Based in Utah, USA, Sunstone Permanent Jewelry crafts state-of-the-art micro-welding and engraving tools for diverse industries. Their main product is a micro-welding machine that lets people weld jewelry directly onto wrists, creating a unique and long-lasting accessory.
Sunstone primarily serves small business owners, stay-at-home moms, and creative entrepreneurs who sell jewelry at pop-up events, trade shows, and local markets.
The company aims to empower these individuals with high-quality tools to start or grow their own businesses.
UpPromote: The right affiliate software Sunstone needed
Sunstone’s products aren’t for everyone. They serve a very specific market.
The brand needed to build authentic voices within smaller, focused communities where potential customers actually hang out.
Affiliate marketing was their answer. Get real people – bloggers, influencers, even satisfied customers – to recommend their products.
These people already had followers who trusted them. And here’s the good part: Sunstone only paid when someone actually made a purchase.
At first, Sunstone used CollabPay to manage their affiliate program, but quickly became frustrated.
“Connecting PayPal there was super tricky,” shared Bryce Hales, Sunstone’s head of eCommerce marketing. “It just kept having issues where payments would disconnect.”
The challenges with CollabPay led Sunstone to search for a better solution. That’s when they found UpPromote.
Bryce explained the difference: “We landed on UpPromote, and we really liked the layout of the system. It felt more streamlined. It felt modern, whereas CollabPay felt like I was on a website from 2005.”
UpPromote streamlined Sunstone’s operations by syncing data from all five stores. The brand can easily access each store’s account, sync new affiliates across stores, and track affiliate performance across all connected stores in one place.
Reward partners based on their actual performance
Sunstone knows that rewarding affiliates fairly is key to keeping them motivated. That’s why their program is designed to offer competitive commissions based on performance.
To start, the brand set a fixed 5% commission for all affiliates and influencers. While 5% may seem small, Sunstone’s high average order value of $1,000–$2,000 means affiliates can still earn $50–$100 per order.
Thanks to UpPromote, Sunstone was able to set up different affiliate programs with higher commission rates of 10%, 15%, and even 18%. Affiliates who perform better and bring in more sales are moved into these higher tiers, giving them an even better reward for their hard work.
A great example is Trinity Owens, a blogger in the permanent jewelry niche.
Her website attracts over 10,000 monthly visitors, making her content a perfect fit for Sunstone’s audience. Within just two months, Trinity generated more than 200 referral orders for the brand.
So that’s fair when Sunstone decided to move her to their highest commission program at 18%. This action gave her more motivation to continue promoting their products.
Thanks to UpPromote, setting up and managing these tiered commissions was effortless.
Merchants can totally automate the process; affiliates will be upgraded to higher tiers as soon as they hit preset milestones. No manual work required.
Trinity Owens promoted Sunstone’s products on her blog
Recruit more affiliates through MLM
Sunstone knows that their current affiliates are the best people to help grow their program.
Since affiliates already understand the products and how the program works, they can invite others who are a good fit to join.
With the help of UpPromote’s Multi-level Marketing (MLM), Sunstone can do this effortlessly.
Each affiliate can invite others to join the program as their “downline.” When these new affiliates make sales, the original affiliate earns a small percentage as a network commission.
Since this is a new initiative, Sunstone decided to test it with their top-performing affiliate, Trinity. She’s been a highly successful partner, and Sunstone believes she can bring in high-quality affiliates like herself.
To launch this pilot, Sunstone created a special program with a 10% commission rate and added Trinity to it.
If Trinity invites someone (let’s call them Affiliate A). Affiliate A will earn 10% from their sales, and Trinity will earn 5% from Affiliate A’s sales as her network commission.
Equip affiliates with exclusive coupon codes
Sunstone understands that promoting their high-priced, niche products can be a challenge for affiliates.
To make things easier, the brand provides personalized discount codes for each affiliate.
These personalized codes serve two purposes.
They make Sunstone’s premium products more accessible to customers and give affiliates a valuable tool to attract buyers.
When affiliates can offer a discount, customers are more likely to close sales.
Thanks to UpPromote, the process of creating and distributing these codes is hassle-free.
The system automatically generates affiliate-specific coupon codes based on the rules set by Sunstone. Each affiliate receives their own code, typically based on their name, as soon as they join the program.
For example, an affiliate named Priscilla Marquez would get a code like PRISCILLAMARQUEZ with a 3% discount.
Better yet, Sunstone allows affiliates to rename their codes to something they prefer. This small yet thoughtful gesture shows that Sunstone cares about their affiliates.
Happy affiliates are motivated affiliates. And in the world of affiliate marketing, having satisfied partners means you’re already halfway to success.
Results
After switching to UpPromote, Sunstone quickly noticed how much smoother and more efficient their affiliate program became. In just 30 days, the program generated an impressive $166,000 in sales.
Bryce, the head of eCommerce marketing from Sunstone, shared his thoughts on the platform:
Yeah, UpPromote is just easy to use. It’s super intuitive-, much more than other programs out there. Our affiliates like it a lot more. The data they get about their customers helps them see which efforts to focus on and what’s most profitable, and they love that. They absolutely love the affiliate dashboard.
The detailed customer insights and user-friendly dashboard gave affiliates the tools they needed to improve their strategies. They could clearly see what worked best and focus on efforts that brought in the most profit.
Ellie Tran, a seasoned SEO content writer with three years of experience in the eCommerce world. Being a part of the UpPromote team, Ellie wants to assist Shopify merchants in achieving success through useful content & actionable insights. Ellie's commitment to learning never stops; she's always eager to gain more knowledge about SEO and content marketing to create valuable content for users. When she's not working on content, Ellie enjoys baking and exploring new places.
