What is Shopify Collabs and how do brands use it with creators?

What is Shopify Collabs?

Shopify calls Collabs "influencer marketing software built right into Shopify." It connects brands and creators through a marketplace-style app, and the whole affiliate program, from finding creators to paying them, runs in your Shopify admin instead of a separate tool.

What brands can do with it, according to Shopify:

• Search creator profiles and invite creators, or bring in the ones you already work with.
• Accept applications through a page on your online store.
• Create affiliate links and codes for creators to share.
• Send gifts or discount codes, letting creators choose products and samples from your store.
• Track affiliate sales and commissions, and pay creators automatically through your Shopify bill.
• Automate repeat tasks with Shopify Flow, if your plan is eligible for Flow.

Who can use Shopify Collabs and what does it cost?

On a 15% commission and a $60 order, the creator earns $9 and the processing fee is about $0.26. The fee is small; the commission rate is the decision that matters.

How do you set up Shopify Collabs?

1. Open Collabs. In your Shopify admin, go to Apps, then Collabs, and click Get started.
2. Set the basics. Confirm the notification email, then choose your product category, primary audience and the countries you want to work with. Click Finish setup.
3. Build the brand profile. Add your logo, brand values, up to 4 brand style images, social accounts and how you work with creators.
4. Choose visibility. Turn on an open access program, an online store application page, or both.
5. Write the application questions. Edit the questions creators answer when they apply, then save.
6. Customize creator emails. Edit the invite, welcome and decline emails in Settings. Invite subject lines can be up to 70 characters.

How do brands pay creators on Shopify Collabs?

Commissions are paid through your Shopify bill using Collabs automatic payments. After the holding period ends, the commission is added to your next Shopify bill, or sooner if you hit the billing threshold. The creator is paid once you pay that bill, as long as they have turned on auto-payouts.

Manual payments through PayPal are gone: Shopify stopped them for new commissions on 8 January 2024. Set the holding period to at least your return window so you are not paying commission on refunded orders.

What is Shopify Collabs open access (Collabs Network)?

Open access lets Collabs creators promote your products for commission with no approval step. You opt in by setting a commission rate on all products or by collection. Shopify's Help Center says only creators from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are currently eligible.

When Shopify launched it as the Collabs Network in April 2023, merchants needed Collabs installed, a finished brand profile, automatic payments turned on, at least $10,000 in sales over the previous 365 days, and a store that is not dropshipping. Check the current rules in your Collabs settings before you plan around them.

How do you make Shopify Collabs drive real sales?

• Pick 20 creators whose audience already buys in your category, not the 2,000 with the most followers.
• Seed product first. Gifting through Collabs lets creators choose what they actually want to use.
• Set commission from your margin: what can you pay per order and still make money after ads, fees and returns?
• Give every creator a unique code as well as a link, so sales from video and in-person mentions are tracked.
• Reuse the content. The best creator videos become your paid social ads and product page media.

Collabs fills the top of the funnel; your store and email have to convert it. Shaazford runs Shopify for brands doing $100K+ a month at $1,600 a month, creative and email included in the plan.