These are the best Shopify apps to grow your ecommerce store revenues in 2022.
We focused on apps that would help you grow your brand, your business, or your revenues. There are many lists of ‘Best Shopify apps’ out there, but we didn’t want to focus on apps dealing with dropshipping, inventory, or fulfillment.
Instead, we identified 40 Shopify apps that fell into one of two categories:
Without further ado, let’s take a look:
Shopify’s Google Channel makes it easy for you to list products for free on Google and run Smart Shopping campaigns.
Reach more customers across YouTube, Gmail, Google Search, and Google Display Network.
Free trial: Free to install
Price: Free; the ad spend is billed directly to Google Ads
Best used for:
CedCommerce’s Suite for Google Shopping Fed surfaces your products on various Google properties, like Buy On Google, Shopping Ads, Local Inventory Ads, and more.
Free trial: Free plan available, 7-day free trial.
Price: From $14/month
Best used for:
AdRoll powers advertising and remarketing campaigns for thousands of merchants, and boasts the ability to run a campaign that integrates email and ads.
AdRoll boasts AI-optimized ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and over 500 networks.
Free trial: 30-day free trial, Free plan available
Price: From $25/month, plus advertising costs
Best used for:
Automizely Traffic lets you target and retarget customers with the right ads at the right time.
The ads exchange allows you to display your products in other stores, in exchange for promoting partner ads on your website - a win-win for both your stores.
Free trial: Free!
Price: Free!
Best used for:
VideoWise allows you to embed shoppable videos from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube on your store in a page-speed friendly way.
You can also add buy buttons to the video player to boost engagement and conversion rates.
Free trial: 14-day free trial
Price: From $49/month plus 2% of direct video orders
Best used for:
Outfy makes it easy to create product collages, videos, gifs, and ads, and publish them to top social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and more.
The autopilot feature allows you to curate and publish posts automatically to promote and sell more.
Free trial: 7-day free trial.
Price: From $15/month
Best used for:
Instagram Feed + Stories allows you to publish Instagram Stories and highlights to your website.
If you’re working with Instagram influencers, this app will be a perfect complement to your campaign.
Free trial: Free to install
Price: $4.95/month after 1,000 page visits
Best used for:
Instafeed allows you to embed shoppable Instagram feeds on your Shopify store.
You can use Instagram to drive new traffic and content to your store, expand the reach to your followers, and convert store visitors into customers.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $4.99/month
Best used for:
ReferralCandy helps you grow your sales through word-of-mouth marketing, by rewarding customers for referring their friends. We also allow brands to run an affiliate program with cash payouts for successful purchases.
ReferralCandy powers referral programs for over 3,000 brands, and is one of the best Shopify and Shopify Plus referral apps out there.
Free trial: 30-day free trial
Price: $49/month plus commissions
Best used for:
The Dovetale Community platform offers key features to manage an influencer marketing platform.
Dovetale’s key features include custom recruitment pages, easy gifting templates to send gifts at scales, as well as easy tracking of commissions and payouts through PayPal.
Free trial: Free plan available; 7-day free trial
Price: From $19/month
Best used for:
Smile.io is a loyalty platform best known for customer retention and VIP programs, but they also offer rewards for referral programs. Smile.io allows you to quickly set up and run your rewards program.
Boost new and repeat sales with Smile.io, the trusted loyalty provider for over 50,000 stores.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $49/month
Best used for:
Goaffpro’s professional affiliate marketing app aims to turn your customers into marketing partners and affiliates.
Goaffpro also allows your affiliates to bring in other affiliates, to grow your network and revenues exponentially.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $24 per month
Best used for:
Refersion is a complete marketing platform for influence, affiliate, and brand ambassadors. You can even find new affiliates and influencers in the Refersion Marketplace for free.
Refersion offers a customizable affiliate registration page, dashboards to track performance, as well as automatic coupon code creation for rewards.
Free trial: 14-day free trial
Price: $89/month with performance-based pricing
Best used for:
Junip makes it easy to request customer reviews and display them on your product pages to help you convert customers. It also features review replies, Google Reviews snippets, and incentives for reviews.
Junip powers over 2,000 Shopify brands including top DTC brands like Doe Lashes, Huron, Baboon to the Moon, and more.
Free trial: 14-day free trial
Price: From $19/month
Best used for:
Stamped.io is a social proof marketing platform, based on generating high-impact reviews, ratings, community Q&As as well as user-generated content like customer photos and videos.
Stamped.io aims to boost your sales and traffic by generating high-quality, informative reviews and sharing them to Facebook, Google. Instagram and more.
Free trial: 7-day free trial, Free tier available
Price: From $23/month
Best used for:
Loox collects photo and video reviews, prompts customers for referrals, and displays the social proof with beautiful-looking widgets.
By collecting social proof and driving word-of-mouth, Loox aims to drive customer retention and build brand awareness to drive revenue.
Free trial: 14-day free trial
Price: From $9.99/month, +$5 for Loox referrals
Best used for:
Reviewbit’s WhatsApp Customer Reviews prompts customers to create photo and product reviews through WhatsApp, which has a 100% open rate and higher response rate.
Best of all, the app integrates with Loox, Yotpo, and Judge.Me, so you can publish reviews collected through WhatsApp
Free trial: No free trial
Price: Free to install, but review requests start at $0.01 per message.
Best used for:
Judge.me prompts your customers to create star ratings and reviews about your products and Shopify store, then displays it beautifully on your website with theme templates.
Judge.me offers free photo and video reviews, and allows you to publish reviews on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr to boost sales and social proof.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $15/month
Best used for:
Growave is an all-in-one Shopify marketing app with powerful tools for photo reviews, wishlists, loyalty programs, gift cards, referrals, and UGC. Strengthen the customer-brand relationships, increase repeat purchases, and boost engagement using convertible loyalty points, gifts & VIP-tiers membership on your site along with many other things.
Free trial: 30-day free trial
Price: Starts from $9/month
Best used for:
The average attention span of a shopper is five to eight seconds. Product Badges aims to capture customer attention with badges like “20% Off” or “Best Seller!”
Mode Magic received an award for ease of use from Shopify, and also offers 3,000+ product badges and stickers ready to go.
Free trial: Free plan available; 7-day free trial
Price: From $9/month
Best used for:
PushOwl allows you to send web push notifications to your customers – to remind them of abandoned carts, discounts, or items back-in-stock.
You can reach out to anonymous shoppers and browsers, get opt-in for email, push or text notifications, and turn them into subscribers.
Free trial: Free tier available
Price: From $19/month
Best used for:
Zipify’s One Click Upsell app maximizes the average order value for your customers by offering one-click upsells, both when customers are viewing their cart and during post-purchase checkout.
Zipify also boasts split testing and upsells on the Thank You page, to maximize revenue.
Free trial: 30-day free trial
Price: From $24.99/month
Best used for:
ReConvert offers you the ability to customize your order confirmation/thank you page, allowing you to create a post-purchase funnel for more upsell opportunities.
Since customers visit the order status page to review shipping updates, it’s a perfect opportunity to retarget customers for an upselling opportunity.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $7.99/month
Best used for:
Shop-pop helps you reach customers with opt-in alerts on WhatsApp and Messenger. Customers can opt-in to receive alerts for new products, price drops, back-in-stock, and more.
ShopPop boasts 95% open rates for their alerts and easy data sync with Klaviyo.
Free trial: Free for up to 50 customers;
Price: Starting from $8/month
Best used for:
Klaviyo, a unified customer platform for email, SMS, and more, gives your online brand direct ownership of your consumer data and interactions—so you can talk to every customer like you know them, and grow your business on your own terms.
Klaviyo integrates with other ecommerce platforms as well as plenty of apps (including ReferralCandy),
Free trial: Free tier
Price: Emails—Starting from $20/month (based on number of contacts); Email and SMS—Starting from $35/month (based on number of contacts)
Best used for:
Thousands of Shopify and Shopify Plus stores use Postscript as a turnkey solution for their SMS marketing.
Postscript also boasts a Safe Send feature to avoid sending too many text messages to a single customer.
Free trial: 30-day free trial
Price: From $25/month, with additional credits for SMS or MMS.
Best used for:
Omnisend is an email and SMS marketing platform powering over 70,000 ecommerce merchants and a 9.3 ease-of-use rating on G2.
Omnisend allows you to send stunning newsletters, create automated ecommerce flows, and collect email and SMS opt-ins.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $16/month
Best used for:
Privy offers a suite of marketing tools for SMS and email marketing and conversion-focused tools like pop-ups and wheels.
Privy also offers campaign triggers to show discounts and offers to customers at the right time.
Privy also has the most reviews on our list—over 24,000 reviews at the time of writing!
Free trial: 15-day free trial, Free plan is also available
Price: From $15/month
Best used for:
Grow sales, offer real-time support, and deliver personalized experiences via SMS. Cartloop helps Shopify brands build a compliant SMS marketing list and grow like never before. Their 24/7 Live Shopping Agents connect with your customers in real-time with an emotive approach, helping them navigate shipping questions, find the right products, and close sales with personal attention that builds confidence and trust in your brand.
Free trial: No free trial. but there is a freemium plan that starts at $0 and has 250 credits included
Price: From $100/month
Best used for:
PageFly helps create beautiful, high-quality pages for Shopify stores—everything from landing pages to FAQs and blog pages.
They also boast an Element Library with templates, custom animations, and trust badges like Reviews, Ratings, and Seals.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $19 per month
Best used for:
Builder.io offers a powerful drag-and-drop visual editor that allows you to manage and publish content on any site or app -- headless CMS at its finest.
Nik Sharma has spoken highly of Builder.io, which also powers Alo Yoga, Harry’s, Everlane, and more.
Free trial: 14-day free trial
Price: From $20/month, plus additional charges per user and by monthly views
Best used for:
This app does exactly what it says on the tin - allow you to add a Free Shipping announcement bar to your store. It also auto-detects the customer’s local currency and adjusts the free shipping amount instantly (e.g. Free shipping over $50 in the US and C$70 in Canada).
Research suggests that 88% of consumers would be more likely to shop if they were offered free shipping - so it’s a simple app to increase customers.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $9.99 per month
Best used for:
EComposer Page Builder is a codeless app that allows merchants to create their stunning website with any page type: Landing page, Homepage, Product, Collection, About us, etc.
EComposer is beginner-friendly, conversion-driving, and mobile-first optimized. Newbies can easily build their store with tons of pre-made layouts and sections, just drag & drop everything.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: Paid plan from $14.99/month
Best used for:
Run a high-converting, engaging store with ModeMagic by Mason—an all-in-one, no-code, store conversion app made for Shopify stores.
With ModeMagic’s plug-n-play conversion playbooks, easily personalize your store for customers, without a coder or designer.
Use the app’s merchandising tools to promote products & keep your ecommerce shop dynamic 24/7—countdown timers, product highlight cards, sales, discounts, bestsellers & new arrival automation; make it happen with zero manual work!
Free trial: Free forever!
Price:
Best used for:
Gorgias offers a platform for Shopify brands to manage their customer support, all in one place. The centralized CRM offers support on every channel, from email and live chat to phone and social media.
Gorgias boasts a strong integration with Shopify, allowing your customer support team to see order details and refund, cancel or duplicate without leaving the app.
Free trial: 7-day free trial
Price: From $60 per month, plus additional charges per 100 tickets
Best used for:
Tidio offers a live chat app bolstered by marketing automation and chatbots to address your customers’ needs and increase sales instantly.
Tidio boasts chatbots that can automatically reply to 43% of the most common queries, including questions about tracking and an Abandoned Cart Bot that offers discounts to help convert customers.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $15 per seat per month
Best used for:
Did you know that consumers check the status of their order at least four times before it’s delivered? These WISMO (Where Is My Order?) tickets are especially frustrating for customers if packages get lost or are delayed, and create a poor impression of your brand.
Wonderment turns order tracking into a growth channel with proactive shipping tracking. You can direct customers to on-brand tracking pages to deliver upsells and a better customer experience.
Free trial: Free plan available for up to 500 orders/month
Price: From $49/month for up to 4000 shipments per month
Best used for:
Vajro enables Shopify store owners to convert their online stores into native android and iOS apps within 60 minutes, without writing a single line of code.
With more than 1300 five-star reviews on Shopify, Vajro has helped 3000+ Shopify merchants to sell more and engage better with their customers.
Free trial: 30 days
Price: Starts at $99/month
Best used for:
Shopney is known for its unique feature set and famous ease of use in the Shopify mobile app builder market.
Shopney offers 8 different theme options for your Shopify store as a unique Shopify mobile app builder feature to make sure you display your products most impressively in the product listing (PLP) and product display (PDP), and increase your sales!
Besides, to increase your customer retention and engagement, Shopney provides in-app chat with you as another unique mobile app builder feature. So, you can convert your customers with a 1-to-1 dialogue, offering customers a personalized shopping experience.
Free trial: 30 days
Price: $99/month
Best used for:
Octane AI offers quizzes and pop-ups to create a better shopping experience for customers. From a simple email-capture pop-up to more complicated quizzes about product preferences, Octane AI helps you generate customer insights while staying GDPR compliant.
With the rise of iOS 14 and the age of data privacy, insights from Octane AI will become more valuable to create product recommendations and advanced segmentation. But don’t take our word for it - the official Shopify Hardware store uses Octane AI too!
Free trial: 14-day free trial
Price: Starting at $29 per month
Best used for:
Retention Rocket helps Shopify stores build a list of phone numbers, engage customers through 1:1 conversations, and automate SMS campaigns.
Retention Rocket prides itself on automated flows like abandoned cart and win-back series, as well as creating granular segments using Shopify data.
Free trial: Free plan available
Price: From $10/month, plus charges per SMS
Best used for:
Govalo aims to reinvent the gift card for Shopify stores, with gift card purchases, welcome gifts for new customers, and premium analytics and data.
Customers hesitate to make the first purchase because of high price points - a problem Govalo aims to eliminate with their digital gift cards. With the gift card market growing at 14% annually, this could be an interesting app.
Free trial: 7-day free trial
Price: From $0 per month (but 2.9% commission on gift card value) to $500 and 2.4%
Best used for:
Skio Subscriptions aims to make subscriptions easier - and capture all of Recharge’s customers. They offer merchants an easier way to modify subscriptions, a headless subscription portal, and native Shopify Checkout.
Merchants who are struggling with Bold and Recharge subscription apps can consider Skio as an alternative.
Free trial: 60-day free trial
Price: $299/month plus commissions
Best used for:
BEST Currency Converter allows you to display prices in different international currencies. The Elite plan even updates the currency automatically, based on your customer’s browsing location.
This makes the shopping experience easier for your international customers.
Free trial: Free tier available
Price: $9.95/month for >5 currencies and auto-switch by customer location
Best used for:
Triple Whale offers a unified dashboard for all your important ecommerce metrics, pulling from your tech stack like Shopify, Klaviyo, Facebook, Gorgias, and more.
We’ve included Triple Whale here because of glowing endorsements from DTC brands like Doe Lashes, Muddy Bites, and Obvi, but we haven’t tried it out yet. It’s one to watch, and maybe sign up for, but stay tuned.
Free trial: None
Price: Starting from $100/month
Best used for:
Relo is the easiest way for DTC brands to get customers to order again, try a subscription and stay on subscription. We predict when customers are going to buy again, sync that data to your Klaviyo & send personalized email comms to your customers.
Free trial: 30 days
Price: Starting from $200/month
Best used for:
Vidjet is a video player that turns videos into direct revenue. Using innovative video formats, segmentation options, and shoppable features, merchants can expose their visitors to videos, at the appropriate moment of their journey.
Free trial: 14-day trial, and a freemium option
Price: Starting from $29 to $299
Best used for:
Looking for more resources? Check out these other resources:
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Referral marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies: using your current customers to spread the word about your brand to new customers.
We compiled a truly epic list of the best referral program ideas currently on the market, along with recommendations on what kinds of referral program software to use, incentives to offer, and current customers to target for your very own referral program.
But hang on—there's a catch.
It's not always easy for your customers to do. Between their hectic work schedules and a never-ending list of social and family obligations, your marketing strategy is the last thing on their minds.
To turn your loyal customers into your biggest brand advocates, you have to make the referral process as easy as possible for them, and you have to stay top-of-mind with killer referral incentives, like free products and major discounts.
Instead of reinventing the wheel to come up with your own referral marketing ideas, you may want to take inspiration from top brands who are absolutely killing it with referral programs.
By the end of our list, you will have enough referral program ideas to launch your very own program and open the floodgates of another customer acquisition channel for your business.
Before we begin, let's break down some basic referral marketing definitions so that we know that we're all on the same page.
A referral program or a “refer-a-friend” program is a marketing strategy used by many top ecommerce brands to incentivize existing customers to recommend the brand and its products to their family and friends.
A referral program is a deliberate, systematic way of getting people to make referrals to your business. Referral programs are often called word-of-mouth marketing, because they reward existing customers for sharing and incentivize new customers to try out your brand.
Customers are rewarded with referral incentives, such as free cash, major discounts, or a free month of subscription. While there is an upfront cost to the business, referral programs significantly increase long-term revenue by making loyal customers out of your existing customer base.
If you are wondering why you should have a referral program and how to run one, let’s take a look at how the top ecommerce brands are running their referral programs and the results they have achieved.
Before we begin, let's quickly go through the basics of referral programs.
One of the biggest stresses of any business is finding a solid customer acquisition channel, or basically, bringing in new customers. When you have a solid referral marketing program, however, you let your existing customers bring new buyers to your brand. This not only significantly reduces spending on bringing new customers to your shop, but also increases customer retention, which is a very good thing.
Why?
Because loyal customers have a higher conversion rate than new customers and spend more per transaction, making customer referral programs the most cost-effective and lucrative marketing strategy that your business can possibly employ.
People don't make as many referrals as they intend to for a variety of reasons. A referral program helps make their mind up with a tangible reward for referrals.
Modern referral programs, or refer-a-friend programs, use software to track referrals made by happy customers through either a referral code, a rewards card, or a referral link. Depending on the referral campaign, customers will usually receive some kind of referral bonus or benefit when they refer a friend. Referral marketing software automates the payout of these referral rewards.
This referral process creates a natural word-of-mouth marketing experience for your brand, which ultimately increases both your customer retention rate and your revenue.
To find out more, check out how ReferralCandy works.
The best way to bring in potential customers is to first focus on your existing satisfied customers. Rather than just offering cash rewards or free gifts in hopes that your customers will refer a friend to your shop, it takes a little bit of planning to set up a referral program that works.
Before creating a complex ambassador program or launching tons of marketing campaigns (of any kind), it's important to be clear about what your goals are for the program. This will help guide you as you brainstorm referral marketing ideas. Some questions to consider are:
You can certainly achieve each of these goals, but it might require a different referral campaign for each goal. So it's important to be clear about your goals before beginning.
Canopy makes the world's cleanest and easiest humidifier for optimal skin health and wellness.
It’s not unusual for brands to choose product incentives rather than cash or credit incentives, but they definitely belong to the minority. Canopy does a great job in closing the loop for existing customers and keeping them loyal. If I’m an advocate, it makes absolute sense for me to be incentivized by free filters since I already own the device. They’ve also made it enticing to click on the “Free Filter” button rather than to put “Refer-a-Friend Program” on their homepage.
Your referral sources are your happy customers, friends, and family. They are your biggest advocates and will be the lifeblood of your referral marketing program. Make a list of all of these groups and how you can easily contact them.
Now that you have a list of referral sources, carefully make an outreach plan. It's not quite as simple as sending a blast email with a generic referral incentive. Instead, research the best practices for reaching out to each type of referral.
Newer customers, for example, shouldn't receive emails about your reward program right after their first purchase. And close friends and family may not need an incentive at all! The types of referral programs that you use will largely depend on your list, so plan accordingly.
While cash incentives likely seem like they’ll get the biggest draw out of your existing customer base, that’s not necessarily the case. One study found that non-cash incentives were 24% more effective with referral marketing than cash incentives. It’s best to offer something of tremendous value to your customers that will keep them coming back to your shop in the future.
Braxley Bands’ referral program reward structure:
Beyond the conventional 20% for you, and 20% for me, Braxley Bands also introduced an additional perk of standing a chance to win a $100 gift card (that’s essentially 3 more bands for the advocate). That alone is an extra incentive at zero cost to the advocate, all he or she needs to do is to share via word of mouth.
Once you’ve settled on your referral lists and your incentives, it’s time to get people to spread the word both about your brand and your rewards! There are many different ways to do this, each of which brings in a different segment of potential customers.
You could add details about your referral program in your newsletters, have opt-ins on your website, capture customers through a pop-up widget right on your homepage, or even send out specific referral emails to your most loyal audience. Do a little research about the most effective way to grow your lists and then test it out for yourself.
Like most ecommerce brands, Chāmpo puts a link to their referral program in their site footer. It’s accessible and easy to spot.
In order to run a successful rewards program, you need to keep track of all of the referrals being made. You need to be able to keep track of who referred whom, the date they were referred, whether or not a conversion was made, and the best way to follow up with both the referrer and the referee.
One of the easiest ways to do this is with referral program software, like ReferralCandy. A system that not only facilitates the reward within your shop but also provides accurate data on the referrals is going to help you know exactly how successful (or unsuccessful) your program is. Some referral systems go one step further in making sure that your referrals are legit and not frauds. Here’s an example of what your referral report might look like on ReferralCandy!
Now that you have a clearer idea of referral programs, let's take a look at the referral programs of top brands and what we can learn from them.
Dropbox's referral program is probably one of the most well-known examples of referral marketing around. Dropbox grew by 3900% with this very famous referral program. Even today, almost ten years later, it is often used in case studies to demonstrate how referral programs may either assist or even act as the growth engine of a business.
Dropbox's referral program guiding principles are quite clear. Since the product provides cloud storage, it decided to give users more free space in addition to referral bonuses for both accepting invitations and referring friends. Dropbox users can get up to 16 GB for their referrals. So you basically get 500 MB for every friend who installs the Dropbox desktop app and the friend gets 500 MB too. They can sign up for any plan and you get your bonus storage the minute they download the app.
How Referrals Built The $10 Billion Dropbox Empire.
When discussing referral-based viral growth, almost every blog post mentions PayPal’s referral program. PayPal was one of the first companies to use a referral campaign to achieve viral growth at such a massive scale, from “A 10% daily growth rate” to “A $1.5 billion buyout”.
All users need to do is send an invitation to a friend who doesn’t have PayPal and have them sign up and link their bank account or card. When they spend or send at least $5, PayPal sends both the advocate and the referred, $10. Users can invite up to ten friends and earn up to $100, and just need to make sure they spend/send at least $5.
Uber's referral program was the basis of its success. It was offered ever since the business began, and its quick expansion was largely due to it. The program has changed, but it still offers rewards to its users. To earn referral rewards, users have to follow their conditions. The program is eligible only for a customer who received a program email. Users need to share a referral code in your email with their friend. To earn referral rewards, a referee must complete the first trip with the referral code.
We've written more about Uber's many referral programs here:
How Uber Covered More Than 50 Countries In 3 Years
Airtable is an online tool that combines elements from databases and spreadsheets. It's very adaptable and has a wonderful user interface. For each person users refer to Airtable, they'll receive $10 in credit. Only when the person invited registers and confirms their email will the users be given credit. Users can invite people to use Airtable, and access an Airtable-referral link, from the Referrals and credits section of the Account page.
DocSend is a wonderful solution for safely sending important files while getting immediate feedback on how your recipients are interacting with your content. Their referral program is a way to show their customers’ appreciation for the tool to others while getting a $15 credit for each new user they invite.
A famous global internet marketplace for independent contractors, Fiverr also offers a referral program to its customers. The Fiverr platform links freelancers with individuals or companies looking to hire. They allow their users to earn up to $100 for every friend who signs up and makes their first order. You can share it by email or with a link via social sharing. When your friends sign up to Fiverr, they get 10% off their first purchase, and you get 10% off their first order amount, up to $100.
Every marketer’s favorite social media example Duolingo offers its referral program too. With their program, for every person you refer and signs up for a Duolingo account, you receive a free week of Super Duolingo! This is a simple and easy way to attract your friends to learn a new language and get rewarded.
The Clymb is an adventure gear brand that has many customers from around the world. They offer a referral reward structure to their loyal customers where you invite a friend to join The Clymb and you each get $10 in Clymb credit when they make their first order of $50 or more. They send your credit to your account when the first order ships.
They now even allow you to mass invite your friends and send them a personalized message.
Erin Condren is known for creating fun organization essentials for your home, office, and everything in between. They have an awesome referral program, where you can earn EC credits to spend in their online store. All you need to do is to send your friends a referral link. After they sign up they get a 10$ coupon, and after their first purchase, you will get rewarded with 1000 EC points (a $10 equivalent). You can stack up these points and shop later.
Fashion Referral Programs – Erin Condren
3. Greats
GREATS is the first sneaker company to be founded in Brooklyn. They claim to produce high-quality, long-lasting sneakers with an excellent fit and feel using quality material. Their referral program GIVE $30, GET $30 is a win-win for existing and new customers, offering a great discount and rewards.
Footwear Referral Program Examples – GREATS
4. Rothy's
Rothy’s creates essentials from classic shoes to carry-everywhere bags. They get their inspiration from the strides that the community is making. Their Refer-a-Friend promises to give $20, get a $20 reward, as your friends get their first order.
5. Girlfriend Collective
Here’s a great example from the ethical brand Girlfriend Collective. They believe in sustainable manufacturing and recycled materials. They use old water bottles and fishing nets to produce their clothing, so they won’t be clogging landfills and polluting oceans. With their referral program, you can earn free leggings. Give your friends 30% off their first purchase of $95 or more and earn a Free Pair of Compressive Leggings when they buy.
6. J. Crew Factory
J.Crew believes that shopping should be fun and provides high-quality clothing that helps you look and feel your best, whether you enjoy specific details, unique fabrics, or traditional colors. They offer their customers a classic GIVE $20, GET $20 referral program. Refer a friend and they’ll get $20 off their order, plus you’ll get $20 when they sign up for J.Crew Passport.
7. Outdoor Voices
Outdoor Voices brand designs its products through the lens of longevity and circularity to reduce our environmental impact. If you refer a friend to join the brand’s community, you’ll both get $20 off your next purchase of $100 or more.
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Hanna Andersson was established by a Swedish woman living in America. By embracing essentially Scandinavian ideas, such as iconic design that successfully combines form and function, a sincere commitment to sustainability, and a way of life that promotes contented happy lives, she aimed to furnish childhood adventures. If you refer a friend, then you'll both get a 20% off reward with Hanna’s generous referral program.
Boden is all about sustainability. Also, they offer a great referral program to their customers. All they need to do is to fill in the details on their form, next their friend receives 20% off their FIRST purchase, and after they've ordered, customers get a $15 VOUCHER.
Fabletics is a popular activewear, fitness, and workout clothing brand. Their goal is to design the finest stylish, high-performing, active-lifestyle goods in the world for every person and everybody at an affordable price. With their referral program, you can get $40 in store credit if you refer a friend and they sign up and become VIPs.
Thinx is a unique women's underwear brand. They make comfortable, absorbent products, and women around the world love their brand. Thinx offers a give $10, get $10 referral program. When you refer a friend and they make a purchase, you get $10 and they get $10 off their first order of Thinx.
Birdies brand was created by a woman who believes there should be a comfortable pair of shoes in all of your life’s journey. Designed to take you everywhere, Birdies shoes combine elevated style, ultimate comfort, and everyday versatility. Their Give $20, Get $20 referral program pays to refer friends and family and enjoy shopping even more. Your friends will get $20 off their first order, and you’ll get $20 off your next order when they make a purchase.
Hunter is a forward-thinking British heritage company established in 1856 and known for its famous Original boot. The company has a long history of invention and continues to create products that are weatherproof and functional in a variety of environments. With Hunter’s referral program you can give your friends 20% off, and if they go on to purchase, they will also send you a 20% off discount.
American Giant was born when founders were dissatisfied with the way clothes were created. So new technologies emerged that allowed for reduced supply chains and direct online sales to customers like you. The brand already has a lot of loyal customers and can use their Give 20%, Get $20 refer a friend program to get rewarded.
Dermstore is a skincare and beauty online shop in the United States. Their customers get rewarded $15 for each friend they refer, also providing friends and family with discounts on their first order.
Adore Beauty is the top pure-play online beauty retailer in Australia and an authorized supplier of more than 260 top-tier beauty brands. You can get up to a $30 reward, depending on your level, if you refer a friend and they will complete their first order.
Karissa Bodnar founded Thrive Causemetics, a beauty company, and philosophy that goes beyond skin deep by uplifting various communities. Their beautiful online store offers a Give $10, Get $10 referral program, where you can give your friend $10 off their first purchase of $50 and more, plus free shipping, and get $10 in points for each successful referral.
Quip is an oral hygiene subscription-based service that provides customers with toothbrushes and other dental essentials. They have a $5 for you, $5 for a friend referral program for their users, and also offer free brush heads, floss, & paste in addition to that.
Haircare brand Madison Reed allows their customers to earn up to $45 from their referral program. It’s a give $15 get $15 deal, and you get beautiful hair as a bonus.
BoxyCharm is a monthly subscription beauty box that comes with 5 full-sized skincare and cosmetics items. Existing customers can use the company's referral program to send a special link to friends. You will receive 500 charms (also known as points) for each new member who signs up. You can exchange the charms for cosmetics.
Kari Gran Skincare has been successful in the clean skincare market for ten years. The business is founded on a small number of essential, oil-based products. The referral program on their website allows you to give your friends $10 off. When your friends buy from your invite link, you get $10 off!
Murad is the first brand of clinical skincare products, setting a new standard for high-performance skincare. Give a friend $10 off their first $50 purchase to get $10 off when they redeem.
Ohana provides beauty and skincare products and on their website they allow all of their clients to use the referral program. For every completed purchase you will receive 20% off.
Pavlok sells a waking-up device that helps its customers become more productive, relaxed, and mindful. They have a referral program that allows you to earn $20 from each friend.
MSI is a computer hardware manufacturer. If you refer a friend you can get 300 points and a chance to win a big prize.
Bose is an American manufacturer that specializes in selling audio equipment. They have a classic give $20, get $20 referral program on their website that inspires you to become everyone’s best friend.
Lightning and home decor brand Lulu & Georgia gives you and your friend 25$ for each successful referral.
Craft Coffee is a coffee subscription box that makes it easy to find good coffee at fair prices. With their referral program, your friends get 15% off and you get a free bag of coffee.
Soylent is a meal-replacement product that has a combination of vitamins, minerals, and other necessary components. You can receive 10,000 points through their referral program for each referral that joins.
Stop & Shop is an online food store. Customers can use email, Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, Pinterest, and Pinterest Messenger to share referral links with friends. Customers who successfully refer friends will receive $25 to put towards their next purchase, while referrals who sign up receive $25.
Hydrant is an online beverage store that sells refreshment drinks and its generous referral program gives you and your friends a 50% off coupon.
Muscle food offers meal plans and prepped food with protein. They offer a referral program where your friend gets £10 off and you get £10 off.
Farm Fresh To You offers delivery service of organic fruits and veggies fresh from their farm and other local growers/artisans. You get to save $25 and your friend saves $15 with their referral program.
Flaviar gives you and your referred friend the possibility to choose an extra Tasting Box or bottle in case of a successful referral.
Love with Food offers s huge variety of snacks to its customers. They have a referral program for all of their customers, where you can invite friends, and after they sign up, you get a free box of snacks and 1000 points to redeem at their store.
Happy Way is an Australian brand of organic and natural health snacks with a top-notch rewards system. Happy Way stands out in a crowded market that regularly takes itself too seriously by using vibrant color pops and upbeat visuals. With their Happy Way referral program, you and your friend get $10 in the referral was complete.
Seated is an app for restaurant and cafe reservations. The referral program on their website allows their users and referred friends to get credits that can be used toward future reservations.
GPen's referral program gives your friends 15% off and a 20% discount to you.
Vampire Vape sells a variety of e-liquids, disposables, vapes and pods. You can use their refer a friend feature so that you and your friend will get £5 off your next order.
Vape Loft gives you and your friends $10 coupon for each successful referral.
Vape Merchant offers a classic give $15, get $15 referral program to their existing customers and new friends.
PetFlow offers a classic give $10 get, $10 referral program to their customers and their furry friends.
An animal pet insurance brand Animal Friends gives you and your referred friend a £10 voucher to boost their sales and attract more customers.
A pet food online store PetDirect gives you $10 and your friends $10 when you tell them about the store with your personalized referral link.
At Budget Pet Supplies, you and your friends get the chance to collect rewards together. All you have to do to earn thousands of reward points is recommend a friend or family member to Budget Pet Supplies. You will receive 500 reward points for one referral link, and your friend will receive 200 reward points in addition to a 15% sign-up and purchase discount.
Pet Releaf sells plant-based products for pet health. In their referral program, they give you and your friends $20 to shop on their website.
Superfoods for pets brand PetKind gives your friends $10 off their first order and you get $20 (in points) for each successful referral.
With the Five Good Friends program, you can refer a friend and you and your friend will receive a $50 gift card when they join Five Good Friends and complete their first service visit.
QE Home sells luxury bedding like duvet covers, kids' bedding, down duvets, quilt sets, weighted blankets, and more. You need to share $10 off that your friends can use towards their first order and get $10 off for each successful referral.
The Conran Shop is a home accessories and textile eCommerce store. They offer their users give 15% get, 15% off for referring a friend.
In the WoW referral program, the player and his friends receive not only free game time but also exclusive in-game items. The conditions are also provided for new users who have not played World of Warcraft for a long time (more than 2 years). This increases the number of active players who show loyalty to earlier users.
Share your referral link with your friends to get earn rewards. When an invited friend registers for a Binance account and makes his first deposit worth more than $50, you’ll both receive 100 USDT ($100) in trading fee credit.
Lunatic Capital offers their members get discount for a monthly subscription by inviting 2 friends. For example, John invited 2 of his friends. And in case of a successful referral, John will get a $160 discount for the monthly subscription.
Cash app lets customers and their friends get bonuses following these simple steps. They just have to download the application, enter their referral code in the profile, link a debit card, and spend within the given time frame to receive the referral bonus.
TransferGo is an app that can help you easily send money to over 160 countries. You can earn 22€ on your bank account every time your referral friends make their first transfer.
Instead of the usual cash or discount rewards, Western Union’s referral program introduced another incentive where customers and their referred friends can earn a $20 Amazon.com e-gift code.
Turkish Airlines gives you 500 Miles for every invited friend. You can refer up to 5 friends and earn 2500 Miles.
Friendly Planet offers travel services. They offer their customers a generous referral program, where you and your friends can earn $100 each.
Travelink gives you a $25 American Express Gift Card for a first-time booking or when you refer friends and family.
All travel enthusiasts can refer a friend and they’ll both save £100 on your next trip with Rooh Travel.
With the Holiday Vacations referral program you can earn $200 in Refer a Friend credit for each new friend you refer.
Kensington Tours offers you and your referred friends or family members $250 each to spend on your next trip.
CapiotalOne also has a great referral program for its users. You need to sign in to your account to get your personal referral link, then share that link with family members or friends. If they’re a new Capital One cardholder and get approved using your link, you’ll earn a bonus for each friend approved.
American Express rewards their loyal customers if they refer a friend and get approved for the card.
With Payoneer’s referral program you can get a $25 reward when referring a friend or family member.
Chase Bank offers up to 75,000 bonus points or up to $500 cashback per year in their referral program for each friend that gets referred.
Refer-a-Friend eligible users get Discover’s credit referral reward of $50 to $100 if their friend applies for the specific offer sent via the link provided.
By introducing friends and family to T-Mobile to open new postpaid accounts, current customers are eligible to win a $50 Virtual Express Prepaid MasterCard card.
Mint Mobile offers you 3 months of free usage for referring a friend. You can also earn up to $90 for each referral. The amount of credit you get will depend on which plan your friend picks.
If you refer your friends to Metro, you can earn up to $125 a year. For every friend who joins any Metro plan, you’ll receive a $25 virtual prepaid Mastercard.
Earn £25 with the FoneHouse referral program. There are some steps you need to follow in order to refer friends and earn rewards.
What are your favorite ecommerce referral programs? If this list is missing your favorites, let us know!
P.S. If you enjoyed reading this article and want to grow your ecommerce store, subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest articles and roundups.
The previous versions of this article were written by Visakan Veerasamy, Si Quan Ong, Darren Foong, and Marquis Matson, Alfred Lua, marketers at ReferralCandy. We update this article regularly to keep it relevant and useful to ecommerce merchants.
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Along with a great product, most successful DTC brands have a few things in common: a customer-first approach, an identity with soul, and a seamless digital experience. Achieving all of these things might sound challenging, but there’s one thing that can help you create a first-rate digital shop for your customers: a blog.
A thoughtful blog can help your customers feel more educated and excited about your brand. That connection should help drive sales. In fact, HubSpot reported in its 2021 Executive Marketing Leadership Survey that 20% of marketing leaders said that company blogs were one of their "most important channels" for hitting goals.
With revenue in the ecommerce market projected to reach around $986 billion in 2022, a creative blog may be just what your brand needs to stand out (and secure a portion of those sales).
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to content. A good blog is strategic, fits your brand, and speaks to your audience in a way they’ll appreciate.
“DTC brands who think about producing blog content as ‘blogging’ are missing the point. The point of any marketing channel is to grow a business,” said Taylor Coil, product strategist at New Haircut.
A strategic ecommerce blog should take into account, at a minimum:
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Similarly, if your brand and your community are dedicated to certain causes, use your blog to share how the company is making an impact and give simple suggestions for how your customers can join you.
While we won’t dig too much into metrics right now, it’s worth mentioning that it takes data and constant iteration to run a successful blog. Your team should set some KPIs (key performance indicators) to track. Common blog KPIs include page visits, social shares, bounce rate, SERP rank, and traffic referral sources.
It takes time and effort for a blog to be successful, so don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing immediate results. Not sure where to start? Let’s take a look at a few ecommerce blogs for inspiration.
Honey Mama’s is a women-owned company that makes cocoa truffle bars. The company’s nutrient-dense (but decadent) treats are wrapped in punchy packaging, and its blog matches the brand so well.
While using recipes for a blog isn’t groundbreaking, Honey Mama’s stands out with bright, high-quality images and copy that speaks to its audience. Most of the recipes incorporate one flavor of Honey Mama’s bars—built into a delicious but healthy treat recipe.
And the post pages themselves are so well thought out. The copy is simple, the ingredients list has interactive checkboxes, and the sidebar showcases the featured product. Plus, there’s a “Shop Now” link for each featured product, so customers can shop directly from the blog.
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It can be difficult for smaller brands to create such a cohesive digital experience for customers. Honey Mama’s is lovely to look at and has a high potential to drive sales.
The OUAI blog has a very OG blog feel to it. Readers can break the posts up by category, but if you just scroll the blog homepage, you can tell the OUAI team puts a lot of thought into the post topics.
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They do an incredible job of balancing beauty education, product education, and social issues. Thanks to the blog’s topic curation, it’s very clear to visitors what the company cares about. And the posts dedicated to causes state specifically how the brand feels and what it’s doing.
Although the blog as a whole definitely feels like a community hub for its customers—more a place of learning—OUAI hasn’t forgotten about conversions. Along with subtle links in the content, there’s a pretty and functional “Shop This Story” scroll beneath each article.
So if someone finds the post useful, it’s simple for them to purchase and try the products that seem like a fit for their needs.
Rainbo’s blog is surprising in the best way possible. It’s visually stunning, especially considering Rainbo is a mushroom company.
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The Rainbo blog is really a masterclass in selecting images for a brand. The photos they use are eye-catching, perfectly fit for the brand, and memorable. The team at Rainbo works with both photographers and designers to help make its blog so special. “We have a brand manifesto that we worked incredibly hard on with various professionals that we reference to assure that all of our copy and images reflect this,” the team said.
The topics chosen are both fitting for the brand and SEO purposes. Titles such as “How to cook with Mushrooms” and “Mushroom Foraging Guide” are informative and Google-friendly.
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And, as a good blog post should, there are relevant links in the posts to make purchasing simple for visitors.
Le Labo, a fine fragrance brand, has one of the most original approaches of the companies here—so original that it’s not technically a blog. The company has created “Le Journal,” an original-content broadsheet that’s available in stores (in print!) or online.
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Flip through the journal, and you’ll find quippy weather forecasts, jolly, scent-related astrology predictions, interviews with staff, scent spotlights, and other community-focused stories.
Sure, this isn’t a great approach for SEO, but it’s absolutely delightful. Walking into a physical storefront and picking up a brand editorial adds a tactile layer to a shop that caters to the senses. It’s a strong creative move in terms of branding and audience engagement.
Much like the brand itself, Italic’s blog is subtle—almost nondescript. But that’s not a bad thing. The content is well-written and there’s plenty of it, which helps with SEO, of course. Like many larger brands, Italic’s blog skews toward that of a publisher.
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Instead of recommended products, the sidebar features related articles. There are a few, well-placed product links, and each post has a boilerplate CTA and button to explore the Italic shop.
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This isn’t a blog designed to only convert, it’s a blog designed to drive organic traffic and engage visitors. And hopefully, visitors will find something they like along the way.
Care/of, a DTC vitamin and supplement company, has a beautiful and well-written blog. The blog’s banner speaks volumes about the brand and serves as a great category intro for readers.
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Care/of’s blog is so simple to navigate — whether from the top menu or by scrolling. And it loads quickly, giving visitors a great experience.
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The blog posts themselves are perfect for SEO and brand authority. Most of the content has been medically reviewed by a professional and the articles are backed by scientific studies, bolstering the brand’s claims and building trust.
Again, this is a great example of a company that knows the space it operates in. To stand out in a crowded wellness market is difficult.
The Care/of’s blog really sets them apart from other brands: Its credible content supports the benefits of its products, and the UX is fantastic (which makes it more likely to rank well in search).
We don’t want to swamp you with information, but we felt that these other blogs are worth checking out. If you have time to explore, take a peek at these other great ecommerce blog examples:
Here’s another brand that uses recipes for its blog. Things we love: search-friendly title names (e.g., Homemade Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew Recipe), simple navigation, and a “Shop This Recipe” section to close each post.
This is the only brand we’ve touched on that sells products for children. One of the best features of this blog is the option to “Explore by age.” The brand recognizes that people will want different resources and products depending on the age of the kid they’re shopping for — this makes it much more friendly to navigate.
Day Owl makes sustainable bags and totes, but its blog primarily focuses on the company's mission, social causes, and the community. It proves to visitors that it's a values-driven brand.
The Thinx blog (dubbed “The Periodical”) is lovely. One of the best parts about it is how well it speaks to its audience. The content and images are inclusive, the topics are search friendly, and the posts are packed with information and supporting links. SEO aside, the blog topics are well selected to educate and bolster the Thinx community.
We can’t tell you exactly how much time to put into your brand’s blog, but we can say that it’s in your best interest to put as much effort as you can into your content.
The early stages of your content adventure will require the greatest lift, but trust that your work will pay off. In 2021, the number of internet users worldwide reached about 4.9 billion, and content is one of the primary ways that these people will discover your brand—either finding it organically in search, getting a link from a friend (the new word-of-mouth referral) or coming across a neat article via social media.
Need help encouraging word-of-mouth? ReferralCandy rewards your customers for referrals, helping you sell more.
For many digital brands, a blog is the cornerstone of their content strategy. A blog can act as a hub for the rest of your content marketing.
For example, it gives your whitepapers and case studies a place to live online. And a blog can be a great place to anchor newsletter themes and social posts—along with linking to specific products, you can link to stories, interviews, and educational resources that live on your blog.
A blog is something that benefits brands in the long-term. It’s one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website, build authority and trust, and provide value to your customers.
A few things to keep in mind as you start (or continue to improve) your blog:
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