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Shopify Collabs is Shopify's own built-in affiliate and creator app, run directly from a merchant's Shopify admin — unlike an external tracking network such as Awin or Impact.com. The merchant sets a percentage commission, can send free products and discount codes to creators, and pays commission through their own Shopify bill against a 2.9% fee charged on the commission amount itself. As of writing (August 2026), Shopify has closed new creator sign-ups to the Collabs Network, so a merchant today can mainly invite creators directly.
Shopify Collabs is Shopify's own built-in affiliate and creator app, run directly from a merchant's Shopify admin — unlike an external tracking network such as Awin or Impact.com. The merchant sets a percentage commission, can send free products and discount codes to creators, and pays commission through their own Shopify bill against a 2.9% fee charged on the commission amount itself. As of writing (August 2026), Shopify has closed new creator sign-ups to the Collabs Network, so a merchant today can mainly invite creators directly.
This builds on the general setup process in how to set up an affiliate program for influencers, step by step — Shopify Collabs is one concrete example of the "app in your own store" setup type that article describes as an alternative to an open network or a curated platform.
Shopify Collabs isn't a standalone tracking network with its own marketplace of advertisers and publishers, the way Awin or Impact.com are — it's an app that runs inside a single merchant's own Shopify store. The merchant owns the relationship with each creator directly; there's no third-party network sitting in between taking its own cut of every sale on top of the Shopify fee. That makes Collabs structurally closer to the "app in your own store" type from the setup article than to an open network.
The app is, per Shopify's own help page, available on every Shopify plan except Starter and Retail. There's no stated geographic restriction on which countries a merchant needs to be based in to install the app — Shopify's own overview page doesn't mention one, either as a restriction or a confirmation.
Per Shopify's own help page, a merchant can recruit creators three ways: sending direct invites to named creators, sharing an "instant commission offer" through an open access program, or setting up a page on the storefront where creators can apply to become an affiliate themselves.
In an open access program, any creator already approved inside Collabs can choose to promote the merchant's products using the affiliate links the merchant makes available — without the merchant approving each creator by hand. The merchant sets the commission percentage available to Collabs creators, and can vary the rate by product collection.
In an invite program, the merchant chooses which creators to invite, and can give different creators different perks depending on which program they belong to — for example, a higher commission for a creator who delivers stronger results. The merchant also sets the discount the customer receives when they use that creator's link or discount code.
Per Shopify's own documentation, Collabs supports percentage-based commission only — there's nothing on Shopify's own help page describing a flat-fee model, even though several third-party guides claim one exists. The rate can vary by product collection, and a merchant can reportedly offer a higher commission for sales to new customers than to returning ones, per third-party sources — that specific detail couldn't be confirmed directly on Shopify's own page and should be treated as unconfirmed, not fact.
Beyond commission, a merchant can send free product samples directly through the app to give a creator something concrete to make content about, and offer a discount code the customer can use at checkout — the same discount-code-vs-link mechanic covered in discount codes vs tracking links.
Per Shopify's own help page, a 2.9% processing fee applies to every automatic commission payment — calculated on the commission amount itself, not on the sale. Shopify's own example: sell a product for $100, and a creator earns a 10% commission ($10), and the fee is 2.9% of that $10 — 29 cents. The fee is added to the merchant's own Shopify bill.
Commission first sits in a holding period of between 1 and 90 days (30 days by default), during which a cancelled or refunded order can be clawed back before the amount is released. After that, the commission is added to the merchant's Shopify bill and paid out to the creator via PayPal or bank transfer, once the creator has activated automatic payouts on their side. Manual payments have not been available since 8 January 2024, per Shopify's own page. US creators who haven't submitted a W9 tax form also face an annual payout cap of $599.99.
If the merchant's Shopify bill runs in a currency other than USD, a currency conversion fee can apply on top — and if a creator chooses to cash out in a currency other than USD, the creator pays that conversion fee themselves.
On the merchant side, the app requires, per Shopify's own page, a Shopify plan that isn't Starter or Retail. Several independent third-party sources also state a store needs at least one priced product, automatic payouts enabled, and at least $10,000 in sales over the trailing 12 months to appear visibly in the open Collabs Network, where creators can discover and apply to work with the store — that specific threshold isn't confirmed directly on Shopify's own page and should be treated as industry-observed, not an officially Shopify-stated rule.
On the creator side, Collabs historically required, per several independent sources, at least 1,000 followers on a single social platform and residency in the US, Canada or the UK — but as noted above, that's effectively moot right now, because Shopify isn't accepting any new creator sign-ups at all as of writing, regardless of country.
Partly, and with an important caveat. Shopify's own page states no country restriction on which merchants can install and use the Collabs app itself — only the plan-tier requirement. A Danish Shopify merchant can therefore likely install the app and set up a program. But the open discovery marketplace, the Collabs Network, is per independent sources confirmed live only in the US and Canada, with a later launch in the UK — Denmark isn't named as a confirmed market for the network itself. And regardless of country, Shopify, as of writing (August 2026), isn't accepting any new creator sign-ups to Collabs at all — Danish or otherwise. A Danish merchant can therefore, in practice, install the app and invite existing creator accounts directly, but can't rely on organic discovery through the network, and can't recruit entirely new creators into the Collabs ecosystem right now.
| Shopify Collabs | External tracking network (e.g. Awin) | Curated influencer platform | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who builds and runs the infrastructure | Shopify, built into the merchant's own admin | The network itself, outside the merchant's store | The platform, often with a team that helps with briefing |
| Fee model | 2.9% of the commission amount itself | Often a percentage of the sale on top of a flat or tiered subscription — see the Awin, Impact.com, Everflow and Refersion comparison | Varies by platform; often a subscription or service fee |
| Commission types | Percentage only, per Shopify's own page | Varies by network | Varies; can be negotiated per creator |
| Creator discovery | Closed to new sign-ups as of writing | Open — creators apply to the network themselves | The platform sources and selects creators for the merchant |
| Confirmed in Denmark | The app itself: likely. The network: no | Only Awin has a documented Danish/Nordic platform | Varies by platform |
IF your store already runs on Shopify and you want to avoid an external network's ongoing fee → Collabs' low 2.9% fee on the commission itself makes it a cheap technical layer to build a program around.
IF you're counting on discovering new creators organically through an open marketplace right now → the Collabs Network isn't accepting new creator sign-ups as of writing, so that advantage isn't actually available today.
IF you already have named creators you want to invite directly → the invite program works regardless of whether the Collabs Network is open to new sign-ups, because you find and contact the creator yourself, outside the network.
IF you want help finding, selecting and briefing creators, not just paying them → that's a curated platform's job, not a payment tool like Collabs — see how to choose an influencer marketing platform.
The figures below are hypothetical and for illustration only — not data from a real Make Influence customer, and not figures from Shopify itself about what any specific merchant pays.
Assume a merchant has DKK 20,000 in tracked, affiliate-driven sales in a month, and pays creators a 15% commission.
By comparison, the worked example in the Awin, Impact.com, Everflow and Refersion comparison shows an external network typically adding a flat or tiered subscription price on top of a percentage of the sale itself — not of the commission. At low to moderate volume, Collabs' fee is therefore markedly lower in absolute terms than a network's subscription plus sales percentage. That low cost comes without the network's broader pool of already-enrolled creators, though, because the Collabs Network isn't accepting new sign-ups as of writing — the fee saving has to be weighed against the time a merchant has to spend finding and contacting creators directly instead.
Make Influence doesn't run an open program through Shopify Collabs or any of the other tools named in this article — our model is curated: the brand, or Make Influence on the brand's behalf, selects and briefs each individual creator. So we don't have a direct recommendation on whether a Shopify merchant should use Collabs. But the point from the setup article applies just as much here: a low technical fee doesn't solve the work of finding, briefing and retaining the right creators — that's still separate, manual work, regardless of which tool handles the payment itself.
No. Per Shopify's own help page, new creator sign-ups to the Collabs Network are closed as of writing (August 2026). Existing creators with an already-established relationship can continue to use their account.
Yes — a fee of 2.9% of the commission amount itself (not the sale) on every automatic payout, plus any currency conversion fees if the merchant's bill runs in a currency other than USD. The product gifting and the agreed commission itself come on top of that fee.
Likely, for the app installation itself — there's no stated country restriction on the merchant side. But the open discovery marketplace, the Collabs Network, is only confirmed live in the US, Canada and the UK, and new creator sign-ups are closed entirely regardless of country as of writing.
No. Collabs is an app that runs inside the merchant's own Shopify store, with no external network in between. Awin, Impact.com, Everflow and Refersion are independent third-party networks or platforms — see the full comparison.
Yes, the two aren't mutually exclusive. Collabs solves payment and tracking for an open or invite-based affiliate track; a curated platform solves the actual work of finding, selecting and briefing creators. Many brands use both for different purposes.
They're both native, marketplace/platform-run affiliate mechanics available to creators, but structurally different: Shopify Collabs is scoped to one merchant's own store, while Etsy's Creator Collective lets a creator earn commission across any shop on Etsy's entire marketplace. See Etsy's Creator Collective and Affiliate Program for the full comparison.
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