Can You Do Affiliate Marketing on Shopify?

Twenty percent of all ecommerce websites and more than 1.75 million merchants worldwide utilize Shopify, one of the most well-known software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecommerce platforms, to sell their goods. With a ton of useful e-commerce tools, drag-and-drop store themes, and top-notch customer service, it's a powerful all-in-one solution. It only takes a few straightforward steps to set up an online business on Shopify. It's more difficult to increase traffic to your online store after it launches. 

All Shopify stores and e-commerce websites depend on traffic to survive. The everyday problems faced by all ecommerce firms include directing traffic to their websites or Shopify stores and then turning that traffic into paying consumers. The e-commerce market is fiercely competitive, with new enterprises opening up every minute. So what can Shopify e-commerce companies do to maintain their competitiveness in this rapidly expanding market? Affiliate marketing is a straightforward solution.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and popular marketing strategies that today’s brands implement to drive brand awareness, encourage customer engagement, and increase sales. Since the early 2000s, affiliate marketing has been steadily growing as more and more businesses turn to digital marketing to reach their target audiences. As a result, affiliate marketing has experienced tremendous growth in recent years as affiliate spending in the U.S. has grown from $2.5 billion in 2012 to $8.2 billion in 2022. 

Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy and tool that consists of brands partnering with affiliates (publications, influencers, etc.) in a rewards-based system that incentivizes affiliates to promote brands and their products to their audiences in exchange for a commission from every sale made. Affiliates usually promote products by writing a blog about the product, making a video about the brand and its products, or making social media posts that promote the brand and its products and sharing their unique affiliate link for their audience to purchase the products.

When a member of the affiliate’s audience visits the affiliate link and takes action, usually by buying the product, the brand pays the affiliate a commission percentage they previously agreed on. Brands can easily track the success of affiliate referrals by tracking the visits and sales of each affiliate through the unique affiliate link they use to promote the brand and its products. Payments to affiliates are most often based on sales generated, but they can be based on the number of clicks to an affiliate link or the leads generated.

Why is Affiliate Marketing Great for Shopify Ecommerce Brands?

Affiliate marketing has grown exponentially because it is a low-budget and low-risk marketing method to increase brand awareness, website traffic, and revenue. Affiliate marketing is a win-win scenario for commerce brands, especially those on Shopify and their affiliate partners. 

This is because affiliates usually promote the products they truly enjoy while earning a passive income in the process. Additionally, ecommerce brands can drive traffic to their websites and Shopify stores at no upfront cost with only a small commission to pay once an actual sale is made.

Moreover, by partnering with multiple affiliates that align with their brand image, ecommerce brands on Shopify can increase their audience reach across various niches, websites, and social media platforms they previously had no presence on. Additionally, affiliate marketing contributes to establishing credibility and trust among online consumers, as 93% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on reviews. Therefore, when affiliates promote and review a brand’s products, this contributes to more social clout for the brand and its products among consumers and fosters more trust and loyalty.

How to Create a Fruitful Shopify Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs can be implemented internally, where brands employ affiliate marketing platforms or manually oversee every facet of the process internally. Although many e-commerce companies begin their affiliate programs internally at first, it doesn't take long for them to switch to an affiliate platform. 

This is because affiliate platforms simplify the entire affiliate marketing process for ecommerce brands by offering third-party affiliate platform app integration within its dashboard. The best affiliate marketing platforms have their apps on Shopify, making it simple for Shopify brands to integrate the affiliate marketing platform in their Shopify store. Affiliate platforms also give ecommerce brands all the tools and resources they need to manage and grow their affiliate programs quickly, from onboarding new affiliates to tracking sales and providing robust reports that allow brands to make data-driven decisions when growing their affiliate programs.