Overview
The Growi Shopify app connects your store to Growi. Once installed, Growi can read your orders and products, create affiliate links and discount codes for creators and ambassadors, attribute sales back to the creator who drove them, and run free-sample and gifting orders through your store. Installing it is a one-time setup that takes about ten minutes.
This guide covers three things: installing the app from Growi, finishing setup for your storefront type (a standard Shopify theme or a headless storefront), and confirming everything is tracking correctly before you launch.
Note: Start the install from inside Growi, not from the Shopify App Store directly. Starting from Growi is what links the store to the right brand account. If you install from the App Store first, the store may end up attached to a new, empty Growi account. |
Before you start
Shopify access. You need to be the store owner or a staff member with permission to install apps. If you do not have this, skip to If you do not have access to the Shopify admin below.
A Growi brand account with Shopify enabled. If Stores > Shopify in Growi shows "Shopify access required", contact us via live chat and we will turn it on.
Agencies: install the app on each brand's Growi account, not on your agency (parent) account. The Shopify tile only appears on brand accounts.
Step 1: Start the install from Growi
In Growi, open Settings in the left sidebar and click Integrations.
Find the Shopify tile. It shows Not installed until a store is connected.
Click Install now. Growi opens the Growi: Creator Management listing on the Shopify App Store in the same tab.
The same button is available from Stores > Shopify, where it is labeled Connect Shopify. Both do the same thing.
Step 2: Install the app in Shopify
On the App Store listing, click Install. If you manage more than one store, Shopify asks which store to install on. Pick the store you want connected to this Growi brand.
Review the permissions. Growi asks for access to orders, customers, products, discounts, draft orders, fulfillments, shipping rates, and web pixels. These are what let Growi attribute sales, create creator discount codes, and ship sample and gift orders through your store.
Click Install.
Shopify sends you back to Growi and signs you in. Open Settings > Integrations again: the Shopify tile now shows Connected and the button reads Reconnect.
Tip: If you sat on the Shopify permissions screen for a long time before clicking Install, the connection may time out. Just click Install now in Growi again and approve it a second time. |
If you do not have access to the Shopify admin
Agencies and marketing teams often do not have a Shopify login for the brand. In that case, have the store owner install it for you:
Go to Stores > Shopify in Growi and click Copy link.
Enter the store's website URL (for example,
https://your-store.com) and click Save URL.Click Copy link and send the link to the store owner.
The store owner opens the link, clicks Install, and approves the permissions. They will see a short success page when it is done.
Reload Stores > Shopify in Growi. The store is now connected to your brand account.
Step 3: Finish setup for your storefront
Installing the app gives Growi access to your Shopify data. To attribute sales to creators, your storefront also needs to load Growi's tracking. How you do that depends on your storefront.
Your store | What to do |
A standard Shopify Online Store theme (Dawn, Sense, Impulse, Prestige, or any theme you edit in the theme editor) | Option A: turn on the Growi app embed in the theme editor. No code. |
A headless or custom storefront (Shopify Hydrogen, Next.js, Remix, or any front end that is not a Shopify theme) | Option B: add two script tags to your storefront's root layout. |
Not sure which you have? If Online Store > Themes > Customize in your Shopify admin shows your live site, you are on a standard theme. Use Option A.
Option A: Standard Shopify theme
In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes and click Customize on your live theme.
In the theme editor's left sidebar, click the App embeds icon.
Find Growi Affiliate Tracking and toggle it on.
Click Save in the top right.
Important: Enable the app embed on the theme that is actually published. If you enable it on a draft or duplicate theme, Growi will not detect it and sales will not be attributed until that theme goes live. |
Option B: Headless or custom storefront
Hand this to your developer. Add both scripts to the <head> of the root layout that every page shares:
<script src="https://shopify.growi.io/embed.js" defer="defer"></script>
<script src="https://shopify.growi.io/cookie-utils.js" defer="defer"></script>
They must load on every page, not just the home page, so that a visitor who arrives through a creator's link is still attributed when they check out later. Full developer notes, including how to embed the ambassador signup form, are in the Shopify Headless Integration docs.
Note: Growi verifies tracking by loading your store's public URL and looking for these scripts. If your headless storefront is served from a different domain than the one Growi has on file, tell us via live chat so we can point the check at the right site. |
Step 4: Verify the install
Run through these four checks before you invite creators or launch a campaign.
1. The Integrations tile says Connected
Go to Settings > Integrations. The Shopify tile should read Connected. If it still says Not installed, the install did not complete. Go back to Step 1.
2. There is no warning banner on Stores > Shopify
Open Stores > Shopify in Growi. When everything is set up you see your ambassador tabs with no yellow banner at the top. If you see one, here is what each means:
Banner | What it means | Fix |
"We have detected that you have not embedded the Growi app in your Shopify store." | Growi loaded your storefront and did not find its tracking script. Sales will not be attributed until it is there. | Complete Step 3. Then reload the page. Growi re-checks your storefront each time the page loads while the banner is showing, so it can take a moment after you save the theme. |
"Update Required. We've released important updates to our Shopify app." | The app is installed, but it was installed before Growi added new permissions, so some features cannot run. | Click Connect Shopify in the banner and approve the new permissions in Shopify. Nothing else changes. |
The "How this works" button in the banner opens the same App embeds screenshot shown in Step 3.
3. The script is on your live site
Open your storefront in a browser, right-click, choose View page source, and search the page for shopify.growi.io/embed.js. It should appear once. If it does not, the app embed is off, you saved it on the wrong theme, or (on headless) the script is not in the shared layout.
Tip: If your store is password-protected or not yet published, Growi's automatic check cannot reach it and the banner may stay up even though the script is there. Use this manual check instead, and the banner will clear once the store is public. |
4. A test order shows up in Growi
Create an ambassador program under Stores > Shopify > Ambassadors > Setup if you do not have one, and add yourself as an ambassador so you have an affiliate link and promo code to test with.
Open your storefront through that affiliate link, or apply the promo code at checkout, and place a small order. A 100%-off test discount or Shopify's test payment gateway both work.
Within a few minutes the order appears under Stores > Shopify > Ambassadors > Sales, attributed to you. Order events such as cancellations and price changes are listed under the Logs tab.
Cancel or refund the test order in Shopify afterward. Growi records the cancellation and removes the commission.
If the order does not appear, go back through checks 2 and 3. Nearly every missing-sale issue comes down to the tracking script not being on the page.
What the app adds to your store
Nothing visible by default. The tracking runs in the background and does not change your theme, layout, or checkout.
Optional blocks you can add. The app includes an Affiliate Signup Form block for recruiting ambassadors on your site and a Growi Creator Storefront block. Both are opt-in through the theme editor. See How to Embed Your Ambassador Signup Form on Your Shopify Store.
Discount codes. When you create ambassador programs or creator codes, Growi creates the matching discount codes in your Shopify admin. You will see them under Discounts in Shopify.
Sample and gift orders. Approved sample requests and gifts are created as orders in your store so your team fulfills them like any other order.
Troubleshooting
I installed the app but the store is connected to the wrong Growi account
This happens when the install starts from the Shopify App Store instead of from Growi. Reach out via live chat with the store's domain and the brand it should belong to, and we will move it.
The Shopify tile is not on my Integrations page
You are on an agency (parent) account. Switch to the brand's account from the account switcher at the top of Growi and try again.
The "not embedded" banner will not go away
Confirm the app embed is on for your published theme, the store is not password-protected, and the script shows in the page source. Then reload Stores > Shopify. If it still shows after that, contact us and we will re-run the check.
I uninstalled the app in Shopify by mistake
Reinstall it from Settings > Integrations > Install now. Your programs, ambassadors, and history in Growi are kept, but orders placed while the app was uninstalled cannot be attributed.
Sales are tracked but discount codes are not working
Check for the "Update Required" banner on Stores > Shopify and click Connect Shopify. Discount code creation needs permissions that older installs did not include.
FAQs
Will the app slow down my store?
No. The tracking scripts are small and load after the page has rendered, so they do not block your content.
Can I connect more than one Shopify store?
Each Growi brand account connects to one store. If you run several stores, set up a brand account per store. Agencies can manage all of them from one login.
Does this work on Shopify Plus?
Yes. The app works on every Shopify plan, and both the standard and headless setups are supported.
Do I need to redo any of this when I change themes?
Yes for Option A. App embeds are saved per theme, so when you publish a new theme, turn on Growi Affiliate Tracking in that theme's editor before it goes live. The install itself does not need to be repeated.
Have questions or want us to double-check your install? Reach out anytime via live chat and we will verify it with you.