Are you struggling with your Shopify store?

Sometimes merely relying on employing the use of Shopify tools and Shopify apps just isn't quite cutting it.

For the growth that your ecommerce brands needs, it can come down to finding professionals who can help you set your domain up, design your page layouts, or run marketing campaigns to help build traffic and exposure.

Luckily for you, in this post, we’ve compiled a huge list of Shopify and ecommerce experts who know the platform and industry inside-out.

They eat, sleep and breathe Shopify, and will be able to solve your problems in a jiffy.

Hopefully allowing you to finally get a good night’s rest.

(NOTE: You don't need an expert to help you set up ReferralCandy for your store. Simply follow our easy-to-setup guide and you're all set to go!)

Continue scrolling down to find the right expert for you…

1. Storetasker

Specialty: Shopify Development

For projects big and small. Storetasker has helped over 30,000 ecommerce brands hire a reliable, talented, and trusted Shopify developer for their next project. They've interviewed over 5,000 developers, hand selected the top 5%, and streamlined the experience from end to end. It's free to get a quote, and projects start at $75.

2. SainStore

Specialty: International Expansion, Design, Conversion Optimization

SainStore is a full-featured Shopify Plus Partner that helps ecommerce stores brand, market, and expand into the overseas market. Their particular specialty is in removing the negative stigma of 'Made in China', helping manufacturers create a global, trusted, consumer-friendly brand.

3. ClearGo

Specialty: Website UX Design and Development, eCommerce Strategy, International Expansion, Custom Integrations

CLEARgo is a Shopify Plus Expert agency covering Brand.com, Marketplaces, and In-Store. They work with retailers to tap into Shopify Plus to deliver the Omni-Channel customer journey and regional expansion. ClearGo has a presence in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Melbourne.

4. Carson eCommerce

Specialty: Design and Development

They handle small theme tweaks, app integrations, store setups, custom development, and graphic adjustments for Shopify store.

5. Pivofy

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

Pivofy is a design firm that specializes in creating ecommerce sites that drive interaction, engageent and sales. They create revenue through amazing designs. The team at Povify has years of experience creating some of the most popular and sales-oriented websites in the world.

6. Onik Lab

Specialty: Retention Marketing for ecommerce

Onik Lab is a specialized Retention Marketing Agency that helps fast-growing ecommerce brands implement bullet-proof Email and SMS Marketing strategies. We create a better relationship with the brand's customers by transforming a simple list of "subscribers" into raving fans cheering on your brand—while increasing the store's returning customer rate and CLV. As a result, you'll add more profit to your top line without additional ad spending and time allocation.

7. Maukau

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

Maukau is a Paris-based agency that helps Shopify store owners with developing their brand’s presence online. They offer a wide range of communications-centered services and use a purposeful approach to developing strategies.

8. OnlyGrowth (Shopify Plus Experts)

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

OnlyGrowth is a team of Shopify Experts that helps leading brands increase conversions and achieve explosive growth. In addition to sharing some of the best advice, OnlyGrowth has an impeccable track record of growing brands on Shopify.

9. Ecommerce Boost

Specialty: Email marketing, SMS marketing, conversion rate optimization, and growth hacking

EcommerceBoost.io is a team of passionate ecommerce experts, with 14+ years in marketing across various niches.

They help ecommerce brands grow without spending more on ads. They've worked with over 50 ecommerce brands last year alone; from small boutique brands to award-winning brands doing 7-8 figures.

10. BlueStout

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

Blue Stout is a digital ecommerce agency. They help ecommerce companies predictably grow revenue by increasing conversions, sales, and profits by building customer acquisition systems and designing high-converting websites.

11. BTown Web

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

BTown Web is a full-service digital agency located in Seattle, Washington. They are experts at web design and web development and they love helping a customer craft a new vision for their company’s website or ecommerce store.

12. Hatch, Inc.

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

Hatch is a small, London based Shopify Expert studio that specializes in ecommerce design, development, and marketing. They are experienced in delivering a variety of services including Shopify store setups, Custom Store Design & Development, Customisations, App Integrations as well as ongoing retainer support and Ecommerce Rate Optimization.

13. SeedCMS

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

They are Southern California’s most experienced Shopify and Shopify Plus web development experts that are helping businesses across the nation grow. They have 4+ years of experience on the Shopify and Shopify Plus platforms.

14. Optimum7

Specialty: Ecommerce Development, Web Development, Conversion Optimization, Custom Software Development. Digital Strategy. Pay Per Click. Search Engine Optimization, and Web Design

Optimum7 is an ecommerce Development and Marketing Agency. They’re a passionately curious group of strategists, writers, designers, and technophiles who like big, actionable ideas. They never settle for “good enough.” They help ecommerce brands navigate the complexities and constant changes of the digital landscape so they can attract more qualified prospects, convert more leads, and generate more sales.

Their primary focus at Optimum7 is to provide clients with unique ecommerce and Digital Marketing solutions that they can grow their online businesses. Technology is constantly evolving and out-of-the-box hosting solutions simply cannot keep up with the rapid changes. Consequently, this limits the growth potential of online businesses and it is the reason why Optimum7 offers custom programming and ecommerce development solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of their clients. Whatever ecommerce businesses need to prosper, whether it is custom programming, custom functionality, custom web design, or marketing solutions like SEO and Content Marketing, Optimum7 can deliver.

They work and are partners with Bigcommerce, Shopify, Magento, 3DCart, Miva, WordPress, SAP, and Oracle.

15. ZAGO Sweden

Specialty: Design and Development

Since 2015, ZAGO Sweden has been helping more than 700 entrepreneurs to make their dream online stores come true. They’re a six-person studio based in Malmö, Sweden, and specialize in complex migrations, working with new store owners, and custom design.

16. Handwoven Industries

Specialty: Design and Development

They have been designing websites since 1997 and are known for their professional work.

17. Paralel

Specialty: Design and Development

They take care of every detail from design to custom requirements to helping grow your business online.

18. Sunbowl

Specialty: Design and Development

Whether brands have an existing site that could use some upgrades or require one built from the ground up—Sunbowl specializes in making online ecommerce stores the best they can be.

19. TaskHusky

Specialty: Design and Development

TaskHusky is a small development agency focused on delivering Shopify, BigCommerce & WordPress store owners with access to on-demand, always available, and affordable ecommerce developers.

20. Velstar Digital

Specialty: Design and Development

Velstar is a leading Shopify Plus agency. They scale direct-to-consumer brands like French Connection, AVON, and Castore through smart, end-to-end ecommerce solutions that fuel persistent growth. From building and optimizing Shopify Plus stores to acquiring new customers and making them stick, Velstar will help you crush your ecommerce goals, again and again.

21. Port80 Web Design

Specialty: Design and Development

Port 80 is a full-service web design and development studio that provides clients in Vancouver and around the globe with professionally developed websites.

22. Voltage New Media

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

Located in the heart of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Voltage is a small, passionate team of professional designers, developers, and marketers with clients worldwide. They create visually stunning websites that provide an exceptional user experience.

23. Underwater Pistol

Specialty: Design, Development & Growth

They are a dedicated and knowledgeable team of Shopify experts covering design, development, and marketing. They will work with brands every step of the way, from the planning and design of the web store, to site build, launch, and beyond.

24. SpurIT

Specialty: Development, Design, and Growth

SpurIT has a professional team with experience in developing eCommerce solutions and applications. They provide web development, design & digital marketing services, and can help take your online store to a whole new level of ROI.

25. The Ecomm Guys

Specialty: Development and Growth

The Ecomm Guys is a Shopify Experts agency that specialize in Shopify and Shopify Plus, SEO, Google Ads, and paid Social Media. With over 20+ years of combined experience on the Shopify platform, they have helped over 200 clients launch on Shopify and fuel their growth.

26. Interstice Consulting

Specialty: Conversion rate optimization, paid customer acquisition, CLV optimization

Interstice Consulting helps ecommerce brands to increase their online revenue via performance marketing. From copywriting to TikTok ads, email marketing with Klaviyo, and more. Interstice Consulting is a Shopify Expert agency (store setup + marketing) and a Klaviyo Master agency (email / CRM platform specialized in ecommerce).

27. Zettler Digital

Specialty: Conversion rate optimization, paid customer acquisition, CLV optimization

Founded by leading digital marketing and ecommerce expert Ben Zettler with a focus on ecommerce sales growth, Zettler Digital has supported over 300 brands since 2014, serving sellers of luxury goods, fashion, beauty products, lifestyle apparel and food/consumables, as well as world-class athletes. Services include email and SMS management via Klaviyo, Facebook/Instagram and Google Ads management and website optimization work. Ben Zettler Digital is a Shopify Plus Partner, Klaviyo Elite Partner and Facebook Business Preferred Partner.

28. K6 Agency

Specialty: Paid media

We specialize in paid advertising for fast-growing ecommerce brands. Their expertise extends to social media management & conversion rate optimization to strengthen the results of their client's paid advertising campaigns.

29. Intergrowth

Specialty: Content marketing and SEO

Intergrowth is an SEO-centric content marketing agency that helps growth-minded ecommerce businesses generate more online sales and brand awareness through educational content.

30. Rainfactory

Specialty: Ecommerce growth, email marketing, paid ads, product marketing, and social media

Award-winning digital agency specializing in ecommerce and product launches. Experts in email marketing, advertising, product marketing, and social media.

Our team of experts understands ecommerce, consumer behavior, and the key elements that brands need to scale their business. They've raised millions for client product launches on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Shopify and can help ecommerce teams do the same.

31. MochaBear Marketing

Specialty: Customer Lifecycle Strategy, Email Automation Implementation, Email Marketing Audits/Program Reviews, Email Template Design, Full-Service Email Program Management

MochaBear Marketing works with ecommerce clients utilizing MailChimp & Shopify by helping them integrate the platforms for customer journey management to ensure that customers and subscribers receive emails at the right point in their customer journey with your specific brand. They are a MailChimp Pro Partner and have more than 20 years of experience in the email marketing industry.

32. Email Broadcast

Specialty: Email Marketing Integration, Lead Generation, Sales Growth

Email Broadcast is a full-service email marketing agency with success in growing ecommerce companies. They connect Shopify stores with email marketing platforms to help you level up your email and social marketing efforts. Grow ecommerce businesses by sending new and existing customers the right messages at the right time—and bring all the sales and marketing data to one place. From integration to strategy and design, we help grow ecommerce businesses.

33. Thomas Holmes (Shopify And You)

Specialty: Design, Development, and Growth

Thomas Holmes is the author of Shopify & You, the easy-to-use, step-by-step ebook that covers everything you need to know about designing, setting up, and running an online store with Shopify. He also wrote An Introduction to Google Analytics For Ecommerce, which is available as a free download.

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Help is always around the corner

Remember:

You don’t have to do everything yourself.

In fact, it is better for you to focus on growing your business  than focusing on the small, minute details that bog you down.

If you need help designing, developing, doing Shopify SEO,or marketing your ecommerce store, be sure to check out some of these Shopify experts.

And if you need help setting up a referral program for your Shopify store, be sure to check out our new guide on how to set up a referral program for your Shopify store.

Here are more articles to help you in your journey growing your ecommerce brand:

• 9 Examples of Customer Appreciation Strategies for Ecommerce Brands
• How to Diversify Your Customer Acquisition Channels Beyond Ads
• 10 Powerful Customer Acquisition Tools To Grow Your Sales Fast
• Are You Doing What Is Needed to Improve Your Customer Lifetime Value?
• How to Use Referral Marketing to Scale Your Organic Customer Acquisition

Every successful business has strategies to improve both customer acquisition and retention. Simply put, you can’t have one without the other if you want to grow.

How can you measure the retention side of your business? Customer lifetime value, or CLV, is one metric you should be tracking closely to understand your success.  

CLV tells you how much your business can plan to earn from the average customer throughout the entirety of your relationship with them. And in all honesty, improving your CLV is a never-ending battle.

Your strategy must be holistic, taking into account your engagement metrics, your product quality, your customer service, and your marketing initiatives. That’s why it’s important to monitor your data and discover new ways you can level up your customer experience and keep people happy long-term. 

That being said, it’s important to note that improving your CLV isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. What works for some brands won’t work for others. It varies by industry, product, and brand. You need to focus on finding out what your customers respond to and build your strategy around that.

Today, I’m going to show you a few different ways you can improve your CLV based on tips I gathered from ecommerce experts who have successfully raised theirs.

How important is CLV?

Improving your CLV is more than a single retention metric—it impacts all areas of your business. 

As Lillie Sun, DTC Strategy Consultant, explains: “Acquisition is only one part of the equation. Your ability to retain customers and have them continue spending with your brand is ultimately what separates successful companies from ones that aren’t.” 

Keep in mind that existing customers spend 67% more on average than new customers. While it can be difficult to find out what makes your customers tick, once you do, you’re well on your way to seeing fast growth.

We asked a few other ecommerce experts to share why this metric is important to them. From growth, and word-of-mouth marketing, to reducing your churn rate, there are many reasons to improve your CLV. 

CLV and word-of-mouth marketing (WOM)

People are more likely to talk about your brand if they feel loyal to it. 

What does that mean? If your products are a regular part of shoppers’ routines and they’re consistently impressed with the quality, they’ll share those experiences with friends and family.

“A strong CLV means your customers will help you grow as well through word of mouth marketing. As they become valuable, loyal customers, chances are they’ll spread your brand to their community and friends and that is a huge growth channel to take advantage of,” Lillie explains.

Considering WOM brings in 5 times more sales than paid media, you may want to take Lillie up on this advice. 

CLV and growth

Every team will always grind away at customer acquisition; it’s essential for growing your revenue year over year. 

However, as Dave Rekuc, President and COO of BambuEarth explains, a high CLV means you don’t have to be 100% reliant on new acquisitions to succeed. Even during difficult times or slow periods, you’ll have a group of loyal customers you can rely on to drive your brand forward.

Dave shared with us that “CLV provides stability in the event of some rough times acquiring customers. Platforms make changes, CPMs rise, and your ads just aren't working. Brands that have high CLV can lean on their customers’ repeat revenue, and the ship won't sink if they have an off month or two.”

And for many brands, especially in high-competing industries, prioritizing CLV helps compound the expensive cost of customer acquisition. 

For example, Robert Weatherhead, Co-Owner of BonCru Wines, shares how CLV is critical for his business because he is a reseller of wines that are typically available in certain brick and mortar stores. 

“We face a constant battle with getting people to buy from us over our competition. This means the cost of acquiring the first sale is steep, so keeping them as a customer and optimizing for CLV is crucial to growing our business profitably,” he explained.

CLV and churn

A high CLV is a good indication that customers are having a good experience shopping at your store. In fact, 49% of consumers tend to leave a brand due to poor customer experiences.

This means you can use your CLV to determine whether you need a CX tune-up. 

If your CLV is lower than you need it to be, it’s time to look into techniques to improve it. Thankfully, we have a few tips on how to do that.

5 ways to double down on CLV

The good thing about growing your CLV is it’s never too late to start. We asked the pros to share some tips for you all, so here are five key considerations to improve your CLV both short-term and long-term.

1. Don’t forget the basics

I know what you’re doing… you’re scanning Twitter, reading articles, and following your competitors and inspirers closely trying to come up with super creative ways to impress your customers.

It’s okay to be influenced by others who are growing their CLV successfully, but remember, it's always good to go back to the principles and build a strong foundation. So don’t forget to start with the basics. 

Robert Weatherhead explains why: “Our approach is not rocket science. It comes down to the basics of marketing in a competitive industry. We aim to consistently remind people we exist, and give them reasons to come back.”

What do we mean by basics? Essentially, these five components:

1. Being consistent with email marketing flows and campaigns
2. Creating content and landing pages optimized for keywords
3. Maintaining an organic social media strategy 
4. Setting up good customer support systems 
5. Optimizing for a fast-loading website that’s easy to navigate 

In fact, a consistent email marketing and social media strategy is a big reason behind Robert’s success. Even though he admits he hasn’t gotten overly creative with his approach to CLV, being consistent on these two channels alone has improved his customer return rate by over 50% in one year. 

“We have customers who have spent thousands with us over their lifetime, and we still see customers return through our emails who haven't purchased in 18 months, sometimes longer. The cost of bringing them back via email is peanuts compared to finding a new customer and convincing them,” said Robert.

But when it comes to email marketing, the trick isn’t to just send customers anything and everything. To be truly successful, it requires a deeper strategy, so let’s look at what that means.

2. Invest in strategic email marketing

Lillie Sun is a full-time ecommerce consultant now, but before that she worked in-house at a successful beauty brand. As the growth lead for this brand for two years, Lillie believed it was important to invest resources into a thoughtful email marketing strategy. 

To Lillie, this meant carefully segmenting the brand’s email list so customers received the right email at the right time. And instead of trying to constantly sell to shoppers after they just purchased, she would be more strategic about targeting customers when they were running low on products.

“We had our list segmented by skin concern so all of our messaging were extremely relatable. This led to our monthly revenue being about 30% driven by email and seeing 35%-40% returning customer rate consistently,” she said.

To gather this detailed customer information, Lillie invested in an Octane AI quiz to ask customers about their skin concerns and goals. She would then segment those customers in Klaviyo and create custom flows for shoppers to educate them about products that would target their problems. 

Speaking of quizzes, did you know they can help your customers avoid user error too?

3. Help customers avoid user error

A quick recipe for customer churning is when they purchase the wrong product for their needs. But on the flip side of the coin—if they use your products successfully, they’ll be more likely to stick around long-term.

A quiz can help your customers by guiding them to the right products.

In most cases, shoppers don’t know which products in your catalog will help them overcome certain pain points. If a customer has oily skin, they may accidentally purchase something for dry skin. If a shopper has wide feet, they may accidentally purchase sandals for thin feet. You get the picture.

With a quiz, you can ask customers detailed questions about what they’re looking for and direct them to the right products. 

“Our quiz helps customers select the right products for their skin. User error is real and customers don't always know what's right for their needs. Helping people buy the right product means they'll be more satisfied with their purchase. Increased satisfaction leads to more purchases on average,” said Dave Rekuc. 

This strategy has been incredibly successful for Dave to increase Bambu Earth’s CLV. He uses a tool called Statlas to track CLV, and as an example, he found that if a new customer purchases one of Bambu Earth’s moisturizers (one of their most popular products) they’ll spend another 25-35% on average over the next 60 days. 

However, if someone purchases a personalized mini kit through Bambu Earth’s skin quiz, they’ll spend up to 60% more over the next 60 days, which is more than double the 60-day post-acquisition value.

4. Leverage loyalty and referral programs 

Consider this: 65% of all consumers find a positive experience with a brand is more influential than great advertising. Additionally, customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher retention rate. 

Why are those two statistics important? 

Because a good customer experience leads to loyalty which leads to those customers organically referring your brand to others. And since referred customers are more likely to stick around long-term, having a referral program is a great tactic for driving up both your acquisition and CLV through simple customer appreciation.

Note: a good referral strategy doesn’t mean launching a program and assuming it’ll work on its own. It requires deep planning, a proper launch, and additional promotional effort.

But when done well, it works.

“High CLV customers have a better chance at serendipity to mention your brand.” - Dave Rekuc, President & COO Bambu Earth

5. Create and distribute educational content

Remember when I mentioned earlier the importance of customers using your product correctly? Well, that goes beyond just finding the right product. It also includes educating your customers on how to use your products so they see the best results.

Bambu Earth does this in various ways: they have tips on product landing pages, how-to videos on social media, and application steps on certain product pages.

“We noticed many of our customers didn't make a repeat purchase simply because they didn't use our products correctly. This is a great problem to discover because it means there's a tremendous opportunity,” explained Dave Rekuc.

He suggests investing in how-to videos and educational email flows, while also making sure your customer service team is proactive about solving these questions for new customers. 

Grow your CLV today, thank us tomorrow

So now you’ve learned how CLV impacts different areas of your business and different strategies you can implement to improve it.

What’s next?

Coming up with an actual plan. 

And as experts in retention and word-of-mouth marketing, we can help. Let’s look at a few articles to kickstart your CLV strategy: 

• Thinking About Starting a Referral Program? Start Here
• 6 Ways Brands Are Driving WOM in the Beauty Industry
• 9 Examples of Customer Appreciation Strategies for Ecommerce Brands

Alternatively, come join us at The CLV Revolution, the first ever global event dedicated to mastering Customer Lifetime Value. In a world rapidly shifting from acquisition marketing to lifecycle marketing, ecommerce owners are realizing the key to business success lies in building profitable and long-term customer relationships. Join us and 30+ global ecommerce leaders this September 22-23 and discover how to improve ROAS, reduce costs, increase retention rates, boost client satisfaction and grow revenue using the power of existing customers!

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Scroll through TikTok or Instagram at any given time, and chances are you’ll find more than one influencer sharing about the latest find or purchase with their followers.

Regardless of how many followers an influencer has, simply sharing about a product or service is enough to increase traffic (and sales) back to the brand they’re sharing.  

For ecommerce brands, in particular, the benefit of incorporating influencer marketing into the overall brand strategy works in two important ways: it puts products in front of a target audience and builds awareness through word-of-mouth marketing. Therefore, influencer marketing is one of the most popular strategies for ecommerce brands.  

Word-of-mouth marketing, or more specifically, referral marketing, works by providing customers with referral links that can then be used in a variety of ways on social media, email, or websites. By encouraging others to use referral links, ecommerce brands increase traffic and revenue while offering loyal customers commissions or rewards as an incentive.

Just how powerful is influencer marketing for ecommerce brands? Let’s take a look:

• For every $1 spent toward influencer marketing, brands see upwards of $6.50 in revenue, according to a study by Tomoson.  
• There’s a growing trend in ecommerce businesses to put more of the budget into influencer marketing, as explained by Social Media Today. Nearly 48% of brands surveyed said they allot at least $100,000 to the influencer (and creator) marketing and plan to increase budgets annually.
•  Micro-influencers (those between 1,000 and 100,000 followers) are seeing the most demand from ecommerce brands due to their loyal and engaged followings.   

For brands looking to build traction, increase revenue, and grow brand awareness consistently over the long term, a good referral program ticks all the boxes and adds credibility to even the most established ecommerce brands.

Ready to learn more about how to use influencer marketing as a stepping stone to creating an effective referral integration? Let’s dive in.  

3 ways influencer marketing can help your referral program

Implementing a referral program into your marketing strategy is an effective way to boost awareness and increase sales, but how do you get started?

It starts with utilizing the help of influencers to spread brand awareness. 

This is where micro and nano-influencers come into play, too. For ecommerce brands, budget limitations are often a big hurdle—but that doesn’t mean small and mid-sized brands can’t reap the benefits of influencer marketing because they can (and do). 

Micro-influencers help put ecommerce brands on an equal footing with bigger brands. In many cases, working with smaller influencers has a bigger return on investment (more about this in a minute!). 

Laying the foundation

Connecting with the right influencers is an essential step in laying the foundation for a strong referral program.

It’s no secret just how powerful the relationship between influencer, brand, and consumer is today. Nearly every ecommerce brand has a social media presence (or at least they should!), and with that comes the opportunity to reach new customers daily.  

Influencers help bridge the gap between consumers and brands by connecting with a brand’s target audience, creating conversations about goods and services, and offering valuable insight into what your audience wants. 

For brands looking to create a stronger presence online or with consumers, influencers elevate brand credibility, too—especially with millennial and Gen Z shoppers.

Choosing influencers that align with your brand's goals and voice is key to creating an authentic and organic relationship with customers.

Choosing the right influencers for your brand 

There’s a reason why connecting with micro-influencers is ideal for small to mid-sized ecommerce brands with a limited budget. With a “smaller” following than mega or macro-influencers, it’s typically one with greater engagement and loyalty than influencers with large accounts.

Micro-influencers also have more credibility and confidence from their followers than larger accounts. They’re typically more engaged with followers, increasing awareness and genuine connection for the brand.

Here’s a tip: look to influencers as a long-time partnership rather than one-off projects. In addition to building a loyal relationship, consumers are more apt to trust brands they frequently see from those they follow.

One of the biggest roadblocks for larger influencers is the idea that they’ll work with any brand as long as it pays well. Connecting with micro-influencers through long-term partnerships highlights brand authenticity and genuine trust for influencers and your target audience. 

Creating a Referral Program

Integrating influencer marketing and referral marketing is the next step. Once you’ve got your referral program in place, it’s time to have influencers share about the program on their social media. Here are some tips on building momentum:

•  It all starts with word-of-mouth. An effective way to get started? Simply ask influencers you work with to discuss the program in the content they create for the brand.
• Use promotional codes to attract and reward visitors to your ecommerce website. By connecting influencers with unique referral codes, they’ll earn rewards or commissions for driving shoppers where you want them, and customers will be more enticed to shop when a deal is promoted.
• Make it easy for customers to sign up for their own referral links. As more shoppers see their favorite influencers touting brand products and earning rewards, they will want to get in on the action and sign up for their own code. This process needs to be as quick and simple as possible, as customers will be less likely to sign up if there are any roadblocks.

The key to creating an effective referral program is to keep it as authentic and organic as possible.

With every post an influencer makes, there are dozens of consumers asking questions about brands and products—by creating a genuine relationship with influencers (and future customers), a referral program has the potential to increase the growth of your ecommerce brand drastically.

5 brands that have used influencers to boost their referral program

Curious to see how influencers have helped boost referral programs for other brands? Here are just a handful of examples:

Book of the Month

• Readers love to connect with other readers. Subscription-based Book of the Month offers special discounts and rewards to members who use referral links to share discounts with friends and family.
• One great feature is with every referral, both parties get a book at a discounted rate.

• There’s also a branded hashtag used on social media, connecting book lovers together in a community (increasing visibility and engagement).

Hello Fresh

• There’s no shortage of referral benefits for those new to this popular meal kit service. 

• New customers can take advantage of savings with the first purchase, and there are a handful of options for connecting friends and family with free meals. Whether it’s a monetary discount or boxes with additional meals, there’s an incentive to share codes to get additional meals (which works well for an audience looking for shortcuts in the kitchen!). 

Highline Wellness

• As a growing CBD brand, relying on word-of-mouth marketing helps expand brand awareness. 

• Influencer WhatLolaLikes has partnered with the brand and shares frequently enough that her followers are familiar with the product and trust her opinions.
• By signing up for the referral program, customers start earning points and continue to earn redeemable points with purchases, referrals and shares, and other actionable steps that elevate the brand. 

Brilliant Earth

• Ecommerce brands in competitive categories must look for ways to attract new shoppers. For jewelry brand Brilliant Earth, a referral program helps reach a broader audience and rewards shoppers with savings on future purchases. 

• Jewelry is a special purchase, so brands like this need to look for fresh ways to attract new customers. Since engagement rings and other pieces always garner attention from friends and family, having a referral program helps Brilliant Earth tap into that potential (and reward loyal customers).

Love Wellness

• With an emphasis on wellness and health being such an important conversation online, Love Wellness taps into the community aspect with its referral program. 

• Each referral comes with a reward discount that can be used on future purchases. Additionally, customers that use referral links can try the brand out and save if they spend over a certain dollar amount.

Kickstart your referral program with influencers

Working with influencers isn’t just about promoting products. 

Using influencers or creators as brand ambassadors or spokespeople is one of the best ways to build brand credibility and interest in a way that makes sense for future customers and partnerships. 

Can you have a referral program set up before you connect with influencers? 

Sure. But that’s not all that needs to be done. Launching the program and spreading awareness is the step that will take your ecommerce brand to the next level.

With every new customer you bring on, there are more customers to reach! Promoting a referral program is the same as any other feature—it takes consistency and authentic messaging to attract attention.  

Here are a couple of articles on referral marketing and influencer marketing that we think you might like:

• How to Start Influencer Marketing for Your Ecommerce Business (With Examples!)
• How to Find Authentic and Affordable Influencers for Your Brand
• How to Collaborate With Influencers Besides Sponsoring Posts‍
• 10+ Top Ecommerce Referral Programs to Learn From
• How to Use Referral Marketing to Scale Your Organic Customer Acquisition