Checkout Links is connected to Sidekick, Shopify’s assistant in your admin. You can ask about your links in plain language instead of going to find them, and Sidekick can build a new one with you.
Everything below happens in the Sidekick chat in your Shopify admin. There’s nothing to turn on.
Finding a link and seeing what’s in it
Ask for a link by name or by its shortcode and Sidekick will find it and describe how it’s set up — where it sends shoppers, whether it’s active, what’s in the cart, and how many promotions it carries.
- “Find my Black Friday link”
- “What’s in the link with shortcode 5xYYUD?”
- “Is my influencer gifting link still active?”
A partial name is enough. Sidekick matches on part of the link’s name, so you don’t need to remember it exactly.
Asking how a link performed
Sidekick can report the last 30 days for a single link, or rank your links against each other.
- “How did the Summer Sale link do?”
- “Which of my links made the most money?”
- “Where is traffic to this link coming from?”
- “How many links do I have?”
You’ll get clicks, orders, gross sales and conversion rate, and for traffic sources a breakdown by UTM source, medium and campaign. All of it covers the last 30 days.
Working out why a link isn’t working
This is the one worth remembering. Ask Sidekick why a link isn’t working and it checks the things that actually break links, then names the cause rather than guessing:
- Products that aren’t available on the Checkout Links sales channel
- Products that are draft, archived or unlisted
- Variants that are sold out or no longer exist
- Shopify bundles, which can’t be sold through any third-party sales channel
- Discount codes that are missing, inactive, expired, or have hit their usage limit
- The Checkout Links automatic discount being missing or switched off
- A link still in draft, or one with an empty cart
- A popup pointing at a collection that was deleted or isn’t on the sales channel
- Subscription lines whose plan no longer applies to the product
Each problem comes with the fix and a link into the right part of your Shopify admin.
Try “Why isn’t my link working?” with the shortcode, or just describe the symptom — “my discount isn’t applying on the sale link”.
Creating a link
Describe the campaign you want and Sidekick opens the Checkout Links editor with it already filled in — products, discounts, free gifts, tiered promotions, free shipping, a popup, a schedule, usage limits and attribution, depending on what you asked for.
- “Create a checkout link for the Winter Coat with 20% off”
- “Make a link that adds a free gift when someone spends over $100”
Nothing is created until you click Save. Sidekick prepares the link and hands it to you; you review it in the editor and decide. If it’s not quite right, change it there before saving, or ask Sidekick to adjust it first.
Sidekick builds new links. To change a link you already have, open it in the Checkout Links app.
Answering questions about the app
Sidekick can also answer product questions from this help centre — how a feature works, setup steps, limits, pricing and troubleshooting — and point you at the article it used.
- “How do tiered promotions work in Checkout Links?”
- “What’s the difference between a checkout link and a storefront link?”
Because it reads the live help centre, its answers stay in step with the product.
Tips
- Give the shortcode when you have it. It’s exact, and it saves Sidekick guessing between similarly named links.
- Ask “why isn’t this working” before rebuilding a link. Most broken links come down to a product or discount that needs one change in your Shopify admin.
- Check the editor before saving a link Sidekick built, particularly the cart and the promotion, so the discount lands where you expect.