Summary
CHALLENGE
- Their previous affiliate app did not track sales made through Shopify Pay and other express checkouts, so commissions went missing.
- The app had no payout function, which meant mailing e-checks one at a time and struggling to tell who had already been paid.
- Reporting was inconsistent, and incorrect data meant hours spent going back to reconcile orders and settle up with partners.
SOLUTION
- Migrated the affiliate list into UpPromote with a CSV file the team prepared and imported themselves.
- Rebuilt the commission structure as a single program with a zero default rate and flat amounts set product by product.
- Moved payouts into the platform with PayPal and Wise, replacing the outside e-check service.
RESULTS
- More than 700 referral orders recorded by the end of June, with orders picking up from around May.
- The program grew to nearly 100 affiliates, up from roughly 50 migrated across.
- Partners log in more often now that their earnings data is accurate and visible.
LESSONS
- Commission rates hold up over time when they are built on real product margins rather than a single blanket percentage.
- Accurate tracking is a retention tool, not just an accounting one. Partners stay engaged when they trust what they see.
- Onboarding momentum fades after a month or two, so reactivation needs a plan before partners go quiet.
Most affiliate programs are built on creators. MEND‘s is built on surgeons.
MEND makes clinically backed nutrition formulas for people recovering from surgery, injury, and joint strain. Its products sit in a specialised corner of health and wellness, and its partners reflect that. Orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, and hospital systems make up the core of the program.
That audience changes what a merchant needs from an affiliate app. Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND, runs the affiliate program. He found that the tool he inherited was quietly losing commissions and creating hours of manual work. In March 2026 he moved the whole program to UpPromote. By the end of June it had passed 700 referral orders.
What was breaking inside MEND’s affiliate program?
The biggest problem was invisible. The brand’s previous affiliate app, LeadDyno, could not attribute orders placed through Shopify’s express checkout options.
It doesn’t support Shopify Pay. So when users use Shopify Pay to checkout, like the express checkout, it doesn’t track the sale.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
For a store where a large share of customers tap through Apple Pay or Shopify Pay, that is a structural gap rather than an edge case. Partners were driving sales that never showed up as commissions.
Payouts were the second problem. The old app had no payment function at all, so the team used an outside e-check service and sent each affiliate a separate check.
It was really difficult to reconcile who had been paid, who has not been paid.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
Add inconsistent reporting and a limit of one discount code per affiliate, and the program was consuming time that should have gone into growing it.
Ali researched replacements on his own and identified UpPromote as the option that covered the gaps, particularly Shopify checkout tracking.
How did MEND migrate its program without losing commission history?
Two jobs had to happen at once: move the affiliates across, and repair the commission records the old app had missed.
Moving roughly 50 affiliates in one file
The business had around 40 to 50 active affiliates, all with their own Shopify discount codes. Rather than rebuild them by hand, Ali exported the data from Shopify, formatted it, and used UpPromote’s affiliate import to bring the list in as a single CSV upload.
The migration process was super straightforward in terms of being able to just export everything from Shopify, format the CSV file, get everything imported.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
Reconciling the commissions the old app had missed
The harder part was historical. Because express checkout orders and some discount codes had never been attributed, the business was carrying an unknown backlog of unpaid commissions.
Ali solved it himself. He pulled a full Shopify sales export, ran an AI analysis across the discount codes to produce a cleaner report, formatted the output as a CSV, and imported it so every referral could be matched to the right partner. He was explicit that the delay sat with the old platform and its data, not with the migration itself.
Getting Wise and PayPal connected took longer, mostly because of the two-factor steps, bank account verification, and API keys involved on the payment providers’ side.
Even so, paying affiliates directly from the platform and holding their payment details in one place was new for the business. On the old setup, every check went out separately.
How does MEND set commissions around product margins?
The brand does not pay a single blanket rate. Commission is decided product by product, and most of the catalogue pays nothing at all.
The structure is one program with the default commission set to zero. Individual products are then given their own flat dollar amounts through special product commission, which overrides the program default only for the items listed.
Perform, the brand’s natural anti-inflammatory formula, is among the products set up this way.
We’re doing a flat rate per product, and those commissions have been defined based on margins and based on consumption.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
He treats those numbers as fixed. Locking the commission structure was one of the program’s main initiatives, and the rates now sit at the highest level the margins can support. For a brand selling clinically formulated products with real input costs, a percentage that flexes with cart size would have been much harder to defend.
Why does MEND’s affiliate program grow through referral rather than outreach?
The business barely recruits in the usual sense. Partners arrive through the medical network it is already part of.
Clinics that use the products recommend them to other clinics, and those referrals become affiliates. It is word of mouth inside a professional community rather than a creator campaign.
Partners who have seen the product work
The strongest affiliates are the ones who have seen the product work on their own patients.
There’s no secret… they’re very loyal and they get incredible feedback from their patients.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
That loyalty comes with a scheduling problem. Surgeons and physical therapists are busy, and affiliate income is a secondary revenue stream for them, so the program has to stay visible without demanding much of their time. Ali keeps partners engaged by sharing efficacy data and incoming patient testimonials through the platform.
Bringing dormant partners back
The pattern Ali watches most closely is the drop-off curve after onboarding.
We notice when we onboard an affiliate, we have this initial momentum… but then you see a little bit of a drop-off after a month or two.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
About half of the brand’s partners had gone six months without a sale. Reactivating them is now a priority: Ali is designing a series of email campaigns, following up with direct calls, and offering marketing material to partners who need it before adding new names to the list.
What has changed for MEND since the switch?
The clearest measure is volume. By the end of June, the program had passed 700 referral orders, with orders starting to flow from around May.
The affiliate base grew alongside it, from roughly 50 migrated partners to nearly 100.
Accuracy is what Ali points to first, and it turned out to matter to partners as much as to his own reporting.
We’re seeing more activation from our partners because they can log in, they know their data is accurate, they can track their sales, it keeps them incentivized.
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
The operational load dropped at the same time. Payments, payment details, and payout tracking all live in one place instead of an external check service and a spreadsheet.
Overall, five stars, really happy with everything. It’s been a huge offload in terms of the amount of work this was requiring previously…
Ali Syed, Creative Director at MEND
He describes the program as still being in its early stages. Automated earnings summaries sent to partners are on his wish list, and he has expressed interest in exploring creator and influencer partnerships as a second channel alongside the medical network.
