How to Link Shopify to ShareASale
ShareASale is one of the world’s most popular affiliate marketing networks. In a world of many online marketing channels to choose from, so it can be tempting (yet expensive) to list your products on every channel!
However, you should know that there are many different kinds of marketplaces and marketing channels to use that function in totally different ways. The key to eCommerce success is to choose a channel that will work well for your online business.
Since there are many global platforms to choose from, have you heard of a platform called ShareASale?
We’re going to discuss everything about this platform that you may need to know. We’ll cover:
- What is ShareASale?
- How much ShareASale costs
- The pro’s and con’s to using ShareASale
- Supported countries and features
- Integrating ShareASale with Shopify using ShoppingFeeder
What is ShareASale?
The ShareASale affiliate network has been around for almost 20 years. It was one of the first affiliate networks to come into existence and currently has over 4500 partners.
An affiliate network is a group of associated companies that offer complementary products or services and often share leads. You can think of ShareASale as a website that lists products from companies willing to pay commissions to individuals for sales earned through referrals.
In short, having a ShareASale feed allows online business owners to create their affiliate marketing network. This network links individuals and businesses to drive sales for the company and a subsequent commission for the individual.
Your ShareASale account will list all of the available products from affiliate partners in one convenient location.
There are many different affiliate programs to choose from, but ShareASale is particularly popular; and for a good reason. We’re going to look at why the ShareASale network is the program of choice for many online stores.
How much does ShareASale Cost?
Before you can start using a ShareASale store on Shopify or another platform, you should know how much it costs.
As a merchant of an online store, you’ll need to pay a $550 once-off network access fee, as well as a minimum deposit of $100. Added to this is a 20% additional network fee. For example, out of each $10 that you earn, $2 of this will go to ShareASale.
As a whole initiation package, the cost of ShareASale is $650 to start with for new online store owners.
Why should I use ShareASale?
We know that $650 is quite a pretty penny to pay for a service you don’t know much about. Here are some reasons you should consider using Share ASale:
- Ease of use: Other affiliate networks can be tricky to use. In this category, ShareASale is one of the most straightforward affiliate networks on the market. It is also extremely active with new products and offers updated regularly.
- Convenience: You don’t need to spend time searching for affiliate programs or products as ShareASale easily lists them all.
- Simple signup: The signup process is straightforward with ShareA Sale, letting you go live quickly.
- Many different ad types: You can find various kinds of ads on the ShareASale network. These ad types include widgets, banners, pop-ups and text. A ShareASale feed works particularly well for visual ads. Publishers can also choose from a massive catalogue of products, and there are over 1000 exclusive partners within the network.
- Get paid on time: As an online seller, you will benefit from stress-free payments. As a publisher, you need to have made sales amounting to $50 or more to get paid monthly. One of the most popular payment options is a direct deposit right into your bank account. Take note that publishers get paid on the 20th of every month.
Considerations when using ShareA Sale
While the benefits of using a ShareASale feed are undoubtedly great, there are some other elements to consider before signing up:
- The cost of using the service is high, as it requires a lot of cash up-front. You may also need to pay $5 for a background check, which will be refunded later.
- If your account grosses less than $50 per month, you will need to pay a $25 monthly fee. If your account balance falls below $25, ShareASale could even delete your account after some time. It would help if you made sales a priority – however, earning more than $25 is extremely likely.
- There is limited network support when creating your ads. ShareASale gives you ad creation tools, but it’s ultimately up to you to create the perfect ad.
- Merchants have been complaining about sub-par customer support that directs to help articles without solving actual issues.
- An outdated user interface, making it hard to filter through data sets.
ShareASale Features
Some unique features that set ShareASale feeds apart from other affiliate marketing platforms include:
- Recruitment tool to send invitations to affiliates based on product fit, relevance and more
- Influencer marketing activation, letting you easily integrate and track your influencer campaigns
- Create custom short or affiliate links for deep linking or to direct users to a product page
- Browser bookmarklet tool to easily create an affiliate link
- Brand protection to enforce your affiliate network terms
Supported Countries
You can create a ShareASale CSV to start selling in over 110 countries worldwide. If your country isn’t part of their ShareASale featured countries list, you can still apply on a case-by-case basis.
ShareASale Integration
Using ShoppingFeeder, you can easily integrate ShareASale to your Shopify store?
Did you know that you can easily create a ShoppingFeeder ShareASale feed for Shopify or WooCommerce?
ShareASale also supports Magento and OpenCart, which are both supported by ShoppingFeeder’s product management system.
Once you’ve registered for a ShareASale account, simply sign up for a ShoppingFeeder account and follow our easy setup wizard to go live on ShareASale in no time.
At ShoppingFeeder, we’ve noticed that ShareASale merchants can increase their revenue by 30% over a six-month period just by using ShareASale.
An analysis of our data shows that the most popular categories for success using affiliate marketing include clothing and shoes, TVs and gadgets, electronics and many more.
Conclusion
ShareASale is a well-known affiliate marketing network that could be right for your eCommerce store. However, there are many elements to consider before shelling out $650 to use the service – including assessing how serious you are about your business!
ShareASale could become a great Shopify affiliate network, as is well on its way to being one of the most popular affiliate networks in the USA and beyond.