Shopify Collabs

9/3/2024 Update - I had a very nice video call with a Shopify rep. They are genuinely trying to improve this app, which is giving us hope. We're updating our review to 5 stars in hope of a brighter future here!

I don't like writing 1-star reviews, but this app is useless. We spent serious time looking up applicable creators and offered them free $250 products, but had no responses.

Now we're just getting spammed by "beauty" influencers who have zero applicability to us.

It seems like Shopify didn't actually verify any of the creators. They either didn't sign up or are fake accounts looking for free things.

I’ve been using Shopify Collabs with the expectation of partnering with genuine creators to help promote my store and drive sales. Unfortunately, my experience has been far from ideal.

First, I received no email updates or notifications regarding commissions paid or orders generated through referrals. This lack of communication meant that I was completely unaware of how and where these commissions were coming from. By the time I realized what was happening, I had already paid out $648.25 in commissions for orders I never approved and from "creators" that were coupon farming code websites.

It wasn’t immediately clear that these so-called "Creators" were actually discount-farming websites, not influencers promoting my products in good faith. This wasn’t something I could notice easily—I had to spend considerable time investigating the issue deeply on my own to uncover the fact that coupon code sites were essentially hijacking the affiliate program and benefiting from commissions.

This experience has been extremely frustrating, as the Shopify Collabs program was intended to connect merchants with legitimate influencers. Instead, it’s being taken advantage of by bad actors looking to exploit the system. While I appreciate Shopify’s willingness to provide preventive measures for the future, this doesn’t address the financial losses already incurred due to this oversight.

If Shopify had better systems in place to vet creators or provide clear notifications about referral activities, I could have avoided this situation entirely.

Shopify is taking no responsibility for protecting merchants from these issues and is unwilling to refund any of the fraudulent commissions that were paid.

I installed this app about two years ago but never used it. Today, I randomly decided to check something in the app, and to my shock, I found that two people I never accepted as collaborators or invited (again, I NEVER used the app) had scheduled payments, taking a percentage of two of my orders! This is insane! If I hadn't checked the app by chance, they would have stolen my money without me even noticing.

This app is an absolute scam. Be very careful! I do NOT recommend installing it.

I contacted Shopify support, and the first line support had no idea what to do. They had to escalate the issue to the Shopify Collabs team. I still don't know what's going to happen, but this experience is beyond frustrating and concerning. Stay away from this app!

EDIT: the support team replied and I must say that your app is nothing short of a scam. Nowhere in the process of installing or using the app do you mention that people, even if they are not invited or have declined as collaborators, can still create affiliate links of their own. What is the point then? The entire purpose of this app is to allow control, and if I cannot control this, your app is worthless.

To make matters worse, support has informed me that the holding period has passed, meaning these unauthorized individuals are now going to take my money—just as I suspected. This is outrageous and reeks of fraud. Your app and the way it operates are simply disgusting.

2.9 star average rating tells you everything you need to know. It's exactly what others are saying. This app is knowingly hosting scams. Shopify isn't filtering the "creators" at all so you just get people that are coupon harvesting. Money gets paid out and Shopify does nothing to protect the stores that pay its bills. We've lots thousands because we foolishly put our trust in this app because it was built by Shopify.

We've only just getting started- but so far the team has been very responsive, and we're seeing our first affiliate traffic and sales. Would like to see some more customization options on the recruitment page(s).

Beware!!!! Echoing countless other shop owners, this program allows scammers to promote your products using pre-existing discount codes and then pays them commissions automatically without disclosing it to you. By the time we realized this was happening, we had already paid out hundreds of dollars to "creators" who had never applied to work with our brand and were never approved to earn commissions. The majority of the payments went to a scam website that hosted FAKE reviews of our product. When I brought this to Shopify's attention, they told me that we were at fault for not "catching" the affiliate payments earlier and that there was no recourse to recoup the funds. Furthermore, I am still being charged for additional "affiliate commissions" after completely removing Shopify Collabs from our account and reporting all of this to Shopify Support. Stay away from this app.

Please read all reviews before installing, as they are all accurate representation of the app. This app is useless. 1) There is no vetting of the influencers- most are looking for a free product, will never post, and will never drive traffic to your store. 2) Random "collaborators" appear (even if you have never accepted their application), attributing organic sales (customers land via my own marketing efforts), and no notification is ever sent to the merchant. The only way of having any sort of control is by proactively checking ALL the time, the payouts. It's absurd. I uninstalled the app, and all of this happened while the app WAS NO LONGER INSTALLED ON MY SHOP.

Today I realized a fake affiliate with fake reviews on their website was referring traffic. I don't even know how that's possible. It's not ok for Shopify to promote an app that promotes fraudulent content.

Collabs makes working with creators on a gifting/affiliate basis. Also great support team if you need it. Strong recommend esp for teams who don't have tons of hours to dedicate towards building their program.

Collabs is a great way to launch and manage an affiliate program. It is so complicated to do this without a built in ecosystem, and Shopify provides both the technology platform and community of influencers to activate and scale this capability quickly.