Bancroft PressA bookstore that credits animal charities for every sale they refer

Bancroft Press has published independent books since 1992. It came to us to sell the hardcover of Michelle Lerner's memoir, A Series of Opinionated Animals, directly to readers: the story of an animal-law pioneer and the rescued animals who reshaped her life.

The memoir carries a promise. When readers buy through one of Bancroft's animal-protection partners, they save 15%, and the partner receives 20% of what Bancroft receives on the sale. The store had to make that promise work, and be simple enough for Bancroft's own team to run.

The brief was a single-product store for the hardcover, live and tested ahead of the book's October on-sale date.

Beyond sales, one part had to work, not just look good: when a reader buys through a partner organization's page or link, that organization must be credited, so Bancroft can pay its share each quarter. Readers should not have to remember a code, and refunds must come back off a partner's total.

After handoff, the store would be run day to day by a member of Bancroft's team with no Shopify experience. Final sign-off depended on every row of the client's test-order checklist passing.

1. 01Used Shopify's own discount codes for attribution instead of a custom affiliate app. Each partner gets a page and a link that applies its 15% code automatically, and orders export by code for quarterly reporting.
2. 02Built the partner page as a template, so adding an organization is a duplicate-and-edit task rather than development work.
3. 03Configured refunds to reverse a partner's share in reporting, so quarterly payments stay accurate.
4. 04Built the book page as a template too, so the next title needs no rebuild.
5. 05Ran every test order in the client's checklist, then handed over with a written guide and a live walkthrough.