Shopify Catalog adds external brands and commissions

Shopify’s Catalog API beta can now return products from brands that do not sell on Shopify. The 27 October change broadens what a shopping app can discover, while keeping a clear boundary between discovery, checkout and commission.

Existing searches remain limited to Shopify merchants. Developers must opt into external products through the sources parameter; this is not an automatic expansion of every app’s results.

Three search choices, two checkout paths

Omitting sources, or using ["shopify"], keeps Shopify merchant products only. Use ["shopify", "external"] for both groups, or ["external"] for external brands alone. These choices use the existing search_catalog method.

External results contain a description, image, price and link to the brand’s product page. Their eligible.native_checkout value is always false. The buyer completes the purchase on the brand’s website; these products do not earn Promoted Placements commission.

During the beta, Shopify collects external product information from brand websites and returns it only for shoppers in the United States. Other countries continue to receive Shopify merchant products. get_product supports external product IDs; lookup_catalog support is still forthcoming.

Our practical recommendation is to make the destination clear before a shopper clicks. A mixed results screen should not promise the same checkout experience for every item, and a comparison tool should handle the brand’s external URL deliberately.

Shop Campaigns changes the commission calculation

A separate 27 October announcement brings Shop Campaigns into the invite-led Promoted Placements beta. Merchants with external platforms enabled now include the Catalog API among those platforms.

For qualifying Shopify products, the rate returned in placement.commission.percentage.value combines the merchant-funded commission with Shopify’s base rate. It can vary by product. Buyers following these commission-bearing product links land in Shop.

Participating organisations must have accepted the beta terms and enabled Earn commission for a saved catalog. They continue passing the enrolled catalog ID and sending buyers to the variant URL exactly as Shopify returns it. Earnings apply to search_catalog results from Shopify merchants, not external products.

A useful example, not a sales forecast

Shopify’s Gil demonstrated a shoppable list built from more than 60 brand recommendations in Harley Finkelstein’s post from the previous year. His 28 October post shows a concrete use for the global catalog: turning recommendations into a browsable product list. It does not establish conversion performance or guarantee a merchant’s inclusion.

Gil’s shoppable-list demonstration, 28 October 2026

Read the original demonstration on X if the embed does not load.

For developers, test geography, destination handling and commission reporting separately. For merchants, review whether external distribution fits the Shop Campaigns strategy and keep product information accurate. Wider catalog coverage gives shoppers more choices; it does not by itself guarantee additional demand.