Shopify Collabs - Everything you need to know

One of the leading support tools for Shopify users today is Shopify Collabs. To be effective in the business process, successfully using this application is extremely necessary. In the following article, let’s learn basic information about Collabs.

What is Shopify Collabs?

This is an application that helps merchants and creators have a market. They can connect and send invites, share commission offers in the Collabs Network, and set up their online pages to accept applications. 

Businesses can use Collabs as a tool to send promotions, discount codes,… to customers. Creators can search for products easily to create commission links. They will apply to specific affiliate programs run by different businesses.

Merchants can easily collaborate with creative individuals to attract more attention from customers. Shopify Collabs will replace sellers in carrying out different tasks to find suitable creatives for managing partner relationships and tracking their performance. If you feel that marketing with creatives takes too much effort, then this app will help simplify everything.

How Shopify Collabs works

Shopify Collabs is currently a platform for brands and creators. Shopify store owners can search through a library of content creators that align with their brand’s objectives. The selection criteria will be set to include categories, location, audience size, engagement rate, channels, etc. Optimizing the search process is one of the key benefits of Shopify Collabs for merchants.

On Collabs, creators can discover new products related to their interests, while also receiving samples and gifts to try out and create content. They can promote the products they have used and loved, thus benefiting from their dedication to the brand.  

In practice, this is divided into three main parts:

• Find customers through influencer platform Shopify Collabs Discover
• Receive applications via the seller’s site
• Pay partners through affiliate links, free gifts and/or cash.

How to use Shopify Collabs for both merchants and creators

Right now, we will guide you through the basic steps if you want to use Shopify Collabs most effectively.

Step 1. Download the app and open an account

Setting up the app is extremely simple. You just need to find the app on the App Store, Google Play, or website and click install.

To set up Shopify Collabs, you can follow these 3 basic steps:

1. Access the Shopify admin panel. Then select Settings > Apps and sales channels.
2. The system will display a list of applications in the system. Your task is to find and open Shopify Collabs.

3. After clicking to agree to the terms and conditions, select OK to complete the setup process.  

Step 2. Create your community

The community page will include a registration form. Within this form, the shop owner can set up a set of questions to help the product reach the right audience. This is also where creators can learn about what your business has to offer. If suitable, they can sign up for collaboration right on this page.  

Shopify Collabs will help you customize the community page according to the following 5 parts:  

Application

This section will help you easily design your community page: 

1. Page design: Including logo, background color, CTA buttons. For a sleek and modern look, consider using the Blum theme.
2. About your brand: Title, brief description of the page, CTA positions 
3. Collab benefits: Benefits that creators will receive when signing up for the program 
4. Images: Detailed product images  

Social

You will be able to choose content creators through social networks such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitch. Choose to enable/disable to accept content creators on that social media page. 

Profile 

Content creators will need to provide the personal information that you set up in this section. 

• It certainly includes: Name, last name, and email address. 
• Some demographic information such as: date of birth, location, gender. (Sellers will be able to choose the target audience that fits the target market). 
• Select which social media profile of the content creator you want them to provide (which are the social networks listed earlier).  

Survey

This section will help merchants determine whether the creators are suitable or not. They can choose from various types of answers such as short answers, long answers, multiple-choice questions, or options that can be radio buttons or drop-down menus.  

Share

Shopify Collabs provides you with three ways to let everyone know that your community page is open and accepting new registrations. 

• Link to your application page
• Add it to your Shopify store
• Add a widget to your store

Step 3. Find creators for merchants

Here are the two basic ways we will guide you to find the most suitable creative talent.  

Search Parameters

Here are some metrics that merchants can look for: platform selector, search bar, keyword, location, hashtag, username, category, mentions, results filter, search in/exclude lists, required accounts, following, metrics.

Search Results

Merchants can refer to filtering according to the following 3 factors.  

• Metrics: including: followers, average engagement rate, average likes, average views, total likes,… 
• Growth: This will allow you to select the time frame for which you want to retrieve data. That is seven or 30 days back. 
• Sort: This option reorganizes the results based on the growth rate, the metrics you have chosen, the number of followers the creator has, or the reach of a blog post received.  

The advantages of using Shopify Collabs

Let’s explore why you should use Shopify Collabs or move your existing affiliate marketing programs to Shopify’s existing platform.

For merchants

• Find the right creator from a large marketplace: With Shopify Collab’s modern filtering tools, merchants can easily select suitable creators without spending too much time. These tools can establish clear criteria set by the merchant to search for suitable candidates. 
• Convenient for the process of managing creator relationships: The platform offers tools and features that enable sellers to effectively communicate, collaborate, and manage partnerships with creators. This can include messaging systems, collaboration tools, and metrics tracking to monitor the success of collaborations.
• Invoice Management & seamless payments: By simplifying the merchant-creator relationship, you’ll be provided with an overview of the creator’s sales performance and automated commission splitting. Additionally, Shopify Collabs will generate reports for the progress of each campaign so that you can reward high-performing individuals.  

For creators

• Connect with over a million people: Creators have the potential to collaborate with 2 million brands through Collabs. The platform helps creators easily design professional profiles and achieve greater visibility. The main purpose of Shopify Collabs is to increase opportunities for creators by matching them with suitable merchants.
• Product seeding and affiliate: Product seeding is one of the best methods for creators to gain inspiration and create content that drives customer purchases. Shopify Collab allows businesses to send gifts, samples, and promotional items. Additionally, this app enables businesses to set up commission structures and effectively track sales performance. 
• Intuitive dashboard to track all data: One of the major benefits of Shopify Collabs is its dashboard, which helps creators accurately manage revenue and track detailed data. They can focus on what they deem important, such as calculating income, pending payments, and more. Shopify’s dashboard tracks collaborations and earnings. Hence, creators know who to follow up with for pending payments. Additionally, it can help creators organize data efficiently.  

Some superior features of Shopify Collabs

Next, let’s explore Shopify Collabs’ user support features that help simplify marketing and performance tracking for eCommerce success.

Combine with Shopify Flow

Collabs in conjunction with Shopify Flow can offer a powerful solution for merchants looking to streamline their operations. By integrating Shopify Collabs’ analytics tools for monitoring creator partnerships with Shopify Flow’s automation capabilities, merchants can potentially automate workflows related to influencer marketing campaigns. 

This integration could allow for more efficient tracking of progress, affiliate data, and other key metrics, all while automating repetitive tasks and notifications within the Shopify platform. This combined approach may help merchants save time, optimize their marketing strategies, and improve overall efficiency in managing their influencer collaborations.

Shopify collabs Analytics

Merchants will be able to utilize the leading-edge analytics toolkit, designed by SC to monitor their interactions with creators. This process will include tracking progress and affiliate data, which will be directly accessible. 

The insights derived from this toolkit are sure to be beneficial for merchants in optimizing their marketing campaigns. Notably, it can help sellers enhance the performance and revenue of their brands.  

Affiliate links and discount codes

As mentioned, Shopify Collabs simplifies the process of setting up effective affiliate marketing programs for your store. Specifically, the app helps you compensate affiliates or partners for promoting your products or services. This process will depend on the sales volume tracked. 

Additionally, brands can easily recruit creators to advertise across various platforms such as websites, social media channels, and email campaigns. This type of promotion helps businesses increase brand exposure without incurring excessive costs. Furthermore, you can set up a commission structure to reward top-performing affiliates with higher commissions, thereby incentivizing outstanding performance.  

Above is the basic information about Shopify Collabs. Hopefully this article will help you if you are in the process of learning and new to using Shopify.