Make your store’s commercial role clear by saying who is recommending the product, how they benefit, and what support is connected to the article. Put that explanation where readers encounter the recommendation, rather than making them hunt through a footer.
A brand-owned Shopify blog can offer useful buying advice while selling the products it discusses. You do not need to apologise for that. The goal is to help readers recognise store advice for what it is, without presenting it as a verdict from an unrelated reviewer.
This is editorial transparency guidance, not a complete statement of advertising law. Get qualified review of the wording, labels and placement required for the markets you serve, particularly when payment, gifts or commissions are involved.
1. Identify the relationship before writing the explanation
Start with the arrangement behind the recommendation, not a standard disclaimer copied from another website. Answer these questions in your working brief:
- What is your selling role? Are these your own-brand products, products you stock from another maker, or products sold by an external retailer?
- What support relates to this article? Did anyone provide payment, free items, production support or another benefit?
- What happens after a reader acts? Does your store receive a sale, an affiliate commission or another payment?
- Who shaped the content? Who selected the products, supplied the text or approved the recommendations?
These relationships can overlap. A store might stock a supplier’s products and also receive funding for a particular guide. Saying “we sell these products” would explain the retail relationship, but not the additional support.
In its US endorsement guidance, the Federal Trade Commission highlights unexpected connections that could affect how readers evaluate a recommendation, including payment or free products supplied for promotion. That is a useful distinction to consider, not a universal legal rule for every store.
2. Describe what happened in ordinary language
Prefer concrete words such as “sell”, “paid”, “provided free” and “earn a commission” over a vague “in partnership with”. A partnership could mean several things; readers should not need to decode it.
The following are conditional wording templates, not statements about relationships at your store. Replace every bracketed placeholder with verified details and use only the wording that matches the arrangement.
When recommending your own products
This is [STORE]’s guide to choosing from our own [PRODUCT RANGE]. We sell the products recommended below.
If you retail another maker’s products, make that distinction instead:
We stock and sell [BRAND]’s [PRODUCT RANGE]. This guide explains how to choose between the options in our store.
That also defines the guide’s scope. A selection from your catalogue should not sound like a comparison of every product on the market.
When a supplier supports the content
We sell [BRAND]’s products. [BRAND] provided [SPECIFIC SUPPORT] for this guide.
Replace “specific support” with what actually happened, such as “funding for photography” or “payment to produce this article”. If the supplier selected the featured products or approved the recommendations, describe that role too. Do not add “they had no influence” unless you can support it.
When an item was gifted
[BRAND] provided [ITEM] free of charge for this article.
A loan is different from a gift. If the item must be returned, say that it was lent rather than given. Avoid using “sample” as the entire explanation if it leaves the reader unsure whether you bought or received the item.
When links can earn affiliate commissions
If you buy through the links to [RETAILER] in this article, we may earn a commission.
Identify which recommendations the arrangement covers. If payment depends on an action other than a purchase, change the wording to match that action. Do not automatically add “at no extra cost to you” unless that statement has been verified.
When publishing a paid contribution
If a brand pays your store to publish text it supplied, make both the payment and authorship clear:
Paid contribution from [BRAND]: [BRAND] paid [STORE] to publish this article and supplied the text.
That is different from your store paying a writer to prepare its own guide. Where you want to explain a commissioned writer’s role, wording could be:
We commissioned and paid [WRITER] to write this guide for [STORE].
The useful distinction is who paid whom, and whose contribution the reader is seeing. These examples are not a recommendation to label every paid writing assignment as sponsorship.
3. Put the explanation beside the content it qualifies
Choose placement according to the relationship’s scope:
- It applies to the whole guide: explain it near the beginning, before the recommendations it qualifies.
- It applies to one product or section: explain it with that recommendation, before the associated purchase invitation.
- Different recommendations have different arrangements: distinguish them locally rather than relying on one blanket statement.
For example, in a hypothetical guide containing your own products and one affiliate recommendation, an opening sentence can establish that this is your store’s guide. A separate sentence beside the affiliate recommendation can explain the commission. Neither needs to become a paragraph about every commercial arrangement your business might ever have.
In Shopify, you can add the explanation directly to the blog post’s Content field and format it with the article. Check the rendered page on desktop and mobile: is the wording readable, and does it appear before readers act on the recommendation?
A site-wide policy can explain your general approach, but it should not make readers guess which relationship applies to this particular article. Keep the explanation visible rather than relegating it to a footer or something readers must open separately.
4. Separate product evidence from promotional preference
A commercial explanation answers “What is your relationship to this product?” It does not answer “What supports this product claim?” Keep those jobs separate.
Distinguish information supplied by the maker, observations you have documented, and your editorial reasons for recommending something. If a feature appears only in supplier documentation, describe it that way rather than saying “we found”. If you recorded an observation, keep the statement within what that observation actually establishes.
Consider a hypothetical bag guide:
- Documented detail: “The supplier’s specifications list an internal zipped pocket.”
- Recommendation with a reason: “Our pick from this range if you want a separate compartment for small essentials.”
- A much larger claim: “The best commuter bag, independently tested.”
The first two sentences can explain a feature and a selection preference. They do not establish the third.
A brand-owned guide should not present itself as an independent test or review unless that description is genuinely supportable. A real product observation does not, by itself, make the publisher independent. Likewise, “honest opinions” is not a substitute for explaining payment or support.
You can still make a confident recommendation. State the selection scope, the reader need and the supported reason for your choice, without borrowing authority from a review process that did not happen.
Carry approved requirements into the writing brief
Once the relationship is understood and any necessary review is complete, put the approved wording and placement requirements into the article brief. Include the products or sections they apply to, who supplied the contribution, and any descriptions to avoid, such as an unsupported “independent review”.
Our AI Blog Writing for Shopify Stores capability carries the writing brief and merchant direction into article creation, so you can include those approved disclosure requirements alongside the article’s purpose. The resulting draft remains editable for merchant review. This is a way to carry editorial instructions forward, not a legal compliance tool.
Before publishing, ask someone unfamiliar with the arrangement to explain who sells the product, who provided support and whose recommendation they are reading. If they have to guess, revise the relevant sentence rather than adding another paragraph of boilerplate.
Keep the explanation accurate when a commercial arrangement changes after publication.
What should we change when an article’s sponsorship ends?
Review the wording rather than simply deleting it. If a supplier funded the original article, ending the arrangement does not change how that content was produced. Distinguish past support from any current relationship, and check whether commission wording still matches the links you retain. If you substantially rewrite the guide, explain the support relevant to the revised version. Get qualified advice where the required treatment is unclear.