Thinking about moving your creator and affiliate program to Shopify Collabs? Here’s a step-by-step guide to make the transition smooth and keep your creators (and your sales) flowing.
Shopify Collabs is Shopify’s own affiliate marketing tool, built to help Shopify merchants promote products through influencers, and creators increase brand awareness and drive sales.
For more information, check out How To Get Started with Shopify Collabs.
Let your creators know what to expect
Start by letting your creators know you’ll be moving your program to Shopify Collabs. Give them a heads-up on timing and any actions they’ll need to take, and highlight the benefits of using Collabs, like in-depth sales analytics and easier payouts.
Set up your Shopify Collabs account
If you haven’t already, install and set up the Shopify Collabs app from your Shopify admin. Before you invite creators, you also need to verify your contact email on the Shopify Collabs Brand settings page.
Set up a program
Before you can invite a creator to join Collabs, you first need to create a program or a gift to attach to your invites under the Programs tab. All invites need to include either a program offer or a gift.
Collabs programs let you share affiliate commissions and customer discounts with eligible Collabs creators. You can create multiple programs with different incentives to match the offers you previously gave your creator partners.
With Collabs Programs, you can also configure options that make your affiliate tracking and commission settings more powerful. For example, you can increase discounts and affiliate commission on sales that come from new customers. If you sell subscriptions, you can configure a tier that gives commissions and discounts on just the first order, or on multiple orders, to give extra incentives to creators who sell your subscriptions. Program setup in Collabs gives you the flexibility to incentivize creators in the way that works best for your business.
To set up a welcome gift for creators, you can create a gift in the Gifts tab under Programs. You can either create a product gift or offer a one-time-use dollar amount or percentage discount on a purchase. Sending a gift to your creator partners in their Collabs invite can help encourage them to set up their Collabs account and drive sales with their new code and link.
Invite your current creators to Collabs
To invite your creator partners to Collabs, you can either select Import Creators from the “Things to do next” section of the Collabs overview screen, or select Invite by email under the Recruiting tab.
Once on the Invite page, you’ll first need to select the program and any gift you’d like to include with your invite. A creator code is required if you’re adding creators to a program, but not for sending gifts.
Next you’ll need to add creator emails and personalized discount codes creators can share with followers (if you have included a program). You can either add creator emails one at a time, or you can bulk invite creators by uploading a CSV.
Before you can send your direct invites in a CSV, you need to prepare a CSV file that contains the email addresses and affiliate codes of the creators that you want to invite. You can download the CSV template on the Recruiting page by clicking “Invite by email,” then select Import CSV and click “download a template.” The CSV template contains the required format for importing new creator contacts.
Next you can configure the message you wish to include in your invite. This message, along with the program and gift selected, will be sent to all of the creators you’ve added in this group. To send individual messages or different offers, create a separate invite for each.
For step by step help, visit the Shopify Help Center.
Creators receive their invite
Once your invites are sent, creators will receive an email with your custom message and a link to set up their collabs account. Once set up, they can claim their gift or copy their code and link. Links are active for 30 days.
Close out your old program
Don’t forget to pay out any outstanding commissions on your former platform and archive or export data as needed.
Keep creators engaged
Once your creators have accepted their invite, that’s it! You can now run, scale, and track your affiliate program, all from inside Shopify. For tips on running your program, check out Keeping Creators Engaged with Shopify Collabs.
