The Keratin Store review for Shopify Collabs

Sept. 11, 2024

I’ve been using Shopify Collabs with the expectation of partnering with genuine creators to help promote my store and drive sales. Unfortunately, my experience has been far from ideal. First, I received no email updates or notifications regarding commissions paid or orders generated through referrals. This lack of communication meant that I was completely unaware of how and where these commissions were coming from. By the time I realized what was happening, I had already paid out $648.25 in commissions for orders I never approved and from "creators" that were coupon farming code websites. It wasn’t immediately clear that these so-called "Creators" were actually discount-farming websites, not influencers promoting my products in good faith. This wasn’t something I could notice easily—I had to spend considerable time investigating the issue deeply on my own to uncover the fact that coupon code sites were essentially hijacking the affiliate program and benefiting from commissions. This experience has been extremely frustrating, as the Shopify Collabs program was intended to connect merchants with legitimate influencers. Instead, it’s being taken advantage of by bad actors looking to exploit the system. While I appreciate Shopify’s willingness to provide preventive measures for the future, this doesn’t address the financial losses already incurred due to this oversight. If Shopify had better systems in place to vet creators or provide clear notifications about referral activities, I could have avoided this situation entirely. Shopify is taking no responsibility for protecting merchants from these issues and is unwilling to refund any of the fraudulent commissions that were paid.