How I vet a Shopify affiliate program in 4 minutes

How I vet a Shopify affiliate program in 4 minutes

Skipped this once and ate a 60-day hold. Never again.

Run this before you make a single creative:

— Cookie window: under 14 days? Pass unless AOV is huge
— Payout terms: net-30 minimum, ask if they hold on refunds
— Refund rate: ask point-blank "what's your return %?" DTC apparel hides 25-40% here
— Deep linking: can you link to product, not just homepage? Dealbreaker
— Coupon policy: are you allowed to run their code? Some claw it back

Mostly I kill 6 of 10 programs on the refund question alone.

Vet your next 3 offers tonight. Drop the ones that flinch on returns.