Shopify has expanded its affiliate marketing tool Shopify Collabs to the e-commerce market in the United Kingdom. It aims to help merchants connect with content creators to promote and sell locally produced products and services.
With an aim to streamline the partnership between merchants and creators, the Canadian e-commerce company launched Shopify Collabs in August last year. It not only helps creators easily discover brands but also allows merchants to reach new consumers.
By introducing the Collabs Network in the UK, Shopify is making it even easier for creators to access more parts of the Shopify platform, work with an unparalleled range of innovative businesses, and turn their projects into full-time viable businesses.
Deann Evans, Managing Director, EMEA, Shopify EMEA
How it Helps?
The end-to-end solution for affiliate marketing helps merchants recruit influencers and automatically pay commissions. It reduces the time and friction caused for both sellers and creators. The UK-based online stores French Connection and Three Spirit Drinks have already signed up for Shopify Collabs. Talking about partners for these e-commerce companies, Shopify says half a million creators have joined the platform in the UK.
Deann Evans, who was recently promoted to the role of Managing Director at Shopify EMEA, was quoted as saying by startups.co.uk: “For brands looking to reach new customers, at a time when the cost of customer acquisition has gone up by as much as 80%, Shopify Collabs enables easier, more efficient and more profitable collaboration.”
“By introducing the Collabs Network in the UK, Shopify is making it even easier for creators to access more parts of the Shopify platform, work with an unparalleled range of innovative businesses, and turn their projects into full-time viable businesses. By having greater visibility of how they can work together, creators and brands can deepen their relationships and give consumers easy access to the products they want,” she added.
In June, Evans was promoted from the rank of the Director of EMEA Expansion & Partnerships to look after Shopify’s operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The London-based professional joined Shopify in August 2021 after GoToDigital as CEO. Earlier, she worked with companies like Mettrr, Spencer Park Consulting, Sizmek, ClearSaleing, eBay, PointRoll, Dennis and TargetCom.
In her new role, Shopify expected Evans to expand the company’s regional growth by developing its merchant base and the partner ecosystem. She was also expected to represent the team culture in the EMEA market. “Shopify is on a mission to make commerce better for everyone, and I’m excited for the challenge of taking on a role that will empower our merchants and partners in EMEA to continue to grow,” she said at the time of her promotion.
Huge Network of Creators to Choose From
Shopify is a Canada-based e-commerce platform that is much popular among merchants from the United States, Australia and India. The services come at various pricing plans to help small merchants set up online stores and sell locally produced products across the internet.
According to Shopify President Harley Finkelstein, “hundreds of thousands of creators” are part of Shopify
collabs. “In under a year, hundreds of thousands of creators have signed up for Shopify collabs, our product that is helping power the creator economy. Today, we are making it even easier to use with the Shopify Collabs Network,” he said in a tweet.
In under a year, hundreds of thousands of creators have signed up for @Shopify collabs, our product that is helping power the creator economy. Today, we are making it even easier to use with the Shopify Collabs Network.
— Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) June 28, 2023
No more waiting for merchant approvals. Now, creators can… https://t.co/sO6LhGKY6l
“No more waiting for merchant approvals. Now, creators can get instant approval so they can start earning commissions immediately and we’ve added a search function to make it easier to find products you love & want to promote,” Finkelstein added.
More About Shopify Collabs
The solution helps merchants to acquire, manage and monitor partnerships for affiliate marketing. It also enables creators to establish partnerships with merchants to build curated shops and share products as per their interests. Facilitating their path to entrepreneurship, Collabs saves creators from the cumbersome process of brand hunting. Hence, they can focus more on making content.
As per TechCrunch, Collabs’ pay structure can differ with each merchant and creators receive their remuneration directly via PayPal. For the UK market, merchants are allowed to set a commission on each product for content creators. Collabs creators can see various commission offers on the company app, accept an offer and start producing promotional content.
Shopify Collabs is an easy platform for all merchants, with no code experience, to manage and pay supplying creators. Influencers can be used to promote special links and discount codes to engage with your target audience.
How Can Creators Sign up For Shopify Collabs?
Creators can apply for a Shopify Collabs account that enables them to browse for merchants whose products align with the interest of their audience. After finding the best, a list of products will be curated which they can share on social media via Shopify’s link in bio tool, Linkpop. The creator will receive payment when someone purchases a product using the shared link.
Merchants can go for the Collabs offering in order to make their store and products discoverable to the creators, who need to apply to join that merchant’s community. As Collabs is built on Shopify, it means the process is centrally managed. This means that orders, customer information and inventory are regularly updated, giving a real-time view of the entire multichannel sales of the merchant.
Shopify offers its in-built billing system for merchants to make payments to creators. It saves a lot of time as the system automatically generates invoices and takes approval from both parties involved. Shopify charges an additional 2.9 percent payment on commissions from merchants to offer this service.
Creators can also make their “link in bio” shoppable with the help of Linkpop, launched last year. Merchants and creators can add important links on the Linkpop page and launch storefronts to sell directly on the platforms. This allows consumers to purchase directly without leaving the social media application.
Linkpop also has built-in analytics tools that help merchants understand consumer engagement in a better way. A mobile-friendly option is also available with a starter plan of $5. Content creators can use it to launch a no-code store. They can share links on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify and other platforms.
Formalities for Merchants
Merchants need to sign up to use Shopify Collabs for affiliate marketing. Shopify will ask them to fill in profile details under the Collabs Network. Shopify has a set eligibility criteria for merchants to be able to use Shopify Collabs:
- Products
Products are what drive an e-commerce store. Shopify wants merchants to have at least one product to be part of the Collabs Network. For those offering services need to sell at least one service.
- Auto-payouts
Shopify Collabs work on auto-payouts only to ensure no creator faces payment issues. Therefore, a merchant must set up auto-payments to join Shopify Collabs. As mentioned above, creators are paid a commission immediately after a product is purchased through their shared link.
- One-year Sales
Shopify also checks the one-year sales figures of merchants to ensure that the business is not in poor financial condition. In adverse conditions, it gets difficult for businesses to pay for promotion and Shopify doesn’t want its creators to bear losses. So the criteria say that a merchant must have generated at least $10,000 (approx. £7,800) in sales in the past 12 months.
- Not for Dropshippers
Shopify is currently not allowing merchants from the dropshipping business to join its network of Collabs. It is because dropshipping is a cheap small business model and its owners might not have funds to pay for promotion at times.
The e-commerce giant offers Shopify Collabs for free to all content creators and Shopify merchants. Those with Shopify Plus plans get additional advantages. However, the additional 2.9 percent payment on all commissions is an undeniable condition for all merchants.
