Shopify has announced a major overhaul of how its salespeople earn commission following a fraud scandal that led to ultimatums and firings after it found some staff misrepresented the deals they were closing.

Compensation will soon be “100 per cent” tied to the billed revenue salespeople bring in through merchants that use Shopify, according to an announcement from chief operating officer Jess Hertz. The changes will come into effect in 2026.

Ben McConaghy, head of external communications at Shopify said that the changes were not linked to the sales fraud scandal. “We’ve challenged traditional frameworks before,” he said. “Rebuilding incentive models requires creating new tools, and that change takes time.”

Shopify’s salespeople are currently paid on intent, with their commission based on the annual revenue merchants estimated they would make when signing up to use Shopify’s services. That structure, in part, seemingly laid the groundwork for an environment where some Shopify salespeople inflated numbers when closing deals in an apparent effort to make more commission. Details of the sales fraud were revealed by The Logic last month.

Hertz described Shopify’s current sales commission system as “industry orthodoxy,” though sources previously told The Logic the structure was unusual, with one saying they had “never seen” a similar system.

At the time, McConaghy said that a “single-digit number of salespeople” had “misrepresented” what they had sold. The company investigated and fired them, he said, while also strengthening its systems.

As part of the new commission structure, Shopify will consider how merchants perform over a three-year period, making most salespeople “stakeholders in the long haul, paid as merchants actually succeed, not just when they sign,” Hertz claimed.

Salespeople will also be able to decide when to be paid out, choosing whether to withdraw their positions in particular merchants or hold onto them in the hope they increase in value as the merchants become more successful.

One person with knowledge of Shopify’s inner workings said the changes would prevent salespeople from being able to inflate the value of their deals.

Another said they expected this type of change following Shopify’s investigation into the sales fraud. “They’re going to have to change it,” they said of the compensation system that seemingly led to the fraud. The new system could also help keep salespeople at the company for longer, they said.

Hertz was promoted to COO in early October after Kaz Nejatian left the position to lead San Francisco-based Opendoor. At the same time, chief revenue officer Bobby Morrison, who was ultimately responsible for the sales division, suddenly left the company along with two other key executives. Hertz called the departures a “turning point” for the company after it had shifted too far from its “core.”