes with benefits and drawbacks, and it is good practice to look at everything before deciding to join a new program in the first place.

In terms of advantages, we’d say that this is one of the higher earning affiliate programs currently available. We would have liked a recurring commission, even if it was at something like 10% out of the value of your referrals’ future subscriptions.

We also like the fact that everything works through Impact, which is known to be a highly effective and user-friendly affiliate network. Perhaps the cookie duration could have been slightly longer instead of the classic 30 days that every program uses these days.

We would also like to note that an affiliate manager is available in case you run into an issue and that getting in touch with a representative is a piece of cake.

Affiliate marketing Shopify alternatives

In case everything that we have described above doesn’t appeal to you and you’d like to check out another option, here are a few other choices.

BigCommerce

To find out everything you should know about the BigCommerce affiliate program, make sure to read our comprehensive review. This one also works through Impact Radius, so there’s no difference there.

Joining the program is super easy and you’ll get your reply in less than a week’s time. In terms of how much you can make with this opportunity, you’ll be happy to know that you get 200% out of the value of every order placed through your affiliate link. That comes down to approximately $160 if your referrals opt for the Plus plan, for example.

Your earnings will of course vary depending on the amount of business you send to BigCommerce. As for payment methods, you have the same two that Shopify makes available for you – direct deposit and Paypal.

Bluehost

While the Bluehost affiliate program is slightly different because the service itself isn’t specifically geared toward ecommerce website owners, there are lots of things that people can do with the site builder that comes with the paid plans. Consequently, for comparison purposes, we decided to add this alternative to the list.

In terms of earnings, we would say that Bluehost doesn’t pay as well as Shopify because your commission rate will be $65 for any type of plan sales, no matter if it’s for just one year or three.

Of course, if your performance is stellar, you can even negotiate your rate, but the maximum rate you will have to expect with this one is $100, so still lower than that of the Shopify affiliate program.

Squarespace

The Squarespace affiliate program seems a little better when put side by side with Shopify, but do keep in mind that while it does work for businesses, it is yet again not geared primarily to them.

The problem with this option is that the brand isn’t too straightforward when it comes to the potential earnings you can make, but with the variety of resources that we consulted, it seems you can make $200 per every sale you refer to the business.

Even the cookie lasts for 45 days, so it is longer than what Shopify is offering right now. Apparently, the payment threshold is just $10 and this one works through the same affiliate network, Impact.

Wix

Things are quite straightforward when it comes to the Wix affiliate program in the sense that the commission is a fixed one — you can expect to make $100 for every person you convince to try the Premium package.

But the biggest drawback when it comes to this monetization method is that you need to wait for three different people to get the Premium package before being able to withdraw your earnings. Yes, you read that right – you need to make at least $300 before you can be paid.

On the upside, you get your money transferred directly to your bank account instead of having to use PayPal.

Weebly

As a potentially future Weebly affiliate, you’ll be happy to know that this program is managed by ShareASale. Like Impact, this is yet another trustworthy affiliate network that manages everything in terms of stats, tracking, affiliate links, along with the payment itself.

While there are both advantages and disadvantages to this program, too, we’d say that the pros outweigh the cons. The 30% rate might not be something out of the ordinary, but the cookie does last for 120 days, so you actually have a chance of scoring that sale.

What we would also like to act with regard to the Weebly affiliate program is that you are not going to be able to be paid through PayPal. ShareASale literally uses all of the other payment options out there besides PayPal, so you need to have a type of bank account, whether virtual or not.

Final thoughts

So, does it make sense for you to become a Shopify affiliate or should you skip on this opportunity? While that is a question that only you can provide the answer to, do consider things such as your niche, your audience, whether you actually have people in your follower list that might be interested in starting a business, and more.

In the end, if there’s no intention (in the people that regularly visit your site) of ever using Shopify (keeping in mind that it is quite expensive compared to other services), you might as well consider the options that we have showcased at the end of this article.

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