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Integration

Shopify MLM Software

You do not need to leave Shopify to run a compensation plan. The store keeps the catalogue, checkout, tax and fulfilment; the commission engine takes over the things Shopify has no concept of — distributors, placement trees, volume and payouts.

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What you get

Outcomes operators report after moving onto the platform.

  • Real-time order posting

    Orders post to the commission engine on completion via webhook, with a reconciliation sweep every fifteen minutes to catch dropped deliveries.

  • Replicated links, one storefront

    Each distributor gets a parameterised link that sets attribution for the session and persists through checkout — one catalogue, one inventory pool.

  • Volume per variant

    Commissionable volume is set per product variant, so a bundle, a starter kit and a sample can each carry the volume you intend rather than a percentage of price.

  • Refunds sync back

    A refund in Shopify reverses the linked volume and unwinds the bonuses that volume supported, as adjustment lines against the original period.

How responsibility splits

Your storefront keeps what it is good at. We take over what it was never built to do.

Shopify keeps

  • Product catalogue, variants, pricing and promotions
  • Cart, checkout and payment capture for retail orders
  • Sales tax calculation and collection at checkout
  • Inventory, fulfilment and shipping
  • Order status and transactional email
  • Your theme and the entire customer-facing experience

We take over

  • Distributor enrolment, agreements and KYC
  • Sponsor and placement trees with real-time genealogy
  • Order-to-distributor attribution through replicated links and codes
  • Volume classification, including retail customer versus distributor purchase
  • Plan rules, qualification, ranks and the commission run
  • Wallet ledger, payout batching and commission statements

How the integration is installed

Installation is a private app with scoped access tokens and a set of webhook subscriptions. No theme code is required for attribution to work, because attribution is carried in the link parameter and written to a cart attribute.

Three things get configured:

  1. Volume per variant. Every product variant that should generate commission gets a commissionable volume and, if it differs, a qualifying volume. Variants with no volume — shipping upgrades, gift cards, sample packs — are set to zero explicitly rather than left undefined.
  2. Attribution priority. Which signal wins when more than one is present. An authenticated distributor’s own order beats everything; after that the order is your commercial decision, most often assigned-customer before replicated-link before discount code.
  3. Webhook endpoints and the reconciliation window. Order create, paid, fulfilled, refunded and cancelled, plus how far back the fifteen-minute sweep compares totals.

What the distributor experience looks like

A distributor logs into the back office — not Shopify’s admin — and gets their replicated link, their genealogy, their volume against rank thresholds, their commission statements and their wallet. When they share their link, the visitor lands on your normal Shopify storefront with attribution set for the session.

If the distributor places their own order, they do it through the same storefront while authenticated, and the order is classified as a distributor purchase rather than a retail sale. That classification is the whole reason this integration exists rather than a simple affiliate app: US direct selling companies need to evidence genuine retail sales to end consumers, and an affiliate tool cannot tell the difference between a customer and a participant buying for themselves.

Where Shopify’s limits actually are

Two are worth planning around.

Checkout customisation below Shopify Plus. Adding fields or logic to the checkout step itself requires checkout extensibility, which is a Plus feature. Attribution does not need it. Prescribed disclosures that must appear inside checkout — relevant for South African Consumer Protection Act compliance — may.

Tax on commission is not Shopify’s job. Shopify calculates tax on the sale. Tax on distributor commission — 1099 reporting in the US, VAT on commission invoices in South Africa — happens on our side, because Shopify has no concept of a commission payment. See the South Africa page for how the VAT side is handled.

For everything beyond Shopify, the integration overview covers the REST API, webhooks and the connectors for other storefronts.

At a glance

Shopify plans supportedBasic and above; Shopify Plus for checkout extensibility and B2B catalogues
InstallationPrivate app with scoped access tokens; no theme code changes required for attribution
Attribution signalsReplicated link or subdomain, discount code, cart attribute, customer-to-distributor assignment, authenticated distributor order
Order syncWebhook on order create, paid, fulfilled, refunded and cancelled, plus a fifteen-minute reconciliation sweep
Volume mappingPer product variant, as a fixed value or a percentage of line total, with separate commissionable and qualifying volume
SubscriptionsSupported via Shopify subscription apps; recurring orders post volume on each successful billing cycle
What is not syncedCustomer payment instruments and Shopify's own analytics — neither leaves Shopify
FAQ

Questions operators ask before they switch

Straight answers on plan mechanics, migration risk and compliance. If yours is not here, ask us directly.

Does this require distributors to have separate Shopify stores?

No, and we would advise against it. Attribution travels on a parameterised link into your single storefront, persisted for the session and through checkout, so there is one catalogue, one inventory pool and one theme to maintain. Duplicating stores per distributor is technically possible and becomes unmanageable somewhere around fifty distributors — inventory drift, price drift, and a theme update you now have to apply fifty times.

How is commissionable volume set if products have different margins?

Per variant, not per order total. Each variant carries its own commissionable volume as either a fixed value or a percentage of the line total, and qualifying volume can be set separately from commissionable volume. That separation is what lets a starter kit qualify a distributor for a rank without paying commission on the kit, which is a common and sensible design.

What happens if a customer checks out without any attribution?

The order is recorded as unattributed and appears in a queue for review, rather than being silently assigned or silently dropped. You can assign it manually, route it to a house account, or leave it unattributed. Configure a default house account if you would rather not manage the queue, but be aware that a house account absorbing attribution errors also hides them.

Do we lose Shopify's checkout conversion optimisation?

No. Attribution is carried in a cart attribute and the distributor's link parameter, so Shopify's native checkout runs unmodified — including Shop Pay, express payments and its own optimisations. Nothing is injected into the checkout flow. This is the main reason we integrate rather than replace: Shopify checkout converts better than anything we would build, and there is no reason to compete with it.

Ready to Transform Your Direct Selling Business?

Send us your plan rules and we will run a live commission cycle against them, on your numbers, before you commit to anything.

  • Configured in a sandbox before the call, usually within two business days
  • No slide deck and no card — you watch your own plan pay out
  • Your plan document stays confidential and is deleted on request

Prefer a longer conversation? Open the full enquiry form

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Prefer email? Write to us at sales@mlmsoftwarepro.com