First phase helps partners earn more and upskill, and introduces new partner events New incentives give partners the opportunity to earn up to 2x or more with multiple ways to generate revenue Global certification program helps partners upskill and demonstrate their technical expertise More opportun
Link: https://investors.shopify.com/news-and-events/press-releases/news-details/2023/Shopify-Announces-Multi-Year-Initiative-to-Transform-Partner-Program/default.aspx
“Partner payola increasing” is what I am getting out of this so far.
Their cost of sales will go up as part of their move up-market.
As a shopify partner and a part of the FB group of the partners, I would say they do have bigger issues than just “make payouts bigger and allow upskill and certify”, the whole Lead reference flow is extremely vulnerable, quick example, to be Shopify Plus partner you need to bring Shopify Plus Client, you bring one, fill up everything the Shopify Rep reaches out to the Client and goes like: “hey this agency is not Plus agency yet so we would redirect you to work with another partner” … well this is very useful and encouraging 
Client end up not moving further because was working with us continuously and if we can’t work on their migration to Shopify Plus they just remain staying on their current platform…
Stories from FB Partner Group Chat are also very interesting and on top of it, Partners Tech support can be waaay better too.
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I’m not so sure about the payola part. I’d love to hear from a Shop partner, but the fine print looks like the 20% rev share is paid only on the Shopify Plus base price ($2K/mo) vice the full monthly invoice which is the $2K + the .25% of revenue atop that for anyone doing >$1M annual revenue. So the percentage stayed the same, but the ceiling lowered.
There are some SPIFs/bounties for the Global-E rebadge, POS, and “Commerce Components” (details to follow I’m sure).
What I see in this is adding credentialing/badging which their competitor partner programs have had for a while and is much needed. And perhaps a kindler, gentler partner program.
I have seen worse arrangements, where the enterprise software owner sells into a customer, and then introduces a “gold” SI partner, with said SI partner being forced to take on the work even if they think the customer is not in a position to make the project a success…