# How to Start Influencer Marketing on Shopify

Source: https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-start-influencer-marketing-on-shopify
Published: 2026-10-17

How to start influencer marketing on Shopify: a first-30-days plan to find 20 creators, gift 10, ship from your admin and see who posts, with no platform.

Start with product gifting, not paid deals: find about 20 creators yourself, gift to the best 10, ship through draft orders in your Shopify admin, and check who posted after three weeks. Under about five gifts a month, do it by hand. Past that, move the after-yes work to a gifting-operations tool and keep finding creators yourself.

This is a four-week plan for a founder doing it alone. It needs Instagram or TikTok, a spreadsheet and your Shopify admin.

## What you need before creator number one

Three things, written down in a doc:

- One product to gift. Pick the one that photographs well and that a stranger can understand in a post. Don't offer the whole catalogue yet.
- One goal. Content you can reuse, a lift in brand searches, or traffic to a launch. If you want a framework for choosing, see [influencer campaign strategy](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/influencer-campaign-strategy).
- A customer description in two sentences. Who buys, what else do they follow? This is the brief you will search against.

If you want the definition of what you are doing, [what is influencer gifting](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/what-is-influencer-gifting) covers it. The short version is free product with no obligation to post.

## Week 1: find 20 creators yourself

You are building a list of about 20 names that you would be happy to see wearing or using your product. Do it in two or three focused sessions, not one marathon.

1. Start with who already knows you: your tagged tab, story mentions, message requests and customers who sent a photo or video with a review.
2. Move to competitors one size up from you: who tags them, and who comments on their most-watched Reels.
3. Finish with niche search on Instagram and TikTok, sorted by recent.

The tactics are written up in [how to find influencers for your brand without a database](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-find-influencers-for-your-brand-without-a-database), [how to find creators to gift products to](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-find-creators-to-gift-products-to) and [how to find micro-influencers](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-find-micro-influencers), so I'll not repeat them here. Vet each candidate with the checks in [how to select influencers](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-select-influencers): does the feed look like your customer's, have they posted in the last 30 days, do the comments read like real people.

Log every name in a sheet with the handle, link, where you found them, a niche note and a yes or no. Later you may hand this to an intern; the [influencer sourcing SOP for interns and VAs](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/influencer-sourcing-sop-for-interns-and-vas) is that sheet in full.

## Week 2: send the offer and collect the yes

Pick the best 10 from your 20 and message them yourself. Ten is small enough to personalise every opener. Open with one specific thing from their content, say who you are in one line, offer the product with no strings and ask if you can send it.

Keep the ask free of obligations. If you require a post, you are buying one, and that needs a written deliverable and a disclosure clause; read [FTC disclosure rules for gifted products](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/ftc-disclosure-rules-for-gifted-products) before you mix the two. Template wording is in [influencer outreach DM templates](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/influencer-outreach-dm-templates). For how many to expect back, [how many creators to contact to ship 15](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-many-creators-to-contact-to-ship-15) has the maths.

Send one follow-up after about five days and then let it go. Expect some silence. That is normal and not a sign the plan failed.

## Week 3: ship

Here the work changes character. Finding was thinking. Shipping is admin.

### The by-hand method

In Shopify admin, create a draft order for each creator: add the product and variant, the shipping address, a 100% order discount so the total is $0, and a tag such as gifted plus the campaign name. Create the order and mark it as paid so it flows to fulfillment like any other. The full walkthrough is in [how to create zero-dollar gift orders in Shopify](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-create-zero-dollar-gift-orders-in-shopify) and [how to send free products to influencers on Shopify](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-send-free-products-to-influencers-on-shopify).

For the first five or so gifts that is fine. In our experience, per creator the by-hand route means 3 to 8 DM round-trips to get the product choice, size and address, then 5 to 10 minutes to type the draft order, then spreadsheet updates and the occasional address fix. Ten creators is manageable. Fifty is a week of your time.

### The one-link method

Past about five gifts a month, send each creator one branded link instead. With [Seed](https://apps.shopify.com/influencer-form), they pick the product and variant with images and live stock, type their own address, and a real $0 Shopify draft order lands in your admin, tagged by campaign. Nothing becomes an order until you approve it, and because it is a normal Shopify order, your 3PL or fulfillment process is untouched. The realistic ceiling for a first week once the link is live: Bri Beauty had 43 gift orders in week one. See the [Bri Beauty case study](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/bri-beauty-creator-gifting-case-study). That is one brand's result, not a promise.

## Week 4: follow up and see who posted

Gifts take time to arrive and creators take time to film. Give it about two weeks after delivery before you judge anyone. Then check:

- Who posted, on which platform, and what the post looked like
- Who replied but didn't post
- Who never replied after the product arrived

Searching the creator's profile and your tagged tab is enough to start. When you have more creators than you can check by hand, see [how to track creator posts you never see](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-track-creator-posts-you-never-see). If someone has gone quiet, [how to follow up when a creator hasn't posted](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-follow-up-when-a-creator-hasnt-posted) has the wording.

Then do the useful part: look at who did post and find more creators like them. That loop, repeated monthly, is the programme. To judge whether it is worth paying for, [measuring ROI on product seeding](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/measuring-roi-on-product-seeding) covers it.

## What to buy, and when

| Where you are | What to do | Tool |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Under about 5 gifts a month | Do it by hand | Shopify admin and a spreadsheet |
| 5 to 20 a month, founder doing it | Find creators yourself, stop typing orders | Seed Starter, $79/mo, 50 orders, 7-day trial |
| 20 to 500 a month, small team | Interns or a VA find creators, software runs the rest | Seed, $199/mo, unlimited |
| No time to run it | Someone runs it for you | Seed Concierge, $299/mo, done-for-you |
| Hundreds of paid contracts, payouts, agencies | Buy an enterprise platform | GRIN, CreatorIQ, Traackr |

I run a DTC water-purifier brand doing about $2M a year, and I built Seed because our own store needed the second row. We still find creators ourselves. GRIN was listed at $0 to $1,500 a month when we checked on 2026-08-19, and Modash does discovery and now Shopify gifting too. They are good products for the brands they are built for, but at the start you are paying for a half of the work you can do yourself.

## Mistakes to avoid

- Sending 200 DMs in week two. You'll burn product and learn nothing about who fits.
- Asking for a post in the same message as the offer. Pick gifting or a paid deal.
- Collecting addresses in DMs. It takes the most messages and produces the most errors.
- Judging results after a week. Product has to arrive and be filmed.
- Not logging the no's. You'll re-vet the same creators next month.

## Who should not pick Seed

If you're starting out and expect fewer than five gifts a month, you don't need Seed yet; use the by-hand method above. If you want a tool that finds creators for you, Seed has no discovery database. It also doesn't do contracts, affiliate payouts or paid-deal management. See [pricing](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/pricing) or the [Shopify App Store listing](https://apps.shopify.com/influencer-form), where Seed has 5.0 stars on a small number of reviews.

The three kinds of influencer software, and which one a brand your size needs: [discovery tools vs gifting operations tools](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/influencer-discovery-tools-vs-gifting-operations-tools).

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I start influencer marketing for my Shopify store?

Pick one product and one goal, find about 20 creators yourself, and gift to the best 10 in your first batch. Ship through draft orders in your Shopify admin, then check who posted after about three weeks. You don't need a platform to start.

### Do I need to pay influencers when I start?

No. Start with product gifting, which means free product with no guaranteed post. If you require a post, it is a paid deal and needs a deliverable agreement and a disclosure clause. Keep the two separate.

### How many influencers should I gift first?

Ten is a good first batch, chosen from a list of about 20 that you have vetted. It is small enough to personalise every message and large enough to show you a pattern in who replies and who posts.

### When should I stop creating gift orders by hand?

Once you pass about five gifts a month. At that point the DM round-trips for product, size and address, and the 5 to 10 minutes to hand-type each draft order, start to cost more than a gifting-operations tool.

### Do I need an influencer marketing platform to start?

No. Finding creators is something you or an intern can do with Instagram and TikTok search. Platforms like GRIN are built for brands running hundreds of paid contracts. Most Shopify brands starting out need a spreadsheet first and a gifting-operations tool later.

## FAQ

**How do I start influencer marketing for my Shopify store?**
Pick one product and one goal, find about 20 creators yourself, and gift to the best 10 in your first batch. Ship through draft orders in your Shopify admin, then check who posted after about three weeks. You don't need a platform to start.

**Do I need to pay influencers when I start?**
No. Start with product gifting, which means free product with no guaranteed post. If you require a post, it is a paid deal and needs a deliverable agreement and a disclosure clause. Keep the two separate.

**How many influencers should I gift first?**
Ten is a good first batch, chosen from a list of about 20 that you have vetted. It is small enough to personalise every message and large enough to show you a pattern in who replies and who posts.

**When should I stop creating gift orders by hand?**
Once you pass about five gifts a month. At that point the DM round-trips for product, size and address, and the 5 to 10 minutes to hand-type each draft order, start to cost more than a gifting-operations tool.

**Do I need an influencer marketing platform to start?**
No. Finding creators is something you or an intern can do with Instagram and TikTok search. Platforms like GRIN are built for brands running hundreds of paid contracts. Most Shopify brands starting out need a spreadsheet first and a gifting-operations tool later.