How to Track Influencer Sales on Shopify

How do you create discount codes for influencers on Shopify?

Make one code per creator, so every order with that code is clearly theirs.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Discounts and create a new discount.

2. Choose Discount code (not an automatic discount).

3. Name it after the creator, something easy to say and spell: “MAYA15.”

4. Set the value: a percentage, a fixed amount or free shipping.

5. Set limits: one use per customer, and an end date so the code doesn’t live forever on coupon sites.

6. Save it, then send the creator the exact code to share.

Tips:

• Keep values consistent across creators so you’re comparing creators, not discounts.

• Avoid confusing characters like 0 and O, or 1 and I.

• Make a shareable discount link if you want: Shopify can create a link that applies the code automatically, which is handy for bios and Stories.

Codes are simple to make and easy to lose track of across a big campaign. INFLUENCE coordinates codes and links with every creator it books, so nothing goes out mistyped.

How do you use UTM links to track influencer sales in Shopify?

Give each creator a UTM-tagged link to your store or a landing page. Shopify reads UTM parameters and uses them in its marketing reports.

A consistent pattern:

https://yourstore.com/products/vanilla-candle?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=spring-launch&utm_content=maya

Then find the results in Analytics, under the marketing reports. Shopify includes reports such as Sales attributed to marketing and Performance by marketing campaign, and you can build custom explorations grouped by UTM campaign with ShopifyQL. (WeltPixel)

Two things to know:

• Attribution models change the numbers. Shopify can show first click, last click, last non-direct click and linear views of campaign sales. A creator who introduced a buyer may get credit under first click but not last click.

• Shopify, Google Analytics and ad platforms won’t match. Each uses its own rules. Pick one source of truth for reporting and stick with it.

Reading attribution across models takes care, especially when creators start the journey but don’t finish it. INFLUENCE’s view counts per creator give you a second, independent number to set against Shopify’s.

How do you set up Shopify Collabs for influencers?

Shopify Collabs is Shopify’s own app for working with creators on commission. It lets you recruit creators, give them affiliate links and discount codes, track their sales in Shopify and pay commissions. (Shopify Help Center)

When it’s a good fit:

• You pay creators on commission, fully or partly.

• You want sales and payouts in one place inside Shopify.

• You’d like a simple application page for creators who want to join.

When you may need more:

• Flat-fee or view-based deals, where commission tracking is only part of the story.

• Lots of untracked impact, since Collabs counts tracked sales, not lift.

How to set it up, broadly:

1. Install Collabs and connect your store.

2. Set your commission rate and which products it applies to.

3. Create an application page or invite creators directly.

4. Approve creators; each gets a unique affiliate link and code.

5. Review sales and pay commissions on a schedule.

For setting the commission and terms, see how to set up an influencer affiliate program.

Commission tracking covers one part of creator results. INFLUENCE runs the view-based side of creator campaigns, which works well alongside a Collabs affiliate program.

How do you find influencer sales in Shopify’s reports?

You’ll usually check two places:

What to pull for each creator:

• Orders and gross sales from their code and link.

• Net sales, after discounts and returns.

• Average order value, since some creators drive bigger baskets.

• New vs. returning customers, because new customers are usually the point.

• Return rate, to spot creators whose audiences expected something different.

Then combine codes and links per creator, being careful not to double-count orders that used both.

Pulling net sales, returns and new customers per creator takes a few custom reports. INFLUENCE gives you views and cost per creator to set beside them, so cost per net sale is one division away.

How do you catch influencer sales that codes and links miss?

Plenty of creator buyers never use a code or click a link. Three ways to catch them in Shopify:

1. A post-purchase survey. Put a “Where did you first hear about us?” question on your thank-you page with a survey app, with a “Which creator?” write-in.

2. Before-and-after comparison. Compare total sales and new customers during the campaign with a similar period before, with no other promotions running.

3. Branded search and direct traffic. If more people search your store name or type your URL during a campaign, creators are probably part of why.

This matters because creator influence on purchases is big. In a 2024 NCSolutions survey, nearly half of U.S. consumers (48%) said they’d purchased something they first saw in creator or influencer content. (HomePage News) Your codes won’t catch all of them.

Untracked sales are where creator campaigns often prove their worth. INFLUENCE reports delivered views for each creator, which helps explain lifts like these when they show up.

How do you put a Shopify influencer report together?

A simple weekly routine:

1. Export sales by discount code for the campaign dates.

2. Export marketing-report sales by UTM content (creator).

3. Combine by creator, removing double-counted orders.

4. Add net sales, returns and new-customer counts.

5. Add survey mentions by creator.

6. Add cost and delivered views per creator.

7. Calculate cost per net sale and cost per new customer for each creator.

For running DTC creator campaigns end to end, see how INFLUENCE works for DTC brands.

A weekly routine beats a big end-of-month scramble. INFLUENCE’s per-creator delivered views slot straight into it, so the only thing left to add is your Shopify data.

Tracking influencer sales on Shopify takes unique codes per creator, UTM links read in the marketing reports, Shopify Collabs if you pay commission, and a post-purchase survey plus before-and-after checks for the buyers who skip all of that. Report net sales and new customers by creator, and be clear about which attribution model you’re using. That’s the Shopify setup INFLUENCE recommends to DTC brands it runs creators for.

One code, one link, one survey question per creator, then look at net sales.