A brand-new Shopify store and a small but established store can process the same number of monthly orders and need different growth programs.
If you are new and do not have many existing customers yet, start with affiliate. Creators, partners, and community members can introduce your brand to audiences you have not built yourself.
As you build a base of happy customers, add referral. If you already have both customers ready to advocate and partners ready to promote, run both programs together.
Our data shows why the combination can be valuable once those two groups exist. Among Shopify stores with fewer than 500 monthly orders, the typical store running referral and affiliate generated four times as many program-attributed orders in its first 90 days as the typical referral-only store.
That finding does not mean every new store should launch two programs on day one. It shows what can happen when customer advocacy and partner-led reach work together.
Monthly order volume tells you how much activity moves through a store. It does not tell you whether the store has enough happy customers to power a referral program.
Referral begins with a relationship the merchant has already earned. Customers need to know the product, trust the brand, and feel comfortable putting their name behind a recommendation. A store with repeat buyers, strong reviews, or organic word-of-mouth already has the raw material for that program.
A brand-new merchant may not have that customer base yet. Affiliate is the better starting point when the immediate job is awareness. It lets the merchant recruit creators, community members, and partners who can introduce the product to an audience of their own.
A referral program starts with the people who have already bought from you. They know the product, trust the brand, and can recommend it to friends.
An affiliate program expands the pool. It gives creators, ambassadors, community leaders, and high-reach customers a way to earn a commission for promoting your store repeatedly.
Running both gives an established small store two ways to acquire a customer. That difference continued beyond launch in our data: stores running both were 40% more likely than referral-only stores to keep generating referral and affiliate orders during months two and three.
The programs complement each other because they begin with different relationships. Referral carries the trust of an existing customer. Affiliate carries the reach and credibility of a partner with an audience.
Launching an affiliate program does not automatically build awareness. The merchant still needs to find suitable partners, give them a reason to care, and help them promote the product well.
ReferralCandy's affiliate signup widget lets merchants publish an application form on their storefront. In our data, the typical store running both programs received twice as many affiliate applications through that form as the typical store running affiliate alone.
The form makes joining easy. The merchant still needs to promote it, invite promising partners, and give those partners a clear offer. Software can organize the relationship; it cannot recruit the people by itself.
If your store is new, start with a small affiliate group. Choose partners whose audiences match the product, set a sustainable commission, publish the signup form, and invite those partners personally. See who brings qualified attention and orders before recruiting more widely.
If you already have happy customers, launch referral alongside that affiliate motion. Place the referral ask after a positive customer moment and make the reward easy to understand.
Already running referral? Keep it live and add affiliate when you are ready to recruit beyond the customer base. Already running affiliate? Add referral as the customers those partners bring in become people who know and trust the brand.
Order volume can tell you how large the opportunity is. Customer maturity tells you which program should come first.
Raúl Galera is the Growth Lead at ReferralCandy, where they’ve helped 30,000+ eCommerce brands drive sales through referrals and word-of-mouth marketing. Over the past 8+ years, Raúl has worked hands-on with DTC merchants of all sizes (from scrappy Shopify startups to household names) helping them turn happy customers into revenue-driving advocates. Raúl’s been featured on dozens of top eCommerce podcasts, contributed to leading industry publications, and regularly speaks about customer acquisition, retention, and brand growth at industry events.
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