Running a curated affiliate program | Harmonia

A curated affiliate program is one where you choose your partners and they choose you. On Harmonia you set the commission, install one Shopify app, and publish. From there, sales are credited server-side with no discount code, and you pay only when an athlete drives a real attributed sale: the commission you set, plus a 20% platform fee on top.

This guide covers the whole path, from connecting Stripe to reading the trust signals on each applicant. Each section links to a focused guide if you want to go deeper.

What a curated program is

Most affiliate setups let anyone promote anything and pay out on whatever the tracking pixel happens to catch. A curated program works differently in three ways:

• Two-way veto. You approve the athlete, and the athlete accepts your program. Both sides choose. See the two-way veto glossary entry.
• Verified, quality-scored partners. Every athlete is identity-verified through Stripe Connect KYC and carries a click quality score you can sort on. The score is a signal, never a gate.
• First-party attribution, no discount code. Sales are matched on your server through your Shopify store. There is no code for the customer to enter and nothing for them to remember, so your pricing stays intact.

That combination is built for premium US Health & Wellness brands that do not discount and want partners they chose.

Launch path: five steps to live

Setup runs in five steps. The first three are the readiness gate; your program can publish only after all three pass.

For the full walkthrough with screenshots and exact clicks, see launching your affiliate program step by step and the program setup help article.

Step 1: connect Stripe billing

Accept billing terms and we create a Stripe Customer linked to your brand. This is the account we invoice each month. It also lets us pay your athletes once your invoice clears.

Step 2: install the Shopify app

The app installs as an unlisted custom app through a direct link, so there is no App Store approval to wait on. Once installed, it does two things:

• Registers an orders/create webhook so we see each new order on our server.
• Writes the ?ref= value into the cart note attribute so the order is matched to the right athlete server-side.

This is first-party, server-side attribution through your Shopify store. When someone clicks an athlete's tracking link and buys, the order is credited automatically, with no discount code for the customer to enter. Credit holds for the attribution window even if they come back and buy a few days later. It survives ad blockers, Safari's tracking protection, and a shopper switching browsers.

Step 3: run the self-test

The self-test fires one test conversion through the full path: tracking link, cart note attribute, webhook, attribution match. Run it once after installing. Within a minute, the Shopify panel marks the self-test passed and shows the matched test conversion.

Step 4: set commission and windows

Set the commission for the program: a flat dollar amount per sale or a flat percentage of the order. You decide the amount, per program. There is no platform-wide rate.

The setter shows you the math before you publish, including the 20% platform fee on top:

$50athlete commission $1020% platform fee (on top) $60your total cost per sale

Then set two windows, which are separate from each other:

• Attribution window. How long after a click a sale still counts toward the athlete.
• Refund window. How long after a sale a refund can reverse a commission, pro-rated to the amount refunded.

Step 5: publish your program

Once the program is filled in with a commission and the readiness gate has passed, you can publish. Publishing makes the program live so athletes can find it, apply, and accept its terms.

How approvals and the two-way veto work

Approval takes two yeses. Neither side is matched to the other by default.

• You approve the athlete. Review each application, then approve or decline. You can set the net commission for that athlete at approval.
• The athlete accepts your program. The athlete reviews your terms and accepts. The exact terms they saw are snapshotted on acceptance.

Because both sides choose, every partnership is one you and the athlete both wanted. There is no mass marketplace where any athlete can promote any brand without your sign-off.

For how to triage applications, set net commission, and decline gracefully, see affiliate approvals and the two-way veto and the applications and approvals help article.

What verification and quality scoring tell you

Every applicant arrives identity-verified and carries signals you can sort on. None of them approves or declines an athlete for you; they help you make a faster, better-informed call.

• Identity verification. Athletes are verified through Stripe Connect KYC. Stripe handles their ID and bank details; we never see them. Browsing and applying are open from the start, and only payout is gated by completing KYC.
• LLM quality score. An athlete's public profile is reviewed and scored to summarize fit. It is a sortable signal that helps you compare applicants, never an automatic gate.
• Click quality score. A per-athlete score built from traffic patterns, surfaced so you can compare. It is a signal for your decision, never an automatic clawback and never a block.

For how to read each signal and what a high or low score means, see verification and quality scoring explained.

Reading traffic-quality and click-quality signals

Once an athlete is live, the platform keeps watching the quality of the traffic they send, in shadow mode. Shadow mode means we monitor and surface signals to admins and to you, without auto-reversing any commission or blocking any athlete.

What the platform monitors in the background:

• Click velocity. Bursts of clicks that look automated rather than human.
• IP correlation. Clusters of clicks and orders sharing the same network in a way real shoppers usually do not.
• Fingerprint reuse. The same device fingerprint showing up across clicks that should be different people.
• Per-athlete anomalies. A nightly check that flags an athlete whose pattern shifts sharply from their own baseline.

These signals feed the click quality score and an internal review queue. They never gate money on their own. If a real problem is confirmed, it routes through the normal dispute and write-off path, not an automatic clawback.

For how to interpret a flagged athlete and what to do next, see reading traffic-quality signals and the traffic quality and trust help article.

What you pay

You pay the commission you set plus a 20% platform fee on top. The fee is billed to you and never deducted from the athlete, so the athlete receives the full commission.

Here is the math on a $50 commission:

We invoice you monthly via Stripe Billing, net-30, on the 1st of the following month: the commission your athletes earned plus the 20% platform fee. Athletes are paid from the cleared commission once your invoice clears. No subscription, no setup fee, no commission bond. The fee is charged only when an athlete drives a real attributed sale.

Payouts to athletes run automatically through Stripe Connect. Once your monthly invoice clears, we pay out daily, with a $25 minimum; smaller balances roll forward. On December 15 we pay out any remaining balance regardless of the minimum. We issue each athlete's 1099-NEC automatically at year-end for those who clear the IRS threshold.

For a full breakdown of the commission pool and the fee, see what brands pay: the commission pool and the fee and the how our fee works help article.

Start your program

When you are ready, the brand getting started guide walks you from your first login to a published program. The whole path is the five steps above, and most brands finish in under an hour.

FAQ

How do I set up an affiliate program on Harmonia?

Five steps: connect Stripe billing, install the Shopify app, run the self-test, set your commission and windows, then publish. The first three are the readiness gate. Your program can go live only after all three pass. Most brands finish in under an hour.

What does it cost to run an affiliate program?

You set the commission per program, a flat dollar amount or a flat percentage. The athlete receives the full commission. We add a 20% platform fee on top, billed to you. We invoice you monthly via Stripe Billing, net-30, on the 1st of the following month: the commission your athletes earned plus the 20% fee. No subscription, no setup fee, no commission bond. The fee is charged only when an athlete drives a real attributed sale.

How does the two-way veto approval process work?

Both sides have to say yes. You approve the athlete, and the athlete accepts your program and its terms. Neither side joins without the other, so every partnership is one both parties chose.

Does a low click quality score automatically block an athlete?

No. The click quality score is a sortable signal you can use to compare applicants. It never blocks an athlete and never triggers an automatic clawback. You make the approval decision.

How long until my program is live?

Most brands finish in under an hour. The slowest step is the Shopify self-test, which takes a few minutes to place a test order and confirm attribution end to end. Once the readiness gate passes and you publish, your program is live and athletes can apply.