How to Start Affiliate Marketing for Shopify Stores?

Starting affiliate marketing is the key to growing the sales and customer conversion of your Shopify stWant to start affiliate marketing, but not sure where to begin?

Well, you’re not alone. 80% of Shopify stores already using affiliate programs. Thus, this channel has become essential. 

In This Guide, You’ll Learn:

• How to start affiliate marketing from scratch (with no experience)
• Proven affiliate strategies to boost traffic and sales
• Top Shopify apps to automate and track your affiliate program
• A step-by-step setup plan to start affiliate marketing for free

By the end, you’ll have a fully actionable affiliate marketing guide for Shopify store owners. As a result, you can start generating revenue and brand awareness right away.

What is Affiliate Marketing & How Does It Work?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy. Here, store owners recruit affiliate partners to promote their products in exchange for commissions.

This is a win-win digital marketing approach that allows you to offer commission-based sales.

Moreover, affiliates can be bloggers, influencers, content creators, or industry experts with an engaged audience in your niche.

For starting affiliate marketing for Shopify stores, firstly, recruit affiliates who align with your affiliate marketing niche and provide them with unique affiliate tracking links. Following that, affiliates will promote your products to their audience.

Then, customers who make purchases through affiliate links will generate referral traffic. Finally, you can track sales and pay commissions accordingly using an affiliate dashboard.

Using tools to automate affiliate marketing for Shopify and by adopting affiliate marketing strategies, you can easily.

Why Should Shopify Store Owners Consider Affiliate Marketing?

Shopify store owners should consider affiliate marketing basics because it increases online business revenue with minimal upfront costs.

Here are the main benefits of starting affiliate marketing in Shopify:

• Low-risk, high reward: You only pay for results based on performance marketing. Therefore, your budget will never surpass sales, unlike traditional marketing.
• Boosts brand awareness:  Influencer partnerships will help your Shopify store gain visibility worldwide. 
• Drives targeted traffic: You can attract a target audience specifically interested in your niche. This will increase conversion rates.
• Scalable marketing strategy: In fact, more affiliates can reach more target audience and generate more revenue.
• Increases trust: Influencers and content creators will bring credibility to your brand. Thus, build brand authenticity.

To gain more online business revenue, starting affiliate marketing is the best way.

Pros & Cons of Affiliate Marketing on Shopify

Pros	Cons
Low startup cost	No guaranteed sales
Scalable business model	Results take time
Flexibility to run	Limited control over affiliate content
Visibility across regions	Risk of affiliate fraud

How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Program on Shopify?

To start affiliate marketing for Shopify step-by-step procedure:

• Step 1: Pick the Right Affiliate Products to Sell
• Step 2: Select the Best Affiliate Management Apps for Shopify
• Step 3: Choose the Right Affiliate Commission Structures
• Step 4: Find and Recruit Quality Affiliates
• Step 5: Set Up Affiliate Tracking & Payment Methods
• Step 6: Monitor & Optimize Your Affiliate Program

Step 1: Pick the Right Affiliate Products to Sell

How to promote affiliate products effectively starts with choosing the right ones.

Selling every product in your Shopify store with the help of affiliates might be tempting. However, not all products are best for affiliate marketing.

Before you start affiliate marketing, ask yourself:

• Does this product solve a problem for my target audience?
• Does it have high profit margins?
• Is it popular and in demand?

Answering these questions will help you choose the best affiliate marketing products. Additionally, give specific products to affiliates for promotion. Thus, it can help them work out SEO for affiliate marketing. Hence, you can easily increase reach. 

If you’re selling premium products, then consider starting high-ticket affiliate marketing to attract serious promoters. For example, digital products or subscriptions, offer recurring affiliate commissions.

Learn More: Furthermore, check these examples of some of the popular customer referral programs for your reference.

Step 2: Select the Best Affiliate Apps for Shopify

Recruiting affiliates, referral sale tracking, setting a dynamic affiliate commission structure, etc can be time-consuming. Moreover, a Shopify affiliate app can help streamline the process.

After testing some of the best Shopify affiliate apps, I discovered Afflr can handle affiliate, referral, and influencer marketing for Shopify all from one place. Moreover, you require no technical knowledge and can start affiliate marketing with Afflr in minutes.

Unlike other affiliate apps, Afflr offers a unique ‘Pay as you grow’ payment method where you only pay for successful sales and no monthly charge.

Key features of Afflr are:

• Create & manage an affiliate program
• Customize commission structures
• Onboard affiliates easily
• Convert customers into referral partners
• Automate payments with multiple payout options
• Track performance with referral tracking tools

Step 3: Choose the Right Affiliate Commission Structures

There are different types of affiliate commission models from which you can choose what best suits your business type.

For example, affiliate commissions can be structured in two ways:

• Fixed: A predefined amount per sale
• Percentage: A commission based on the sale amount

Choose a commission rate that is competitive, sustainable, and performance-based. Consider your competition and profit margins before finalizing rates.

If you are new to starting affiliate marketing, you can refer to these competitive commission rates based on the business niche,

Business Niche	Typical Commission Rate
Fashion & Apparel	5% – 20%
Beauty & Skincare	10% – 30%
Health & Wellness	10% – 40%
Fitness & Supplements	5% – 25%
Digital Products & Software	20% – 50%
Online Courses & Education	30% – 60%
Tech & Gadgets	2% – 10%
Home & Kitchen	4% – 15%
Travel & Hospitality	3% – 12%
Finance & Investments	$50 – $200 per lead
Web Hosting & SaaS	20% – 100% (recurring)
Luxury Goods	5% – 15%
B2B Products & Services	10% – 40%

Step 4: Find and Recruit Quality Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is a good source of passive income for affiliates. Hence, many will be eager to promote your business.

Affiliate recruitment is the key to success. Here’s where to look:

• Firstly, Niche blogs related to your products.
• Then, Social media influencers in your industry.
• Following that, Affiliate networks with many niche experts.
• Finally, Relevant hashtags are popular in your niche.

In addition to this, you can also turn customers into brand advocates by setting up referral marketing in Shopify.

If you use dedicated affiliate marketing software, then onboarding affiliates can be quick, easy, and automated.

Once you have a list of affiliates, then you can effortlessly start the affiliate marketing journey by onboarding them manually or using an affiliate signup form.

Step 5: Set Up Affiliate Tracking & Payment Methods

Affiliate program tracking and setting up payment is one process where the need for affiliate marketing software is high.

Hence, accurate tracking ensures affiliates get fair payouts. Therefore, create unique affiliate links and track them automatically.

Use affiliate tracking software to: 

• Track affiliate clicks and conversions.
• Automate commission payouts.
• Prevent fraud and duplicate sales.

Step 6: Monitor & Optimize Your Shopify Affiliate Program

Just setting up your affiliate program in Shopify is not where your work ends. Hence, you must keep an eye on the affiliate marketing metrics for better results. 

Once you have started an affiliate marketing campaign, then continuously optimize it.

For example, to keep growing your affiliate program in Shopify :

• Track affiliate performance – Identify the top performing affiliates and reward them using tiered affiliate commission.
• Optimize commission rates – Set up competitive commission rates that align with your market.
• Offer marketing materials – Provide affiliate marketing materials like banners, templates, etc. This will make affiliates more informed and promote better.
• Communicate with affiliates – Maintain regular affiliate communication through constant updates and affiliate marketing tips.

Learn More: Know how to create an affiliate program in Shopify.

Best Practices of a Successful Shopify Affiliate Program

To run a successful partnership program in Shopify, follow these best practices:

• Choose quality affiliates: Not everyone will align with your brand. Hence, choose affiliate partnerships that are genuine and align with your product’s value.
• Offer competitive commissions: You can’t lose promising affiliates to competitors offering better rates. So, keep an eye on the market trends.
• Use reliable tracking tools: Give your affiliates an easy referral tracking system. Apps like Afflr provide an exclusive affiliate dashboard where affiliates can track their performance.
• Experiment with strategies: There are various Shopify word-of-mouth marketing strategies. Try brand advocacy programs, loyalty programs, and referral programs. You can test different promotions to find what converts best.
• Support your affiliates: Provide banners, links, and marketing materials to help them promote effectively.
• Stay connected: In order to build a strong affiliate relationship, regularly communicate with your affiliates and keep them engaged.

These affiliate marketing best practices will help efficient Shopify affiliate program setup.  

Proven Affiliate Marketing Strategies to Increase Conversions

Start affiliate marketing by adopting the following proven strategies,

• You can partner with nano- and micro-influencers. They charge less and have engaged followers, driving better conversions.
• Your website must rank in search results to increase organic traffic. SEO for affiliate marketing can highly help in achieving this.
• You can gain more affiliate engagement by running affiliate contests and challenges. A little competition will push affiliates to sell more and stay active.
• You can offer exclusive customer discount codes. This makes affiliate promotions more tempting, leading to higher sales.
• Affiliate email marketing is an important strategy that many overlook. You can send helpful emails to educate customers about affiliate deals and drive excitement.
• Follow affiliate compliance so that there is no conflict once you start affiliate marketing.

Top Affiliate Marketing Tools & Apps for Shopify

Here are some free Shopify apps to start affiliate marketing:

Afflr: You can manage your entire affiliate marketing journey like program creation, commission customization, referral tracking, and payouts.

Shopify Collabs: This tool helps find and collaborate with influencers easily. This is Shopify’s official affiliate program tool.

PageFly: With the help of drag and drop editor, you can easily create an affiliate landing page and promote your affiliate programs.

Retainful: Using email marketing you can keep in constant touch with your affiliates and customers alike.
The combination of these tools can help start affiliate marketing for your Shopify store in minutes.

Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

By avoiding these mistakes when you start affiliate marketing, you can reach success faster.

• Set clear terms: You must draft and discuss terms before onboarding affiliates to prevent conflicts.
• Ensure content quality: While you can’t control user-generated content, provide guidelines to maintain quality and relevance.
• Follow up on leads: Engagement is key to customer retention.
• Require disclosure: Insist your affiliates to disclose partnerships to ensure legitimacy and build trust.

Affiliate Marketing Program Example

One of the successful affiliate marketing program examples is the Shopify affiliate program.

Shopify wanted recommendation marketing to expand its reach. So, they launched an affiliate program open to content creators with a website and engaged audiences.

They offer commissions based on the merchant location and pay across the globe using PayPal.

A key success story is Christoph Filgertshofer who helped them establish the German market.

Moreover, clear requirements, competitive commissions, regular payouts, and quality products drove their success.

These factors matter when starting an affiliate marketing program for your Shopify store.

Learn More: Discover more e-commerce affiliate program examples.

Conclusion

Starting affiliate marketing for your Shopify store is a great way to scale sales, increase traffic, and grow your brand.

However, results take time. Follow the steps and strategies in this blog and get started with affiliate marketing while continuously optimizing your efforts. Soon, you’ll generate affiliate sales.

Further Reading

• How to Create a Shopify Affiliate Link (Guide + Strategies)
• Top 8 Affiliate Recruitment Tool in 2025 for E-commerce
• Affiliate Marketing vs Referral Marketing: Which Works Best?
• Affiliate Marketing Case Study: How 6 E-Commerce Brands Drove Growth