Program overview
Public evidence establishes Shopify as the program brand/operator in ordinary documentation, but this audit does not assign a specific Shopify legal entity as canonical Affiliate Program counterparty without Program-specific contractual evidence establishing it.
No sufficiently authoritative Program-specific source reviewed in this audit establishes a canonical launch date.
Characterization bounded to Shopify's own description of eligible experience and audience; not an independently constructed industry classification.
Publisher access
active website; established audience; original content; relevant commerce/entrepreneurship/ecommerce experience; Affiliate Program Terms reviewed
Shopify's merchant-location commission tables and international referral reach do not establish universal publisher eligibility. No geographic publisher-eligibility claim is inferred from merchant geography.
The reviewed public evidence does not establish a Program-specific KYC or identity-verification requirement.
Shopify requires an 'established audience', but the reviewed evidence does not establish a numerical traffic threshold. The threshold remains NOT_ESTABLISHED.
Commissions
Distinct geographic commission amounts preserved as Shopify's actual categories. Not represented as a synthetic $25–$150 range.
Recurrence is not inferred from the existence of a paid Shopify subscription. No Program-specific source establishes recurring commission.
commission earned only after an eligible referred merchant pays for an eligible store plan at full price; Shopify reserves the right to reverse commissions associated with fraudulent or refunded stores
Tracking
The reviewed Program-specific evidence establishes the use of Impact-generated Shopify affiliate referral links, but does not establish the cookie type.
No Program-specific public evidence reviewed establishes postback availability for Shopify affiliates.
General Impact or Shopify APIs are not treated as evidence that an Affiliate Program API is available.
No sufficiently specific public evidence reviewed establishes the canonical deeplinking capability required by this field.
Attribution
The 125-day period concerns attribution eligibility, not payment timing. Distinct from the 30-day click-to-Free-Trial window, which describes a different stage of the documented attribution sequence.
Bounded to the mechanism Shopify actually documents.
Payments
Payment administrator: Impact. Network-administered infrastructure; program applicability established by S1.
Distinct from Shopify's monthly commission-credit process; the two must not be conflated.
No Program-specific currency list is established by the reviewed evidence. Commission issuance is documented in USD; Impact currency conversion is mentioned but not exhaustively enumerated.
Reflects both the Shopify commission-processing timeline and the Impact account-credit step.
Promotional and channel restrictions
No Program-specific email-promotion rule is established by the reviewed evidence.
Affiliates must disclose their Shopify Affiliate status and that they may earn commission, and must not imply employment by Shopify.
No Program-specific cashback rule is established by the reviewed evidence.
Terms and restrictions
Affiliate Program is governed by separate terms from the Partner Program; the Shopify Partner Program Agreement expressly distinguishes Affiliate Program participants from Referral Partners and states that the Affiliate Program is subject to separate terms and conditions
No unilateral-change provision is established on the evidence used for this Program-specific audit.
Network / Platform Relationship
Shopify explicitly identifies Impact as the third-party affiliate tracking platform that hosts the Shopify Affiliate Program and provides tracking, reporting and commission-payment functions. This finding does not authorize inheritance of unrelated Impact platform capabilities or rules.
Important context
Material boundaries preserved from the canonical factual record.
Institutional boundaries
- Shopify Affiliate Program ≠ Shopify Partner Program (documented in S7). No Partner Program rule is inherited into this audit solely because it concerns Shopify.
- Shopify Affiliate Program ≠ Impact generally. Impact hosting establishes applicability of documented functions such as tracking, reporting, and payments only; it does not establish that every Impact capability is available to Shopify affiliates.
- Merchant geographic coverage ≠ publisher geographic eligibility.
Tracking and attribution
The 30-day click-to-Free-Trial window and the maximum 125-day Free-Trial-to-Full-Price window describe different stages of the documented attribution sequence and are not contradictory. Tracking and attribution remain structurally distinct.
Commission representation
Distinct geographic commission amounts (150 USD, 25 USD) preserved as Shopify's actual categories. Not synthesized into a range.
Sources
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S1Shopify Help Center — About the Shopify Affiliate Programhttps://help.shopify.com/en/affiliates/about
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S2Shopify Help Center — Affiliate Earningshttps://help.shopify.com/en/affiliates/earnings
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S3Shopify Growth Center — Understanding the Shopify Affiliate Program Referral Windowhttps://growthcenter.shopify.com/blogs/getting-started/understanding-the-shopify-affiliate-program-referral-window
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S4Shopify Growth Center — Affiliate Program Compliance Guidelineshttps://growthcenter.shopify.com/blogs/getting-started/shopify-affiliate-program-compliance-guidelines
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S5Shopify Growth Center — Shopify Affiliate Program FAQshttps://growthcenter.shopify.com/blogs/getting-started/shopify-affiliate-program-faqs
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S6Shopify Growth Center — Advanced Action Listing / SubID and SharedIDhttps://growthcenter.shopify.com/blogs/getting-started/how-to-utilize-the-shopify-advanced-action-listing-report
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S7Shopify Partner Program Agreementhttps://www.shopify.com/partners/terms
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S8Shopify Growth Center — Affiliate Referral Guidehttps://growthcenter.shopify.com/blogs/getting-started/shopify-affiliate-referral-guide
AffiliateAct verifies Program information against documented sources and preserves uncertainty where evidence is incomplete or conflicting. Read the methodology.