How does Simple Affiliate work?

You install Simple Affiliate, turn on its tracker, set your commission, and invite affiliates. Simple Affiliate then gives each affiliate a dashboard in your store's customer accounts, tracks the orders they refer, calculates their commission, and pays them with the payout method that you choose.

Set up your program

1. Install Simple Affiliate from the Shopify App Store, approve the requested permissions, and open Simple Affiliate in your Shopify Admin.
2. Turn on Simple Affiliate Tracker in your theme's App embeds and save. Without it, storefront referral tracking, automatic discounts at checkout, and the default affiliate signup flow don't run. The steps are in How to enable the Simple Affiliate tracker.
3. Open Settings > Dashboard and check the Affiliate dashboard URL. Affiliates use this page to sign up and to open their dashboard. Change the handle if you want another address, click Save, and share the link or add it to your store menu.

   

4. Open Groups, open your default group, and select the Commission tab. Choose Percentage or Fixed amount, enter the default commission, and save.

   

5. On Pro or Premium, click Set product & collection commissions on the same tab to give some products, variants, or collections their own rate. Product commissions work only with the Percentage commission type, so a group with a fixed amount doesn't show this button.
6. Choose your payout method in Settings > Payout. See Which payout methods can I use, and can affiliates choose one?
7. Invite the customers, creators, or other people you want as affiliates, and tell them which link or code to share.

Affiliates sign in with your store's Shopify customer accounts, so they don't need another password. The Affiliate Signup theme block is optional and only on Pro and Premium; it can collect applications without the tracker.

What happens when a referred order comes in

When Shopify records an order that matches one of your referral methods, Simple Affiliate creates a referral for the affiliate and applies the commission of the affiliate's group. A product, variant, or collection commission replaces the group's default rate for those items. The commission counts once the referral is confirmed, on payment or on fulfillment, as you choose in Settings > Referral.

An order can be credited in these ways:

• Referral link: the link carries a tracking code (sacode), with optional UTM parameters. When a customer clicks more than one link, the most recent click counts.
• Discount code (Pro and Premium): the affiliate's unique code credits the order, also without a click.
• Connected customer (Pro and Premium): when you turn it on, a customer stays connected to the affiliate after a first referred purchase, and later orders credit that affiliate.
• Product attribution (Premium): a product is assigned to an affiliate. It doesn't apply when an order has products assigned to different affiliates.

An order has one referral. Simple Affiliate checks product attribution first, then the discount code, the link, and the connected customer. An order with none of these credits nobody, but you can add a referral by hand in Referrals > Add referral.

Paying commissions

You pay commissions with Autopay, PayPal, or Shopify store credit. Manual payments are on Premium and on stores whose currency Autopay doesn't support. The affiliate always receives the full commission. With Autopay, you pay its fees on top; PayPal, store credit, and manual payments have no Simple Affiliate processing fee. Autopay can pay once a month for the affiliates who reached your Payout threshold, and you confirm that payment first unless you turn confirmation off. You can also pay at any time with Pay now.

What each plan changes

Every plan includes Autopay, PayPal and store credit payouts, live chat support, and the Claude and ChatGPT connection. Starter is free and allows up to 10 affiliates, one group, and one standard link per affiliate. The features and price of each paid plan are in How much does Simple Affiliate cost?

Test before you invite anyone

Open a referral link yourself and place a test order, with a discount code if you use them. Then check that the order shows in Referrals with the expected affiliate and commission. If a referral is missing later, Why aren't referred orders showing up? lists the checks.