Shopify pays up to $150 per qualified referral as a fixed bounty, with no earnings cap. The number most affiliates miss is the tracking window: a free trial that converts is credited to you for up to 400 days.
What you're promoting
Shopify is the default answer to "how do I start an online store". Hosted storefronts, payments, inventory, shipping and a huge app ecosystem, sold to everyone from a first-time seller to enterprises running nine figures through Shopify Plus.
Commissionable plans are Basic, Grow and Advanced. The amount varies by the referral's country, so a US merchant and an Indian merchant are not worth the same to you.
The 400-day trial window changes the strategy
The standard click cookie is 30 days. But if your referral starts a free trial, Shopify keeps tracking that store until it becomes a paying full-price customer, for as long as 400 days.
That is unusually generous and it should change what you optimise for. Getting someone into a trial is a far easier ask than getting them to buy, and the trial does the converting for you over the following year. Write calls to action around "start the free trial", not "buy a plan".
Commissions are issued once a month on the 22nd, withdrawable from $10. The program runs on Impact.
Who converts
People who have already decided to sell something and are choosing a platform. "How to start an online store", product-sourcing guides, dropshipping content and Shopify-vs-WooCommerce comparisons all convert because the reader has a business to launch.
Existing store owners are a much harder sell, and "make money online" traffic converts into trials that never become paying stores, which earns you nothing while consuming your effort.
Shopify vs WooCommerce for affiliates
Shopify
WooCommerce route
Commission
Up to $150 fixed bounty
Nothing directly, it is free software
What you monetise
The platform itself
Hosting, themes and plugins around it
Tracking
30 days, up to 400 on trials
Depends on the host's program
Threshold
$10
Varies
WooCommerce cannot be monetised directly, so a "Shopify vs WooCommerce" post earns on one side only unless you stack hosting affiliate links onto the WooCommerce half. That asymmetry is worth building content around deliberately.
Getting approved
Apply through Impact. Shopify reviews properly and wants an active site with an established audience publishing original content about commerce or entrepreneurship. Thin affiliate sites and coupon properties get declined, and the review is stricter than the free signup implies.
Verdict
The strongest ecommerce program available, and the 400-day trial attribution makes it far more forgiving than the 30-day cookie suggests. Push the free trial rather than the plan, target people with a product to sell rather than people looking for a business idea, and remember the payout varies by country.
How much does Shopify pay per referral?
Up to $150 as a fixed bounty on Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, with no earnings cap. The exact amount varies by the referral's country.
What is the 400-day tracking window?
The click cookie is 30 days, but if your referral starts a free trial Shopify keeps tracking that store until it becomes a paying full-price customer, for as long as 400 days. Push the trial, not the plan.
When does Shopify pay?
Commissions are issued to your balance once a month on the 22nd, withdrawable from a $10 minimum, through Impact.
Is it hard to get approved?
Stricter than the free signup suggests. Shopify wants an active site with an established audience publishing original commerce or entrepreneurship content. Thin affiliate and coupon sites are declined.
Add a review