Shopify Collabs

Our team was SO EXCITED for Shopify to further build out Dovetale's platform. Unfortunately, whenever the integration happened it disallowed us from modifying or creating new tiers. It also is evidently glitchy on adding collaborators. We've yet to figure out either. When I submitted questions to the dev team to help enable the app, we received lackluster explanations. Just frustrating. So much potential. Looks like we will need to go another route.

I feel like almost every applicant is a fake person. I am getting several applicants, which I thought was good at first. When I take a look at their profiles it's obvious they are not real accounts. I have sent offers to many but no communication or next step after that has happened with any of them.

I couldn't even get past the first stage of set-up before it crashed and told me info had been sent to admin. Why did it crash? Who knows. I didn't even do anything that would warrant making an error since it was only the first stage of installation. But no help forthcoming. I'm sad as there has been lots of hype, and it is a needed app, but if you can't even install it, what's the point?

For a feature as highly touted as this has been you would think that Shopify would have taken the time to get it right. The entire app is riddled with bugs and pain points. The entire experience needs to be vetted and troubleshot. I don't need to go into detail because so many of the issues have been called out in other critical reviews. I'm just here to encourage Shopify to allocate the resources to get this back on track. Moderator - please escalate this to the decision makers. And decision makers - please get on top of this asap as the holiday sales season is soon approaching.

Doesn't work with PayPal. Impossible to make a payment to influencers. It always returns with an error. This is unacceptable.

Has real potential, but basic functionality is not there.

When creators sign up they can add their channels. Should they not add all the channels and you wish to add them yourself as a merchant - you cant... even though there is the ability to do so!

I contacted Shopify support to to try and resolve a basic function to which they told me they removed it... why would you remove something that only really benefits the merchant. Tracking performance and profile growth as a creator means very little, but to a merchant it means everything in something that is a very difficult to track.

I hope Shopify rethinks this and fast!

Update: 4 months later and new Collab members still have to create a Shopify account in order to onboard. A new feature lets brands manually add members, which sounded like it would be a great way to quickly onboard -- but turns out this feature STILL requires them to create an account in order to activate their affiliate code. Shopify, you're so great in other areas, this isn't you! Please make this app easier for our community to use!

Update 2: I really hope these reviews prevent others from having the negative experience with Collabs that we have had. We recently learned that creators are not paid by Shopify if they have made under $25 in commissions. How is this legal? Additionally, in order to get paid, creators must jump through multiple hoops, not only going through the sign-up process mentioned in my other Collabs reviews, but also by authorizing auto-payments in a very confusing process. This honestly seems designed to prevent creators from being paid. Again, this is not at all my general experience with Shopify, and I am so appalled by how Collabs/Dovetale has been run since the acquisition.

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If you're thinking about switching your influencer platform because you've heard Shopify Collabs is great, be careful! This used to be a great app with an easy onboarding process (hence all the buzz). But Shopify recently changed the onboarding process, requiring the influencer to sign up for a Shopify account and verify their email before they even land on the brand's application page (and then they need to apply for the brand too!). This has led to a big drop in influencer signups for us, and it seems like the same thing is happening with other brands. We went through a big hassle to switch to Shopify Collabs because it was easier and less complex than Refersion. Now we might need to switch back. What a disappointment.

It theory its a great idea... execution sucks! Talk about lost products, time and money...its like chasing around preschooler's to post something...some got the products and didn't even post...over a dozen sent out...zero sales... HARD PASS until they are held reliable!

We switched over to this app from Refersion and are starting to regret it. Collabs discount codes don't stack, and when you use a 3rd party plugin to stack the discounts codes arent registered to their respective influencer, thus having to manually figure out how to send them their commissions.

1. Not enough documentation. You need to go back and forth too much with support to learn anything more than the 2 help pages, which you don't learn much from. It seems that support beats around the bush especially regarding what they realize with be a sensitive topic, like #2 below.
2. My biggest beef, is that when I had set up a test Creator account with another one of my email addresses, the first thing that Shopify did was try to get me to see other brands. That is unethical, when I am the one bringing the creator to the network. At least wait until the creator is setup and started working with us before bombarding them with everyone else’s brand and turning their focus away from us.

I had some issues with Collabs that I was willing to live with, but #2 above was a deal breaker. I am removed the app.