How to launch a Shopify affiliate programme

Whether you’ve just created your Shopify account or are years into running your own venture, you’ll know how important it is to continue increasing your Shopify traffic and boosting your Shopify sales to ensure your business continues to grow. In this article we’ve detailed why affiliate marketing should be part of your Shopify marketing strategy and how you can best use the Awin affiliate marketing app on Shopify to improve your Shopify business sales performance. 

What is affiliate marketing?  

Affiliate marketing gets your online store in front of the right audience. It enables you to connect with thousands of online partners such as website owners, mass media, influencers and bloggers who can promote your products to their engaged online audiences. Driving more traffic and reaching new customers that you may not have access to through your usual online marketing channels. Ultimately, affiliate marketing is a great option for small businesses as it’s a low-risk high reward platform, because you only pay affiliate partners when they are directly responsible for a sale. 
 

What Shopify affiliate programme app should I use? 

There are plenty of Shopify affiliate programme apps to choose from. Awin’s affiliate marketing app is available on the Shopify app store to install and is a great option if you’re a time-short business owner looking to increase your online sales. The Awin Access programme is particularly useful if you’re looking to test affiliate marketing before committing to adapting your marketing strategy, as it offers a short three-month minimum term contract. We should also mention, no affiliate marketing experience is necessary, so the set-up is easy – making it a complete win. On average Awin Access customers are getting £14 back for every £1 spent. 

The Awin affiliate app is used widely amongst Shopify business owners. Hear from small business owner, Laura Rudoe, about how she connected Evolve Organic Beauty With the Awin app and how it’s become a vital part of Evolve’s marketing strategy. 

How do I set-up a Shopify affiliate programme? 
Setting up a Shopify affiliate programme couldn’t be simpler. Follow the steps below to easily launch your Awin affiliate programme via the Shopify app store.  
 

1. Join Awin here to receive your customer ID number. 
2. Then, go into the Shopify App Store to install the app and input your ID number.  
3. You’re now ready to go - Awin’s simple to use platform will track, pay and report on your affiliate partnerships in one place.

How can I increase my Shopify traffic? 

Once you’ve launched your Awin affiliate programme via Shopify, you can start to make use of the affiliate tools available to you. The Publisher Recommendations report is a great place to start and provides you with the 25 most suitable publisher suggestions for your brand to work with daily. It’s important to select publishers that resonate well with your business, as these partners are most likely to have customers that will like the look of your brand and click through, therefore increasing traffic to your Shopify website.  

Tip: Ensure you rate each publisher recommendation, the more often you rate them, the more accurate the tool will become in suggesting suitable publishers. 

How can I grow my Shopify sales? 
Now you’ve set up your Awin affiliate programme and partnered with many of Awin’s trusted publishers you’re ready to go. There are plenty of tools to help boost your Shopify sales. Firstly, incentivising publishers with a higher commission rate within the Commission Manager can motivate them to push your products more and help you increase your Shopify sales. Moreover, providing top performing publishers with a bonus via the Bonus Manager is a great incentive to push for further sales and higher basket value sales on your Shopify website. 

Click here to find out more about the Awin affiliate marketing app on Shopify.