Top 8 Shopify Affiliate Apps [ September, 2023 ]
| Last updated September 13, 2023The Shopify platform is a powerful tool for ecommerce entrepreneurs.
But what truly sets Shopify apart from its competition is the extra yards you can go (and the extra revenue and profit you can make) by adding functionality to your store via the vast ‘ecosystem’ of Shopify apps.
Shopify affiliate apps and apps for loyalty and referral programs are amongst the most useful of these, when it comes to growing your customer base.
Below I review the eight best Shopify affiliate apps available – right after I answer a simple question that I get asked repeatedly…
What is Shopify affiliate marketing?
Driving traffic to your store via Google or Facebook ads is getting more expensive; and Instagram marketing usually takes time to generate serious traffic.
A great alternative source of traffic is affiliate marketing. After all, it’s free because other people send traffic to you via their own websites.
Essentially, you set up a team that may include existing customers, partners or even influencers and top bloggers from your industry – and they send their traffic to you.
What do you get? More traffic and more paying customers.
What do they get? Commission every time one of the visitors they send you buys something.
It’s a classic win-win-win for the seller, referrer and buyer. You only need to pay the affiliate if you sell something, so there is really nothing to lose.
But some Shopify store owners are unaware of the possibilities presented by affiliate marketing and others don’t know where to start.
It’s actually a pretty simple process:
- Install a Shopify affiliate tracking app.
- Locate affiliates who want to join your program – start with existing clients but extend it with email marketing reach-out programs.
- As new customers buy from you, invite them to be affiliates – new customers who love what you do are often the best source of referrals.
- Consider joining an affiliate network as a way to connect with more affiliates (membership is usually free as the network makes commission from the merchants).
- Keep affiliates informed about your store through newsletters, etc.
Including existing and new clients in this program creates a kind of “virtuous circle”. Loyal customers encourage referrals; and by encouraging them to join your affiliate program, it engages them and secures your existing base, as well as potentially growing it.
Here are eight Shopify affiliate apps that can increase customer loyalty and help you introduce a successful affiliate marketing program in your ecommerce business…
So let’s learn about the Shopify Affiliate Apps and more.
Quick comparison of the best Shopify Affiliate Apps
| # | App Name | Developer Name | Pricing | Rating | Free Trial | Image | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Referral Candy & Affiliate | ReferralCandy | $59/month | 4.8/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 2 | Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist | Growave | $9/month | 4.8/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 3 | Snowball: Affiliate Marketing | Social Snowball | $99/month | 4.8/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 4 | LoyaltyLion Rewards & Referral | LoyaltyLion | $159/month | 4.5/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 5 | Affiliatly Affiliate Marketing | Overcode | $16/month | 4.6/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 6 | LeadDyno Affiliate Marketing | LeadDyno | $49/month | 4.3/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 7 | Refersion: Affiliate Marketing | Refersion, Inc. | $119/month | 4.7/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
| 8 | UpPromote Affiliate & Referral | Secomapp | $29.99/month | 4.9/5 ⭐️ | yes |  | Get app |
What are the best Affiliate Apps for Shopify?
Table of contents:
Referral Candy & Affiliate
Referral Candy is one of the more popular Shopify Loyalty Apps for e-commerce stores. Their app includes automation of your referral programs, results tracking, and fraud prevention, and seamless integration to popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento.
A custom API and advanced integrations are also available such as AdRoll, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, ReCharge, Fomo, and many others. Their customer service team are online 24/7 to help you set up and grow referral sales.
- Dedicated referrals management app for businesses looking to track referrals and sales, and reward referrers without added loyalty features.
- 14 day free trial.
- Dedicated accounts manager and quarterly reviews with the plus package.
- Proactive customer support, quick to respond live chat support available on their premium package.
- Built in automatic fraud protection.
- Fully customizable branding options for emails. Offer cash, coupons, or special gift rewards for referrers.
- All-in-one dashboard allows tracking of key metrics such as referral results, revenue and number of social media shares.
- Little administration required once up and running. Used by some very large brands.
- No stage-based referral incentives (where frequent referrers who send many people can aim for greater rewards).
- There are cheaper alternatives and pricing increases significantly for enterprises.
- Limited multi-language support.
Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist
Growave is an all-in-one Shopify Loyalty App for small and medium-sized businesses that helps them reach, engage, and convert their customers. The app offers a variety of tools, such as reviews, Wishlists, Q&A, Loyalty and Referral, Social login, Instagram galleries, and more. Growave will easily replace 4-6 different apps on your store and save a ton of money for you.
Growave’s Starter plan offers a Loyalty and Rewards feature with a points-based program with an ability to customize the way how your customers can earn points. The Growth plan features an extensive point, VIP tiers, and referral programs to match your business niche. If you would like to scale-up your loyal customer base, then Growave might be exactly what you are looking for.
Growave seamlessly integrates with top Shopify apps such as Omnisemd, Klaviyo, FirePush, PageFly, Gorgias and many more. Also, it is integrated with most Shopify themes.
- Free 14 day trial available
- Helps you to retarget customers with personalized wishlist emails and discount codes. Automatically sends targeted email
- Provides a comprehensive suite of marketing tools tailored for small and medium-sized businesses
- More cost-effective than some of the alternatives in the market, because of the cheaper entry price
- The Starter plan offers great customization options for the Loyalty and Rewards feature
- The Growth plan provides additional features like extensive points systems, VIP tiers, and referral programs. This scalability enables businesses to align loyalty programs with their niche and growth goals
- Passionate and proactive back-end customer service for their new and existing users alike
- Analytics – you can see engagement metrics, the most wanted items, customers’ wishlists, and export data in a CSV file format
- Some integrations with Shopify 2.0 require customization
- Some language or grammar in their default replies might not be perfect English but are easily customized
- No free plan
Snowball: Affiliate Marketing
A dynamic online platform that aims to improve the way individuals and businesses harness the power of social media. With an innovative approach, Social Snowball offers a unique and effective solution to maximize social media engagement, reach, and impact. Whether you’re an influencer looking to grow your online presence or a business aiming to expand its digital footprint, Social Snowball provides the tools and strategies you need to achieve your social media goals.
- 30 day free trial available.
- Automated affiliate and referral solution built specifically for Shopify stores.
- It converts all of your customers into affiliates and motivates them to share your products with their friends by showing personalized coupon codes/links right from the post-purchase thank you page.
- You can also integrate it with an email marketing software like Klaviyo and further motivate customers (to share with their social circles) using emails.
- Lets you pay your affiliates their commissions in two clicks, all from your dashboard, with 6 different payout methods to suit every store’s needs!
- It’s easy to set up for you and its minimal affiliate forms are easy to fill for external affiliates (like influencers, affiliate marketers, YouTubers, etc.).
- Reports of slow loading times.
- No free version available.
- Social Snowball take a commission unless you're paying for their Blizzard package.
LoyaltyLion Rewards & Referral
LoyaltyLion is a fully customised, data-driven loyalty program that works seamlessly across mobile, desktop and in store. Helps businesses increase customer engagement, retention and customer lifetime value. This increases purchase frequency, improves customer retention and encourages referrals. Easy to set up, tracks your referrals and requires little management once up and running.
- 14 day free trial available.
- Free version available.
- Tiered reward system for valued customer engagement.
- Live chat and email support, CSM's for their more premium packages.
- Reward points for basic on site activities.
- In built analytics dashboard, including retention and ROI statistics.
- Onboarding support for all their paid packages.
- Reports of slow response time on their live chat support.
- Expensive entry level package, would have been nice to see a tier in between their free and classic packages.
- Limited features on the free package. You are expected to pay for more feature integration into the platform.
Affiliatly Affiliate Marketing
Affiliaty is a full-featured Shopify affiliate app that enables easy setup of an affiliate program. Manage and track your affiliate network, while managing each affiliate’s individual account. Create artwork to help affiliates promote your products, and some other features include discount code tracking, per visitor rewards, recurring commissions, two-tier affiliate levels, and gift card payouts. Pricing, functionality and support are ideal for small start-up stores.
- 90 free trial available.
- Fast and responsive customer support.
- Dedicated admin dashboard to allow control over your affiliate program.
- Multiple affiliate tracking methods including, email, links, coupons and QR codes.
- Integration with Paypal, making bulk payments faster/easier.
- Adjustable tiered rewards.
- Store gift cards to use in your shop.
- No free package available. (only 90 day free trial)
- No visibility of which banners are most effective in driving affiliate traffic and inability to host contests.
LeadDyno Affiliate Marketing
Puts you in front of LeadDyno’s exclusive affiliate and influencer network. Once affiliates sign up, you can automate emails, management and rewarding them. Mobile app helps you manage affiliates on-the-go. Live chat support if you have any problems and other key features include discount code tracking, recurring commissions, affiliate-specific commissions, automatic Shopify refund sync, two-tier affiliates levels, multiple stores, etc.
- 30 day free trial available.
- Flexibility to auto approve or manually approve affiliate applications.
- Customize automated emails.
- Custom Newsletters for your affiliates.
- Export affiliate commission totals for reference in tax reporting.
- Set up to 10 levels of rewards for affiliates that recruit other affiliates to promote your program.
- No free package available.
- Potential for more integration with other software and you may need assistance finding your way around the dashboard.
- Product-specific commission rules and more payment options would be another plus.
Refersion: Affiliate Marketing
Allows you to track referral orders with referral links, coupons, emails, or SKUs from a central dashboard. They also offer different commission rates for individual affiliates or products plus being able to segment affiliates and influencers by offers. Excellent branding options for influencers and affiliates, with customizable registration pages. Provides a free listing on the Refersion affiliate marketplace. Ideal solution for medium-sized and high-ticket stores.
- 14 day free trial available.
- Manage unlimited affiliates, campaigns, clicks and brand partnerships.
- All-in-one platform to support your brand ambassadors, micro to large influencers and publishers.
- Create custom campaigns, automate product feed data, and track key performance metrics.
- Easily onboard or import your ambassadors, influencers and affiliates.
- Tiered commission structures, flat-fee or bonus rewards for enterprise plans.
- SKU level tracking for royalty commissions, coupon tracking for Instagram and customer emails for lifetime commissions.
- Customize commission rates based on product/SKUs, new vs. returning customers and subscriptions.
- No free package available.
- May be a little advanced for beginners and start-ups, who may find difficulties with setup and configuration – compared with other solutions listed.
UpPromote Affiliate & Referral
A trusted partner for cutting-edge digital marketing solutions. UpPromote specializes in tailoring strategies for businesses of all sizes, whether you’re an e-commerce entrepreneur, a startup, or an established corporation. From SEO and PPC advertising to social media management and content marketing, they offer a comprehensive suite of services to help you thrive in the digital era.
- 14 day free trial.
- Customer referral: This feature allows merchants to automatically generate a pop-up widget on Shopify websites so that customers can easily refer products in the matter of seconds.
- UpPromote Marketplace: Expand the network of potential ambassadors/influencers/publishers in UpPromote Marketplace.
- Auto-generate referral affiliate links and coupons.
- Reliable tracking process: Track every click, order from partners with various tracking methods.
- Powerful management: Customize everything to match your brand and take full control of how affiliates refer to your business.
- Having pricing tiers for the numbers of orders received through affiliates.
Set up your referral program with Shopify affiliate apps…
If you’re not running your own in-house referral or affiliate program, you’re leaving money on the table.
All the tools are there to help you. And you can even try them for free.
No excuses. Setting up your Shopify loyalty, referral or affiliate program should be a priority…
Hi, I’m Giles Thomas.Founder of AcquireConvert, the place where ecommerce entrepreneurs & marketers go to learn growth. I’m also the founder of Shopify agency Whole Design Studios.