
Are you a web developer or savvy affiliate marketer? If so, then you should look into Shopify’s Partner Program. As a partner, you can earn money through referrals, creating themes/apps, and more.
Yet, you may be wary about signing up if you aren’t familiar with how the program works. After all, how much do Shopify partners make?
If you create apps or themes, you will enjoy 100% of the total revenue until you make your first one million dollars. After one million dollars you make 85% of the revenue. That includes money from one-time sales and subscription fees. For affiliates, the average earning from a referral is $58 for each user that signs up As you can see, there’s some real potential to make a living through the program.
So if you want to learn more about how much you can earn as a Shopify Partner, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to learn how you can make money as an affiliate, expert, or developer.
Understanding Shopify’s Partner Program
Shopify has an extensive Partner Program that provides ample opportunities to make money. You can earn income by referring others to Shopify, creating apps, and so much more. When signing up as a partner, you can choose from the following roles:
- Shopify expert
- Affiliate marketer
- App developer
- Theme designer
- Photographer
- Influencer
For everything that you do for Shopify, you’ll earn a recurring monthly income. For this reason, many professionals earn their entire living through the program. That’s especially true for app developers and Shopify experts. Yet, you can make a substantial living through any role as a Shopify partner.
Another benefit is that the Shopify Partner Program is 100% free to join. That means anyone has the chance to try to make money through the platform.
You can experiment with test stores as a beginner to get a feel for how Shopify works. From there, you can determine whether you want to design themes, create apps, or market for Shopify.
Not only that, but you’ll gain early access to new features and marketing tools. That way, you can learn how to leverage new features and tools for your business before they go public.
Lastly, you’ll become part of a community of other Shopify Partners from around the world. You can communicate and collaborate with your fellow Shopify Partners. If you want to find success, then it’s imperative to learn from the best.
How Does the Program Work?

There are a total of three ways to earn income through the Shopify Partner Program. They are:
- Referring others to Shopify as an affiliate marketer
- Creating themes for e-commerce stores and selling them on the Shopify Theme Store
- Creating merchant apps and selling them through the Shopify App Store
As soon as you become a Partner, you’ll gain access to some free perks. These include:
- Free training courses
- Documentation
- Helpful resources to learn how to grow your Shopify business
In particular, the free training courses can be a big help for beginners. If you’re new to Shopify, then you’ll need to pay close attention to these. They will teach you everything you need to know about creating for the platform.
Other essential perks you’ll enjoy:
- Product roadmap
- Priority Partner support
- Discounts on software, services, testing, and more
If your business meets the advanced requirements set up by Shopify, you can become a Shopify Plus Partner. To become this level of Partner, you’ll need a high-performing business that earns lots of revenue.
In general, Shopify Plus Partners tend to be marketing and design agencies. These are larger organizations that tend to have a nationwide or global presence. If you run an enterprise-level e-commerce business, you can consider becoming a Shopify Plus Partner.
How Much Do Shopify Partners Make On Average?
Okay, so now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what Shopify Partners earn. Of course, these are general statistics meant to give an overview. Your earnings will vary based on your marketing tactics, product quality, and more.
Let’s take a look at a generalized breakdown of the potential earnings for each type of Partner:
- Affiliate marketing. As an affiliate, your commission will equal the merchant’s subscription fee for two months. In other words, if a merchant has a subscription fee of $50, you’ll earn $100 for the two months. Bear in mind; this statistic is without any discounts or credits. Affiliates make an average of $58 for each merchant that signs up for a paid plan.
- Designing Shopify apps and themes. As a developer, you’ll earn 100% of the total revenue that your app makes until you hit your first one million dollars. After one million dollars you will make 85% of the revenue. That includes income from one-time sales, subscription fees, and upgrades.
- Shopify expert. If you want to lend your expertise to others on Shopify, what you can make is pretty open-ended. Shopify Expert salaries tend to range between $56,000 and $120,000. How much you earn will depend on your level of expertise and the services you can provide.
As you can see, each type of Partner can earn a decent living through the program. Also, you don’t have to stick with only one method for earning money. You could design apps while making referrals on the side as an affiliate. How much you earn through the program will depend entirely on your work ethic, skills, and business model.
Shopify Theme development with Coding Phase
If you are interested in a great course to learn liquid try out Shopify Theme Development by CodingPhase. Codingphase by Joe Santos teaches you all about the liquid programming language as you code alongside him to create a theme. I highly recommend this course as it’s easy to follow and has tons of useful information. We recommend subscribing to the diamond plan so you can have access to both the Shopify theme development courses and Shopify app development courses, while also getting access to a huge collection of programming courses you can take. You can also buy courses individually but you will end up spending more money than if you bought the diamond plan and got access to all of the Codingphase courses. If you want to get access to the Shopify theme development course and a huge collection of courses check out Codingphase at this link.
How Much Do Shopify Partners Make? ( quick video )
Concluding Thoughts
How much do Shopify Partners make? They can earn anywhere from $56,000 to over $100,000 if they’re successful at what they do. With Shopify, you can make money in a myriad of different ways.
If you’re a web developer, you can design merchant apps. If you’re a graphic designer, you can create dazzling Shopify themes.
If marketing is more your thing, then referrals will be how you earn your money. Whatever method you choose, the Shopify Partner Program is a fantastic way to earn a living from home. With the right skills and business model, the sky is the limit on what you can make. If you’re interested in becoming a Shopify partner visit Shopify’s Partner page here. If you want to see our article called what is the Shopify partner program visit this link.
To get more Shopify developer tips see our developer posts here.