How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Affiliate Software for Your Shopify Store

Affiliate marketing accounts for 16% of all online sales globally? It’s one of the most profitable and cost-efficient ways for ecommerce businesses to acquire new customers. With affiliate marketing, you control the commission and discount rates, so you’re not at the mercy of fluctuating algorithms. Plus, when past customers promote your products, their endorsements act as authentic testimonials, boosting your conversions. 

But, managing affiliates comes with many moving parts, and it can get complicated fast.

So, how do you scale an affiliate program without facing a logistical nightmare?

In this article, we’ll break down what affiliate marketing software is and how to choose the perfect solution for your business.

What is ecommerce affiliate software?

An ecommerce affiliate software is a tool that helps Shopify app owners set up and manage their affiliate programs. It creates workflows to help you onboard new affiliates, track referrals, automate communication, manage commissions, and analyze performance. 

An ecommerce affiliate marketing tool allows brands to set up and scale their affiliate marketing efforts. It helps streamline everything from onboarding and managing new affiliates to tracking performance.

Why do businesses need affiliate software?

Without affiliate software helping you manage your affiliates and payouts, you run the risk of spending countless hours manually onboarding affiliates and calculating their payouts (hello, spreadsheets). Plus, you risk making very expensive mistakes. 

Here are four reasons these tools are a must-have for your ecommerce store:

• Affiliate software eliminates manual processes by automating repetitive tasks like affiliate onboarding, communication, and tracking. 
• These platforms make scaling and reaching new audiences easier with streamlined workflow and automation. No matter how many affiliates join your program, they get timely activation messages, support, updates, and reminders. 
• If you choose the right tool, it will also help you manage bulk payments and attribute sales to the right affiliate, making sure that affiliates get their rightfully earned commission on time. 
• Detailed analytics on affiliate platforms let you see who are your top affiliates, which of your products, or campaigns are driving the most conversions. This helps optimize your program, invest in high-performing affiliates, and grow ROI. 

7 Key features to look for in affiliate software 

As an affiliate marketer, if you want to reap the benefits that affiliate software offers, you need to choose the right one for your business. Here are the most important features you should consider while choosing your affiliate software:

1. Customizable commission structures

Your chosen affiliate tool must allow you to offer flexible commissions. For instance, you might want to give high commissions to your top-performing affiliates and comparatively low commissions to the ones who are just being added to your program.

So, the affiliate marketing platform you choose should allow you to create different programs or tiers based on your affiliate's performance.

You can also create incentive tiers with high-value rewards at higher levels. This creates a gamification effect, keeping affiliates motivated to unlock higher tiers with more promotions. 

A flexible commission structure will also allow you to set higher commission rates for specific products and product categories that have higher profit margins. This will encourage your affiliate network to focus on promoting high-value items, driving more affiliate sales.

For instance, with Social Snowball, you can create multiple tiers for a program and customize the commission structure in each. 

2. Real-time affiliate tracking and reporting

To run successful affiliate campaigns for your ecommerce brand, you need to stay updated with the qualitative and quantitative metrics of your affiliate marketing program. This helps you identify gaps and address them to generate more revenue. 

That’s why your affiliate tool must offer real-time analytics and reporting features to track affiliate sales, and other necessary KPIs, and offer actionable insights. 

For example, Social Snowball has an advanced analytics and reporting dashboard where all affiliate KPIs, such as: total revenue generated, number of orders, your Average Order Value, and more, are updated instantly. 

On the dashboard, you can also filter the metrics based on dates, and programs to view the precise data sets you need. If you want to see which of your affiliates are performing the best, you simply need to go to your dashboard and you’ll be able to see who are your top three affiliates. 

3. Automated payouts

Strategy is important to launch an ecommerce affiliate program, but timely payments are crucial to running the program. Delays in affiliate payments will demotivate your participants and impact ROI. However, tracking sales and processing payments manually can easily be considered a boring and risky task. There can be discrepancies when calculating the number of successful sales they have gotten for your brand.

Therefore, you need to simplify the payments by investing in a tool that lets you automate the entire payout process. This can streamline the payment process by sending the right commissions to the right affiliates with the click of a button. No tracking sales on spreadsheets and calculating commission per affiliate. 

This builds trust, nurtures your relationships with your brand advocates, and motivates them to improve.

Plus, bulk payment processing reduces the time and effort required to manage affiliate commissions manually. This will allow you to focus more on strategy and growth rather than administrative tasks.

For example, Social Snowball integrates with Tremendous and supports bulk payment without any hassle. 

Another plus point is Social Snowball also supports various payment methods so that you can cater to individual preferences and improve the overall experience.

See how Social Snowball automates your payouts seamlessly.

4. Seamless integrations

You don’t want to jump between tools while handling your affiliate program. It defeats the whole point of convenient affiliate management. So, look for a tool that offers extensive integrations with your exciting system.

Integrating your affiliate tool with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, CRM systems, and marketing tech stack makes the data flow smoothly between systems. This eliminates manual data entry and reduces the risk of making errors. Therefore, your affiliate tool should sync with your email marketing solutions such as Klaviyo, Sendlane, and other communication platforms so that you can send program updates, reminders, performance insights, and marketing materials on a regular basis on time. 

Social Snowball offers integrations with all popular tools to create an easily manageable ecommerce affiliate ecosystem. You can connect these tools and keep track of all your data in one place.

5. Affiliate recruitment and onboarding tools

Another must-have feature in affiliate software is recruitment and onboarding. It simplifies the application process, increasing the likelihood of affiliates signing up. They allow you to create on-brand affiliate registration forms and embed them on your page. You can gather necessary information from the start, like audience demographics or promotional channels.

Some tools also offer automated onboarding. For example, with Social Snowball, you can turn all your customers into affiliates immediately. The moment a customer buys something from your online store, Social Snowball creates their affiliate account automatically. All you need to do is switch the toggle button on.

Here’s what Ashvin Melwani, CMO of Obvi, a wellness brand, had to say about our “turn customers into affiliates” feature:

Bonus tip ⛄️: Just onboarding your affiliates isn’t enough. You must be able to activate them as well. With Social Snowball, you can set up email flows to engage with affiliates regularly. Want to send your creators a product to get them started? You can do it directly from your affiliate dashboard on Social Snowball. 

6. Social listening and UGC tracking

User-generated content or affiliate content is one of the best social proofs for ecommerce brands. Showcasing them on your online store or social profiles will boost your credibility. However, tracking the content your affiliates are posting every day will be time-consuming. 

So, your affiliate tool should be able to connect with social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok Shop to identify and download UGCs. 

For example, you can connect Social Snowball with your Instagram and TikTok Shop and save content that mentions your brand easily in your media library. 

Later, you can repurpose them by sharing them on your social handles, running ads with the best-performing ones, or showcasing them on your product page as shoppable videos to increase conversion.

7. Affiliate fraud protection

One of the top challenges in affiliate marketing is fraudulent code usage, which can drain your bottom line extensively. 

To counter this problem, you need to sign up for an affiliate software with fraud protection. Make sure it tracks affiliate link usage and flags suspicious activities. It should also generate unique referral links that affiliates can use only once.

For instance, Tumble, a brand selling home goods, faced code leak issues and was losing money. They started using Social Snowball to safeguard their program and streamline their process. To their surprise, stopping code leaks helped them generate $684,000 in incremental revenue within the first five months of using our platform. 

Here’s what Andrew Jeter, Director of Growth, had to say about our “Safelink” feature:

Safelinks is a one-of-a-kind solution that eliminates affiliate code leaks and coupon abuse by generating discount codes and links that work the same way as any other link. However, these are single-use only and, hence, cannot be leaked. Plus:

• Browser extensions won’t allow used codes.
• Safelinks won’t generate a code if the referring URL is a coupon site.  

Here’s how Safelinks looks:

Ready to enhance your affiliate program? Book a demo with Social Snowball. 

How to choose the right ecommerce affiliate software

Now that you know what your ideal affiliate software should look like, here are some steps to choose one: 

Step #1: Evaluate your budget and ROI potential

Use historical data and industry benchmarks to estimate how much revenue you expect to generate from your affiliate program. Consider the commission structure you plan to offer and how much you expect affiliates to drive in terms of sales or conversions. Then, decide on a budget and look for software that fits it.

Step #2: Prioritize features based on your needs

Determine what you want to achieve with your affiliate program. Is it affiliate fraud protection, more automation, seamless onboarding, or a customizable commission structure? Make a checklist of the features required to achieve these goals and compare them with the software’s offerings. 

Bonus tip☃️: Most of the features we mentioned above are important to run a successful program, and while you might not need them right now, you will need them as you scale. Therefore, it's always good to consider future possibilities and opt for a tool that is scalable as you go.

For instance, Social Snowball can help you with all the necessary features and more to make sure you leave no revenue on the table!

Step #3: Check reviews and customer support

Check what support channels the software provider offers. See if they offer instant chat and call support. That way, you will get assistance quickly when needed. Check out reviews on sites like G2, Trustradius, and Shopify. Examine what they say about customer support experiences. 

For example, reviews on Shopify highlight Social Snowball’s “reliable performance and responsive customer support.”

You should also look into whether the platform offers resources like help articles, webinars, and demo videos to help you navigate the tool easily. 

Conclusion

With so many available options, finding the right affiliate tool can be tricky. Use this blog as a reference to choose your must-have features, get clarity on how much you can invest in it, and check user experience.

Or you could just skip the chase and give Social Snowball a try. From automated affiliate accounts to fraud prevention, we will help you create a successful affiliate program in just a few minutes. On top of that, our customer success team is always readily available to guide you through the process. 

Book a demo today and launch a successful campaign with a scalable and budget-friendly affiliate management solution for your ecommerce business.  

Frequently asked questions 

How much does affiliate software cost?

Affiliate software costs vary depending on the tool and packages you choose. 

For example, Social Snowball offers two subscription plans. The Snow Day plan, ideal for brands starting with affiliates and referrals, costs $199/month with 3% of your affiliate-generated revenue. 

Our Blizzard package is a custom plan for ecommerce companies looking to scale their affiliate program.

How can affiliate software help prevent fraud?

Affiliate software prevents fraud by tracking referral activity in detail, analyzing code usage patterns, and using automated safeguards. They monitor IP addresses to identify unusual and repeated activity from the same source and flag them as suspicious. Affiliate tools also generate single-use referral links and unique tracking links. 

For example, Social Snowball offers Safelinks, which generate single-use discount codes.  

Is affiliate software easy to set up and use?

An efficient affiliate software is quite easy to set up. You should be able to create the basic workflows and launch your affiliate campaigns within a few minutes. Some platforms even offer guides and modules to help users navigate features. For example, Social Snowball has a dedicated help center with helpful step-by-step resources to make setup easy for customers.