What is referral marketing?

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.

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.

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.

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.

What is a referral program?

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.

Why do I need a referral program?

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.

How does a referral program work?

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.

How do I create a referral program?

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.

1. Get clear about your goals

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:

• What are you hoping to get out of your rewards program?
• Do you want more customers? Or just bigger purchases by your existing customers?
• Are you trying to get a higher conversion rate and increase sales?

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. 

2. Make a list of your existing customer referral sources

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.

3. Make an outreach plan

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.

The types of referral programs that you use will largely depend on your list, so plan accordingly.

For example, close friends and family will trust recommendations when they're coming from someone in their inner circle, so adding an offer to the referral program will increase conversion rates!

4. Determine the referral incentives you'll offer

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:

• Advocate reward: 20% off and a chance for a $100 gift card
• Friend offer: 20% off

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. 

5. Tell your customers about it

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.

Some of the most effective strategies are:

• Adding details about your referral program to your newsletter
• Having opt-ins on your website
• Capturing customer emails through  a pop-up widget on your home page
• Sending out specific referral emails to your most loyal audience
• Adding referral program reminders to your social media company profile
• Including physical cards in order packages that mention your referral program

Or a combination of all of these. Multiple channels tend to work better rather than only focusing on one, so you should take advantage of more than one.

Do a little research about the most effective way to grow your lists, and then test it out for yourself.

6. Track the referrals and rewards

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 fraudulent.

How top brands are running their referral programs

1. Casper

Casper is a direct-to-consumer mattress company that was founded by five guys in 2014 with the goal of revolutionizing the mattress industry. Since then, Casper has grown into a global giant with over one million customers and a value of 750 million dollars.

A major contributor to their growth has been their referral program. The way it works is simple. When a new customer buys from Casper, they get a confirmation email. 

At the footer of the email, there is a referral link to refer friends.

Source

When a customer clicks on the ‘Refer & earn up to $75’ link, Casper explains to them how they’re able to earn an Amazon gift card in exchange for new referrals they make.

Plus, they make sharing the referral link extremely easy, which makes the program even more effective.

Casper’s referral program is something anyone can implement in any ecommerce niche. You don’t have to make the amount of money, as high as Casper has (earn up to $75), but you can use the same referral program style! 

Based on your own preferences, referral program software like ReferralCandy enables you to create your own rules for your referral program.

2. Harry’s

Harry's is an ecommerce store selling men's personal care products at a lower price point than many competitors, making it an attractive option for many.

Their Harry's Shave Club pre-launch program gained massive popularity and is still one of the most talked about referral programs in the industry.

Their idea was simple. Harry’s wanted to build a credible referral program that focused on helping people spread the word to their friends, instead of not just spending money on paid ads.

That’s what they did, and they did it quite successfully. With this simple, yet effective home page design, they were able to collect 100,000 email addresses for the campaign in just one week.

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To get people to this home page, Harry's used a "Milestone Referral Program," which involved instant prizes for people who reached a certain number of referrals. For example, if you refer 5 friends, you get a free shave cream.

Initially, this campaign helped Harry's get over 100 million dollars in funding, and they even bought their own razor blade factory to compete with the industry giants.

Also, they now have over 500 employees and are one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry.

3. Dia & Co

Dia & Co is a plus-size fashion brand that encourages women of all sizes to feel comfortable in their own skin. During their first referral program, they offered their customers a subscription box of five stylist-selected items for $20 a month. If an existing customer refers a friend, they receive a $20 credit. Customers who were referred received free personal styling or a free box.

Dia & Co relied on email marketing to encourage existing customers to join their referral program. In response, over 40,000 customers shared the referral links, and in the first month of the program, the company saw an average of 22 conversions per day from the referral program.

This is what their CEO mentioned about the referral program:

• “Creating a space where plus-size women can share their style and create friendships has been the most rewarding aspect of the business, so instating a referral program was a seamless fit. We’ve found that community begets community, and when customers feel welcomed, the experience is so much more special.”

This sums up why their referral program was such a success. A big part of their brand mission is to make all women feel comfortable in their own skin, so by combining this mission with a good referral program, they saw great results.

Since their first referral program, Dia & Co has updated its referral program with a new simple 'Give $25, Get $25' program that gets a $25 off coupon for your friend and for you once they order.

This new referral program is even more simple, so we’re sure it’s bringing them even greater results. It’s something anyone can implement with referral program tools, such as ReferralCandy.

4. Airbnb

When talking about the best referral programs, you can’t ignore Airbnb. While Airbnb’s referral program is not open for new referrals as of now, there is a lot to learn from what they did.

Their idea was simple. Airbnb’s referral program encouraged its users to invite friends onto the platform, which rewarded both the sender and recipient with $25 travel credits.

Source

Jason Bosinoff, Airbnb's director of engineering, wrote on Medium.com that their success metrics were:

• Monthly Active Users sending Invites
• Invitees per Inviter
• Conversion Rate to New User
• Conversion Rate to New Guest
• Conversion Rate to New Host

Since the launch of the program, the referrals increased bookings by up to 25% in some markets. After the first launch, the 2.0 version was launched, and the results were even more impressive. The 2.0 referral program produced 300% more signups and bookings than the previous version.

Their idea was simple, which is one of the main reasons it worked so well. With the help of referral marketing software, like ReferralCandy, anyone can implement a similar strategy.

5. Google Workspace

Google is one of the most familiar and used tech companies in the world, from its search engine to its suite of apps and video streaming services. They don’t need much of an introduction, but what most people may not be familiar with is their referral program.

Google's B2B referral program offers referrals a chance to earn $8 to $23 for every new business account signup. Their referral program idea is simple, which is one of the factors it is so successful.

In October 2020, Google shared that Workspace now has 2.6 billion monthly active users, up from 2 billion monthly active users in March. For a company as big as Google, this is a huge increase, and one of the main reasons for this growth was their referral program.

One big takeaway you can take from Google’s referral program is its structure. For example, a user may net a $23 reward from one referral. However, due to the way the referral program is structured, users can refer a whole domain (such as a business with 8 employees) and then the $23 will multiply by 8 and the referral will receive $184 in rewards.

If you’re building your own referral program, you might want to use a similar structure to encourage your users to refer more to a company or larger group as a whole.

6. Revolut

Revolut, founded in 2015, was one of the first "challenger banks" to use technology to disrupt the financial industry, so they had to stand out in terms of marketing and product. 

From the beginning, Revolut's goal was to build something so good that customers would do the marketing for them.

After just two years in the business, Revolut reached one million customers for their product. When asked about how they did this so fast in an interview, this is what their CEO Nikolai mentioned:

• On top of nice interface, we give great value to customers. No one in the world can offer the same bank rates than we do, so that's why people talk about us to their friends and families. We grow organically without any paid marketing

The key for them was to make it as easy as possible for someone to recommend Revolut to their friends and families. To do this, they launched a referral program, where if you invited your friend, you earned 60 euros.

While there were different steps involved to earn the 60 euros, they were all made very clear, which made the referral program more clear. Referrals also saw the potential earnings from the same page.

While the entire growth of Revolut cannot be attributed to the referral program, it has been a huge contributor. 

7. Canopy

Canopy is a cloud-based practice management suite for accounting firms. We wanted to include them in this article due to their unique referral program. As a part of their referral program, every friend you refer who completes Canopy's demo call receives a $50 gift card to Amazon. If they sign up for Canopy's software, the referral gets 10% commission on their subscription fee.

This is the landing page you can send for the people you want to refer to.

Quite unique, right? Even though Canopy hasn't publicly mentioned the results they have gotten from the referral program, we’re sure it has been successful for them.

The referral program has been running for years, and if there weren't any return on investment, Canopy wouldn't still give out $50 Amazon cards.

While Canopy is a SaaS company, even ecommerce brands can take inspiration from them. By combining a popular element (Amazon) with a valuable product (Canopy), they have been able to create a referral program that works incredibly well for them.

8. Dropbox

Dropbox's referral program is probably one of the most well-known examples of referral marketing. 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.

9. Dukaan

Dukaan is an ecommerce software that lets anyone create their first online store. Just recently, they launched their referral program, and in a Medium.com post, one of their product designers analyzed the process of building it and the results.

Their goal was to promote the referral program to their existing sellers and showcase it on their sellers' admin home page. The seller can copy a referral link to share with their friends, and if their friend signs up through the link, both get a reduced monthly rate.

As part of building the referral program, Dukaan tested three different design versions until they landed on the final version.

Source

After launching, Dukaan saw the following results:

• 10% more Dukaan sellers bought subscription plans
• 20% increase in new Dukaan sellers from the sellers who referred to the platform¨

For already established platforms like Dukaan, these results are incredible.

The learning here is that no matter your niche, don’t forget the importance of A/B testing in your referral programs. Dukaan tested multiple versions before landing on the final version, and for you as well, it can make or break your success.

A/B testing may be hard to do manually, but most top referral program software includes it as part of the software.

10. PayPal

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.

11. Uber

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

12. Airtable

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.

13. DocSend

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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.

14. Fiverr

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.

15. Duolingo

Every marketer’s favorite social media example Duolingo offers its referral program too. With their program, for every person you refer who 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.

How do different industries make use of referral programs

Ecommerce Referral Program examples

Fashion & Apparel Referral Program examples

1. The Clymb

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 personalized messages.

2. Erin Condren's

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 your friend sign's 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 $150 or more and earn a Free Pair of Compressive Leggings when they buy. 

6. J. Crew Factory

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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. What we like about their referral program is that it provides all of the information that potential advocates want to know, including the terms and conditions. Better to be safe than sorry! 

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.

It's also interesting how they've tied in a campaign specific hashtag #DoingThings with their referral program to maintain the consistency of their branding across the board.

8. Hanna Anderson

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. See how the brand has also provided a cute hero image on the side to tap on the "share with friends" concept. And also added a bunch of links just in case potential advocates need them.

9. Boden

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.

10. Fabletics

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. What's great about their referral landing page is that they've provided a way for advocates to customize the content of their invite emails, which could be a great point for personalization!

11. Thinx

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.

12. Birdies

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 $30, Get $30 referral program pays to refer friends and family and enjoy shopping even more. Your friends will get $30 off their first order, and you’ll get $30 off your next order when they make a purchase. Again, Birdies strategically placed an image showing friends wearing Birdies shoes and it does help to paint the picture of referring the product to friends!

13. Hunter

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% discount.

14. American Giant

American Giant was born when the 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 $25, Get $25 refer a friend program to get rewarded.

Beauty & Grooming Referral Program examples

15. DMD Skin Sciences

DMD Skin Sciences is a skincare brand with a mission to solve patients’ skincare complaints in the comfort of their own homes. What began as a skincare clinic that was shut down during the Covid pandemic in 2020, has since evolved into a larger ecommerce brand.

Early on, the founder Ena Quitan noticed that new customers would contact her brand to arrange a skincare consultation because a friend referred them. This became one of the main customer acquisition channels for DMD Skin Sciences, so they decided to fully capitalize on it with a referral program.

They set up a simple referral program, where customers could give 10% off their first purchase to their friends, and receive a 10% off coupon code in return. They used ReferralCandy to send automated post-purchase emails to remind customers about their referral program.

After 6 months, DMD Skin Sciences saw the following results:

• $18,000 added in referral program sales in just 6 months
• Out of the all sales, 3% we’re referral sales
• 3,600+ social media posts shared about the referral program

The company's founder Ena explained that referrals are the only source of new customers they have at the moment, and it's working incredibly well for them.

16. Dermstore

Dermstore is an online skincare and beauty 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. 

Rather than allowing anyone to join their referral program, they've made it exclusive for people who have an existing account with them (pretty smart since now they have the data to reach out to them), but it could also deter non-customers from signing up as well.

17. Adore Beauty

Adore Beauty is the top pure-play online beauty retailer in Australia and an authorized supplier of more than 260 top-tier beauty brands. They have created a referral program, where you give $20, and receive $20 when your friend joins.

18. Thrive Causemetics

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.

19. Quip

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.

20. Madison Reed

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. The referral program page has a simple form, advocates can easily sign up just by entering their email.

21. Boxycharm

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. It's also nice that they've explained the whole referral process from start to end so that advocates have a better idea of what's going to happen once they sign up.

22. Kari Gran

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!

23. Murad Skincare

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. What's great about their referral program is that it's extremely easy to sign up, all they need to do is just fill in a very simple form.

24. Ohana Skincare & Beauty

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.

Electronic & Gadget Referral Program examples

25. Pavlok

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. 

26. MSI

MSI is a computer hardware manufacturer. If you refer a friend, you can get 300 points and a chance to win a big prize. This is slightly different from a default referral program because they've provided the added benefit of winning a prize on top of the purchase bonus.

27. Bose

Bose is an American manufacturer that specializes in selling audio equipment. They have a classic give $50, get $50 referral program on their website that inspires you to become everyone’s best friend. Bose made it clear and easy to understand the entire referral process by breaking it down into bullet points on their referral landing page.

28. Lulu & Georgia

Lightning and home decor brand Lulu & Georgia gives you and your friend 25$ for each successful referral. Again it's easy to sign up for it since it's a simple form which greatly reduces the friction for potential advocates!

F&B and Supplements Referral Program examples

29. Craft Coffee

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. 

With a punchy headline using power words, Craft Coffee is able to capture the attention of coffee lovers—who doesn't want free coffee?

30. Soylent

Soylent is a meal-replacement product that has a combination of vitamins, minerals, and other necessary components. You can receive 25,000 points through their referral program for each referral that joins. 

31. Stop & Shop

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 $10 to put towards their next purchase, while referrals who sign up receive $10.

32. Hydrant

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Hydrant is an online beverage store that sells refreshment drinks and its generous referral program gives you and your friends a 50% off coupon.

33. Muscle Food

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.

34. Farm Fresh To You

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.

35. Flaviar

Flaviar gives you and your referred friend the possibility to choose an extra Tasting Box or bottle in case of a successful referral. Flaviar takes their branding so seriously, that even their referral program process is illustrated with branded images. And that works extremely well for them in helping advocates understand the referral process better.

36. Love With Food

Love with Food offers a 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.

37. Happy Way

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 if the referral was complete.

38. We Are Feel

We Are Feel offers safe and natural supplements—multivitamins, collagen, and more. Their referral program is a simple one but it taps on the altruistic mind of "keeping friends healthy" by introducing these supplements to them. It's an angle that is widely used in referral campaigns and they tend to do well too.

39. Seated

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. 

As seen above, Seated has a whole FAQ segment that fully answers all of the commonly asked questions from potential advocates.

40. fatty15

fatty15's referral program taps into the altruistic behavior of humans. Products like supplements tend to be on the personal side and recommendations from loved ones tend to do better than general advertising. 

Their referral messaging and slogan targets the main selling point which is to improve long-term health and wellness for loved ones. Their referral landing page details the process of signing up and provides clear benefits and even a referral FAQ segment to clarify doubts.

E-cigarettes and Vaporizers Referral Program examples

41. GPen

GPen's referral program gives your friends 15% off and a 20% discount to you.

42. Vampire Vape

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.

43. Vape Loft

Vape Loft gives you and your friends a $10 coupon for each successful referral.

44. Vape Merchant

Vape Merchant offers a classic give $15, get $15 referral program to their existing customers and new friends.

45. Ripple+

Ripple+ has a well-designed referral sign-up page for their referral program. They offer a basic give 20% + get $10 off referral program. It's simple and straight to the point. It's also interesting how they've decided to provide different referral incentives for their advocates compared to their "friends". There's also a simple illustration of how the referral program works.

Pets Referral Program examples

46. PetFlow

PetFlow offers a classic give $10 get, $10 referral program to their customers and their furry friends.

47. Animal Friends

An animal pet insurance brand Animal Friends gives you and your referred friend a £25 voucher to boost their sales and attract more customers.

48. PetDirect

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. Their referral landing page has a cute approach by using a pet pun to get the attention of people on the page—plus it does wonders for their branding!

49. Budget Pet Supplies

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.

50. Pet Releaf

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.

51. PetKind

Superfoods for pets brand PetKind gives your friends $10 off their first order and you get $20 (in points) for each successful referral.

Home and Care Goods Referral Program examples

52. A Box of Stories

A Box of Stories is a subscription box service in the United Kingdom that delivers four hand-picked novels for the price of a paperback (about £15).

As a relatively new brand (founded in 2018), A Box of Stories relied on Facebook advertising to acquire new customers. The cost of acquiring new customers was high, so they started looking for alternative ways to get their product out to new potential customers.

They got a recommendation that ReferralCandy could help them reach new audiences and decided to give it a chance in 2020.

A Box of Stories used ReferralCandy's coupon code feature to offer discounts on their products. Customers could offer their friends a £4 discount (about 25%) and receive an additional £4 discount once they make their next purchase.

Customers received this incredibly well. This is what Aasha, the founder of A Box of Stories mentioned on the results:

• "ReferralCandy did incredibly well on launch - in the first month, we had a referral rate of 7-8%."

In just a little over four months, close to 5,000 customers joined the referral program and the company saw a 3000% return on investment with ReferralCandy.

This is an ideal scenario when the right messaging and the right referral program tool are combined.

53. Five Good Friends

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. Sometimes, referral incentives don't just have to be strictly cash or products, they could come in the form of gift vouchers and gift cards!

54. QE Home

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.

55. The Conran Shop

The Conran Shop is a home accessories and textile eCommerce store. They offer their users “give 15%, get 15% off” for referring a friend.

56. Baloo

Baloo makes weighted blankets and their referral program is easily accessible in the footer of their ecommerce site. It brings users to a referral sign-up page where there's a simple form for them to sign up for the referral program easily.

Since Baloo uses ReferralCandy for its referral program, it’s a great example of what you can do with our software.

Games, Software and Digital Goods Referral Program examples

57. World of Warcraft

In the WoW referral program, the player and their 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.

58. Binance

Share your referral link with your friends to 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 platforms fee credit. 

59. Lunatic Capital

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.

60. Cash App

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.

61. TransferGo

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. 

62. Western Union

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. 

Travel Referral Program examples

63. Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles referral program

Turkish Airlines gives you 500 Miles for every invited friend. You can refer up to 5 friends and earn 2500 Miles.

64. Friendly Planet

Friendly Planet offers travel services. They offer their customers a generous referral program, where you and your friends can earn $100 each.

65. Travelink

Travelink gives you a $25 Gift Card for a first-time booking or when you refer friends and family.

66. Rooh Travel

All travel enthusiasts can refer a friend and they’ll both save £100 on your next trip with Rooh Travel.​

67. Holiday Vacations

With the Holiday Vacations referral program you can earn $200 in Refer a Friend credit for each new friend you refer.

68. Kensington Tours

Kensington Tours offers you and your referred friends or family members $250 each to spend on your next trip. Their referral landing page provides just the right amount of information for any customer-turned-advocate to understand what your referral program process is like and how they'll benefit from joining it.

Finance Referral Program examples

69. CapitalOne

CapitalOne 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.

70. American Express

American Express rewards their loyal customers if they refer a friend and get approved for the card.

71. Payoneer

With Payoneer’s referral program you can get a $25 reward when referring a friend or family member.

72. Chase Bank

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.

73. Discover

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. 

Phone Service Referral Program Examples

74. T-Mobile

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.

75. Mint Mobile

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.

76. Metro

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.

77. FoneHouse

Earn £25 with the FoneHouse referral program. There are some steps you need to follow in order to refer friends and earn rewards.

Over to you

Building a referral program from scratch can be daunting at the start.

What referral incentives should I offer? How often should I promote my referral program? What if people are taking advantage of our referral campaigns? 

These are all legitimate questions that any business would have. What matters most is to really understand who your customers are, and what makes them happy? Not to forget make sure that your product itself is of good quality and easily referable.

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.

Further reading

• Why Referral Marketing Is Awesome
• How to Set Up a Referral Program for Your Ecommerce Store
• How to Design Your Referral Emails
• How to Get More Ecommerce Referrals
• How to Promote Your Referral Program
• How to Measure the ROI of Your Referral Program

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are many generic lists of ‘best Shopify apps' out there, many of which may not help add extra value to your business. We weren't interested in writing one of those.

Instead, we focused on apps that would help you grow your brand, your business, and your revenue.

We identified 50+ best Shopify apps that fell into one of two categories:

• Best-performing apps and market leaders: The top leaders in the field, identified by average rating, the total number of reviews, and positive recent reviews.
• Interesting new apps: We scouted fast-growing DTC brands like Obvi, Muddy Bites, and FIGS to identify some of the interesting apps they used.

Let's explore the Shopify apps we can recommend based on these categories.

50+ best Shopify apps for growing your ecommerce store in 2025

To help you navigate around, the Shopify apps are divided into:

• Referral, affiliate & influencer marketing apps
• Social media marketing apps
• Reviews and ratings apps
• Sales and promotion apps
• Email and SMS marketing apps
• Page builders and elements apps
• Search engine & ad apps
• Customer service and fulfillment apps
• Mobile app builder apps
• Store analytics apps
• Interesting new apps

Some of the apps are free Shopify apps, and some are paid. Let's dive into the apps now!

Referral, affiliate & influencer marketing apps

1. ReferralCandy

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (2,000+ reviews)

Pricing: $59/month plus commissions, 14-day free trial available

Best for: Ecommerce brands wanting to start and scale their referral program

ReferralCandy helps you grow your sales through word-of-mouth marketing, 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. Brands like Farm Hounds achieved a 22.25% referral rate and over $600k in referral sales through ReferralCandy, resulting in a 35.30 ROI (return on investment).

New: ReferralCandy is now Built for Shopify certified referral & affiliate program app!

2. Influencer Hero

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (40+ reviews)

Pricing: From $249/month, a free plan is available for onboarding and checking the platform

Best for: Building and managing influencer marketing campaigns

Influencer Hero helps brands manage influencer marketing campaigns without the need to hire an agency. It helps you to discover and connect with some of the top influencers in your industry and even send outreach messages.

You also get access to a centralized CRM, where you can handle all the influencer messaging. Within the same platform, you can also send gifts, affiliate links, and payments to influencers and affiliates.

3. Smile.io

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (5,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $49/month, free plan available

Best for: Setting up a loyalty and rewards program to get more loyal customers

Smile.io is a loyalty platform best known for customer retention and VIP programs, but it also offers 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. Customers also appreciate the fact that there is a free plan available for up to 200 monthly orders, making it a good free Shopify app.

4. GOAFFPRO

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (1,800+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $29/month, free plan available

Best for: Starting and managing an affiliate marketing program

GOAFFPRO's professional affiliate marketing app aims to turn your customers into marketing partners and affiliates. Customers and influencers are given a landing page to register and become affiliates. After this, they can share their referral link, and they are rewarded for any purchase made with their link.

GOAFFPRO is one of the free Shopify apps on our list since they offer a lifetime free plan.

5. Refersion

Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (1,000+ reviews)

Pricing: $119/month with performance-based pricing, 14-day free trial

Best for: Managing affiliate, influencer, and ambassador programs

Refersion is a complete marketing platform for influence, affiliates, 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.

Social media marketing

6. VideoWise

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (150+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $19/month with a limit of 1,000 video views/month

Best for: Adding user-generated content (videos) to your store

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.

7. Outfy

Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (1,200+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $20/month, 7-day free trial available

Best for: Creating and publishing posts on social media platforms

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.

8. InstaFeed + Story

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (600+ reviews)

Pricing: Free to install, $6.95/month after 1,000 page visits

Best for: Publishing Instagram Stories and highlights to your website

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.

9. Instafeed

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (1,500+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $6/month, free plan available

Best for: Brands relying heavily on Instagram accounts

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.

Reviews and ratings

10. Junip

Pricing: Paid plans from $19/month, free plan available for up to 50 orders/month

Best for: Brands looking to showcase customer reviews on product pages

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 thousands of Shopify brands, including top DTC brands like Doe Lashes, Huron, Baboon to the Moon, and more.

11. Ali Reviews

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (14,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $9.90/month, free plan for up to 5 reviews/product

Best for: Bulk importing and showing AliExpress reviews within your Shopify store

Ali Reviews makes it possible to import and collect reviews from platforms, including Facebook, AliExpress, Klaviyo, Amazon, and more. The platform also has pre-made templates you can use to prompt customers to create reviews and other user-generated content.

12. Loox

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (18,000+ reviews)

Pricing: From $9.99/month, 7-day free trial

Best for: Increasing social proof with appealing product reviews

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 increase sales.

13. Trustoo.io

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (4,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $9.99/month, free plan for up to 20 reviews/product

Best for: Displaying customer reviews on product pages

Trustoo.io helps to increase the social proof of ecommerce stores through customer reviews. You can bulk import customer reviews from AliExpress and add them to your store. On top of that, you can send automatic review request emails to customers after they have received their products.

Trustoo.io's strong point is its generous free plan, making it a good free Shopify app option.

14. Judge.me

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (25,000+ reviews)

Pricing: From $15/month, free plan available

Best for: Publishing reviews on website, social media, and Google search (rich snippets)

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. The app works well for search engine optimization since it will showcase the product review stars on Google for every product.

Judge.me offers free photo and video reviews and allows you to publish reviews on sales channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, to boost sales.

Sales and promotion

15. Notify Me! Back in Stock|PreOrder

R‍ating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (1,200+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $19.90/month, limited free plan available

Best for: Increasing online store sales without using complicated tools 

Notify me! app gives you all the tools to manage out-of-stock products and recover lost sales. You can use a Preorder button on your store to continue selling your products, or you can add a “notify me” widget to get your customers' contact info and send them notifications via. Email/SMS/Push (80%+ open rates) when the products are back in stock. 

You can also add preorder discounts, partial payments, notes, delivery fulfillment, and more with this all-in-one tool.

16. BSS: Product Labels & Badges

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (500+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $5/month, free plan available

Best for: Improving conversion rates with product badges, discounts, alerts, and more

The average attention span of a shopper is eight seconds. Product Badges aim 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.

17. PushOwl

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (2,500+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $19/month, free plan available

Best for: Creating email and web push notifications

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.

18. One Click Upsell - Zipify OCU

Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 stars (350+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $35/month, 30-day free trial

Best for: Brands with complementary products that benefit from upsells

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.

This Shopify app lets you split test and upsell on the Thank You page to maximize sales.

19. ReConvert Upsell & Cross-Sell

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (4,500+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $4.99/month, free plan available

Best for: Increasing sales through the order confirmation/thank you page

ReConvert allows you to customize your order confirmation/thank you page, allowing you to create a post-purchase funnel for more upsell opportunities. This can be done with widgets, including discount popups, product recommendations, and post-purchase surveys.

Since customers visit the order status page to review shipping updates, it's a perfect opportunity to retarget customers for an upselling opportunity.

20. ShopPop

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (10+ reviews)

Pricing: Plans starting from $325/month, up to 1500 alerts

Best for: Sending back-in-stock alerts and other notifications through WhatsApp, SMS, and Messenger

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. It's one of the most expensive apps on our list, but most customers still report getting a positive return on investment using ShopPop.

Email and SMS marketing

21. Sender

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars (20+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $10/month, free plan available for up to 2500 subscribers.

Best for: Creating email marketing & SMS campaigns

Sender is an affordable email and SMS marketing platform trusted by over 180,000 successful businesses globally. Some of its key features include automated emails and SMS for abandoned carts, welcome, win back and more email workflows. You can segment customers and personalize emails so that the right messages are sent to the right people.

Sender helps you execute your email and SMS campaigns to grow leads and boost your Shopify store sales on autopilot.

22. Klaviyo

Rating: 4.1 out of 5.0 stars (1,900+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans for emails start from $30/month (based on the number of contacts); SMS plans start from $15/month (based on the number of contacts)

Best for: Creating advanced email and SMS marketing sequences

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, sales channels, and many apps (including ReferralCandy).

23. Postscript

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (1,900+ reviews)

Pricing: Free to install, paid plans from $100/month, 30-day free trial available.

Best for: A turnkey solution for SMS marketing

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.

24. Omnisend

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (5,600+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available for up to 250 contacts, paid plans from $16/month

Best for: Automating SMS and email marketing flows

Omnisend is an email and SMS marketing platform powering over 85,000 ecommerce merchants.

Omnisend allows you to send stunning newsletters, create automated ecommerce flows, and collect email and SMS opt-ins. You have hundreds of ready-to-use templates to choose from and can segment customers based on their purchase behavior.

25. Privy

Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (24,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans from $12/month with a 15-day free trial

Best for: Creating email & SMS automation and adding pop-ups, offers, and prompts to your website

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.

Compared to some other email marketing solutions, Privy is more of an all-in-one solution since it also offers pop-ups and promotions that you can add to your website.

26. Drip

Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (80+ reviews)

Pricing: Plans starting from $39/month, 14-day free trial available

Best for: Creating advanced email and SMS marketing automation

Drip helps to create advanced email and SMS marketing automation campaigns for Shopify store owners. To create more personalized campaigns, you can segment customers based on purchase behavior and data.

Similarly to apps like Privy, you can create pop-ups, quizzes, surveys, and other forms that you can show on your website.

27. Dotdigital

Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (20+ reviews)

Pricing: Free app to install, paid plans start from $187/month

Best for: Creating email and cross-channel automation marketing campaigns

With a customer-first approach, Dotdigital is a platform for data-driven marketers to deliver personalized communications across different customer journeys. The platform harnesses the power of customer data, powering engagement, conversion, and loyalty for brands as they grow and scale.

28. ActiveCampaign

Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0 stars (380+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans start from $588/year, 14-day free trial available

Best for: Creating personalized marketing automation campaigns

ActiveCampaign helps to create personalized email and SMS campaigns based on customer shopping behavior and interests. For example, if a customer scrolled a specific category on your website, you can send them SMS and email discounts for that specific category.

Page builders and elements

29. PageFly

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (10,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Limited free plan available, paid plans from $24/month

Best for: Creating high-converting Shopify landing pages

PageFly helps create beautiful, high-quality pages for Shopify stores, 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.

While regular Shopify themes give you sections to start designing from, PageFly is ideally used for doing designs from scratch.

30. GemPages

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (4,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Free to install, paid plans starting from $29/month

Best for: Creating responsive landing pages from 80+ pre-made templates

GemPages lets you build a variety of pages for Shopify stores, such as the home, about us, product, and contact us pages. These templates have been created with conversion, mobile-driven design, and SEO optimization in mind.

31. Hextom: Free Shipping Bar

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (11,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans starting from $9.99/per month

Best for: Adding a free shipping offer to your website

This app does exactly what it says on the tin - it allows 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).

32. Ecomposer

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (3,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans from $19/month

Best for: Creating any page & section using a drag-and-drop editor

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, drag & drop everything.

33. ModeMagic by Mason

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (500+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans from $249/month

Best for: Increasing the store's conversion rate by setting up no-code conversion playbooks for running sales, % Off, showcase stock updates, bestsellers & more

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-and-play conversion playbooks, you can 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!

Search engine & ads

34. Google Channel

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0 stars (7,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Free Shopify app; the ad spend is billed directly to Google Ads

Best for: Reaching more customers across YouTube, Gmail, Google Search, and Google Display Network.

Shopify's Google Channel makes it easy for you to list products for free on Google and run Smart Shopping campaigns. It can also help you increase sales with Performance Max ads across Search, YouTube, and Display, as well as uncover ecommerce insights through Google Analytics.

35. Suite for Google Shopping Feed by CedCommerce

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (1,500+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans from $13/month with a 7-day free trial

Best for: Advertising your products on Google properties

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.

36. AdRoll

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars (480+ reviews)

Pricing: Free to install, paid plans from $40/month

Best for: Running marketing campaigns that integrate social media, mobile apps and email advertising

AdRoll powers advertising and remarketing campaigns for thousands of merchants and boasts the ability to run a campaign that integrates different sales channels, like social media, mobile apps, and emails.

AdRoll boasts AI-optimized ads on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and over 500 networks.

37. Automizely Traffic & Ads

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (700+ reviews)

Pricing: Free to use

Best for: Driving new traffic and sales by appearing in other stores within your niche

Automizely Traffic lets you target and retarget customers with the right ads at the right time.

The ad exchange allows you to display your products in other stores in exchange for promoting partner ads on your website - a win-win for both of your stores. The main benefit of the app is that it offers new potential customers at a minimal cost.

Customer service and fulfillment

38. Gorgias

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars (600+ reviews)

Pricing: From $10/month, 50 tickets per month included. A 7-day free trial available

Best for: Combining all customer support channels into one inbox

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.

39. Tidio

Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0 stars (1,800+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $29/month, 7-day free trial available

Best for: Live chat support, including email and Messenger integration

Tidio offers a live chat app bolstered by marketing automation and chatbots to address your customers' needs and increase sales instantly. Tidio's chatbot can automatically reply to the most common queries, including questions about tracking and an Abandoned Cart Bot that offers discounts to help convert customers.

40. Wonderment

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (70+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans from $99/month for up to 2,500 shipments per month

Best for: Brands that get a lot of 'Where Is My Order' tickets

Did you know that consumers check the status of their order at least once 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.

Mobile app builders

41. Vajro

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (1,700+ reviews)

Pricing: Paid plans start from $99/month, 30-day free trial available

Best for: Converting your Shopify store into an Android and iOS app

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 1,700 five-star reviews on Shopify, Vajro has helped 3000+ Shopify merchants to sell more and engage better with their customers.

42. Shopney

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (900+ reviews)

Pricing: Starting from $149/month, a 30-day free trial is available

Best for: Turning your Shopify store into a mobile app in minutes with a drag-and-drop editor.

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.

Store analytics

43. TrueProfit

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (300+ reviews)

Pricing: Starting from $25/month, a 14-day free trial available

Best for: Merchants wanting to start tracking their Shopify store analytics

True Profit helps ecommerce merchants instantly track their real-time profit without relying on lagging and error-prone spreadsheets. The main purpose of the app is to make it easy to gather, calculate, & analyze all the order metrics for your store.

44. Triple Whale

Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0 stars (40+ reviews)

Pricing: Starting from $129/month, free plan available

Best for: Monitoring important ecommerce metrics from a centralized dashboard

Triple Whale offers a unified dashboard for all your important ecommerce metrics, pulling from your tech stacks 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.

Interesting new apps

45. Octane.AI

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (200+ reviews)

Pricing: Starting from $50/month, a 14-day free trial available

Best for: Creating quizzes and pop-ups to grow email subscribers and increase sales

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.

46. Govalo

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (10+ reviews)

Pricing: From $0 per month (but 2.9% commission on gift card value), paid plans starting from $79/month

Best for: Creating customizable gift cards

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.

47. Skio Subscriptions

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars (190+ reviews)

Pricing: $499/month, plus commissions

Best for: Brands that need a tool for managing subscription-based billing

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.

48. BEST Currency Converter

Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0 stars (9,000+ reviews)

Pricing: Free tier available. Paid plans from $9.95/month for >5 currencies and auto-switch by customer location.

Best for: International stores needing to convert prices to a local currency

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.

49. Relo

Rating: n/a

Pricing: Starting from $200/month, 30-day free trial

Best for: Getting repeat purchases by predicting when customers will reorder

Relo is the easiest way for DTC brands to get customers to order again. Relo predicts when customers are going to buy again, syncs that data into Klaviyo & sends personalized email comms to your customers.

50. Vidjet

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.0 stars (100+ reviews)

Pricing: Starting from $29 to $299, 14-day trial, and a freemium option

Best for: Embedding videos into your website without code

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.

51. Boost AI Search & Filter

Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0 stars (1,800+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans from $19/month

Best for: Improving your average order value by providing more tailored product recommendations for customers

Boost AI Search & Filter helps to boost conversions and maximize average order value with the help of AI and semantic search. These functionalities help customers find their favorite products through AI recommendations.

Grow your brand in 2024 with these Shopify Apps

Hopefully these 50+ Shopify apps we’re helpful for you! Our aim was to compare different Shopify apps in different categories and provide you with the list of the best options out there.

Looking for more resources? Check out these other resources:

• 13 Free Tools for Ecommerce Competitor Research on Rival Brands
• 10 Powerful Customer Acquisition Tools To Grow Your Sales Fast
• 10 Top Influencer Marketing Tools for Your Next Influencer Campaign

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.

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Black Friday is the best time of the year to increase ecommerce sales and take advantage of different marketing strategies. Adobe reports that Black Friday sales are at an all-time high and continue to rise year after year.

To take advantage of this, you can set up your referral and email marketing campaigns, increase your AOV, update product descriptions, and more.

Scroll below to find all of the best marketing strategies for Black Friday 👇

15+ Black Friday marketing strategies to drive record sales

To gather the below strategies, we contacted 30 marketing experts and gathered recent statistics on the topic. 

These insights helped us craft the best Black Friday strategies.

1. Set up your referral campaign

Referral campaigns are one of the highest ROI strategies for the next Black Friday. The average referral rate across all industries is 2.35%, which means that most merchants see a positive ROI on their programs.

To set up your referral program, you can use ReferralCandy. 

After signing up, you will be guided through the referral setup process, and you can create your Black Friday landing pages, send out invitation emails and track their performance.

Want to learn more? Read our guide on how to set up your referral program.

2. Start earlier than anyone else

Adam Watson from Hollywood Mirrors shared his direct experience of running his own Black Friday campaign:

“My number one advice is to go early with your Black Friday offer, your audience only has so much money to spend.”

Consumers start their holiday shopping as early as in October, according to Statista.

This means that you should start preparing your discounts and sales immediately, if you already haven’t.

3. Plan out your marketing content calendar

To get ready for Black Friday, plan out your marketing content calendar.

You can leverage HubSpot’s content template for free. There are also a plenty of free resources online.

Create a content calendar that details what content assets you want to share, and when you want to share them.

Specifically, you want to develop your assets, such as:

• Images and graphics
• Black Friday social media posts
• Ad, email, and website copies
• Giveaways and special discounts plans

Be sure also to include and schedule posts for social media and use catchy Black Friday phrases in your post.

4. Dont compete on discounts (offer value, gifts & deals instead)

The average Black Friday discount was 31% in 2023, as reported by Demandsage.

Competing in discounts is difficult since brands offer higher and higher discounts year-by-year.

You can flip the switch and offer value, gifts & deals instead.

Here are three ideas to implement:

1. Offer value: For example, if you’re selling gardening tools, you could offer a free gardening ebook as a value add-on for Black Friday.
2. Offer gifts: You could offer a free complementary product (such as a drill and free gloves) for customers who purchase from you during Black Friday.
3. Offer deals: You can create simple and interesting deals, such as “Buy 1, Get 1 Free” for Black Friday. These kinds of deals are so simple, which is why they work.

5. Increase your average order value (AOV)

An ecommerce brand Bambu Earth, ran an experiment to see if they could nudge customers into a higher spending bucket. 

They offered two tiers of rewards:

• Spend $50, Get a $28 gift 
• Spend $200, Get a $160 gift

They ran the event for just 24 hours, using email marketing and remarketing ads only. Each “minimum spend” amount would tip customers into a higher spending tier. 

The results?

Over $135K in sales on a random Friday in August — which turned out to be the single biggest revenue day in Bambu Earth’s history. Even better, that data can now be used to fuel the brand’s upcoming holiday deals.

In the same way, you can increase your average order value through gifts and offering value.

An easy way to do this is to use an upsell app, which is designed to increase AOV. If you use Shopify, you’ll find plenty of upsell apps.

6. Offer product bundles or a mystery box

For Black Friday, you can try to:

• Bundle items your customers would normally buy together and offer them at a discount
• Bundle all your best selling products into one unit and sell them together
• Offer a mystery box (the customer doesn't know what he's going to get)

Another idea to give the bundled products a “mystery box” effect: keep some of the items in the bundle a secret. And every day during the sale, you’d reveal one “mystery” item to your audience targeting a segment of your market.

7. Can’t offer cash discounts? Offer free shipping

If you can’t offer cash discounts, see if you can offer free shipping. Free shipping is one of the most powerful Black Friday promotion ideas you can use.

In one study, 90 percent of participants said free shipping was their number one incentive for buying. Another study mentions that 62% of consumers say they won’t purchase from a brand if there is no free shipping available.

Black Friday campaigns are pretty powerful when you combine free shipping with same-day delivery.

8. Optimize existing email workflows

Before creating any new Black Friday campaigns, think of the existing email workflows your brand has, such as:

• Abandoned cart emails
• Welcome emails
• SMS messages
• And more

These can all be optimized to bring higher sales during Black Friday.

Klaviyo’s 2024 email benchmark data showed that abandoned cart automation flows had the highest click rates and revenue per customer.

To take advantage of this statistic for Black Friday, optimize your abandoned cart flow. One simple thing you can do is to send out abandoned cart emails to customers quicker than normally.

For example, if you normally send it 24 hours after someone abandons the cart, switch it to only 4 hours for Black Friday.

You can even send multiple abandoned cart emails.

9. Set up Black Friday email marketing campaigns

A well-known statistic about email marketing states that every dollar spent on email marketing yields $44 in return. 

The return on investment is even higher on Black Friday.

To take advantage of the high ROI, set up your Black Friday email marketing campaigns. 

You can take inspiration from websites like Really Good Emails and Milled to see how other brands have done it.

10. Work hard on your email subject lines

People decide whether to read your email just by looking at the subject lines, so take them seriously. 

Or steal the best subject lines. Campaign Monitor provides a list of Black Friday email subject lines you can explore, grab them here.

11. Use SMS marketing

Greg Zakowicz shared interesting Black Friday SMS statistics from Omnisend customers:

• During 2020 BFCM, there was a noticeable uptick in brands using SMS marketing as well as consumers responding to them.
• Conversion rates for SMS were 9% higher during the holidays than the rest of the year.
• In November 2020, Black Friday orders were responsible for 19% of all SMS orders

Impressive, right?

If you haven’t used SMS marketing before, Black Friday can be an excellent time to start.

The results speak for themselves; SMS marketing can bring great results.

SMS marketing can be combined with email marketing for a more omnichannel approach. Tools such as Klaviyo can help.

12. Create a mission-driven story around your Black Friday offering

An inspirational and mission-driven story around your Black Friday offering can significantly improve your Black Friday results.

What do we mean by this?

Patagonia is doing this exact thing and they want to fight against the normal Black Friday deep discounts, limited-time offers, and last-ditch sales.

They explain it well here:

Related to the above campaign, Patagonia donated 100% of their Black Friday profits to environmental nonprofits.

The results?

Patagonia's Black Friday sales were a record-breaking $10 million, five times more than the company expected.

You don't have to go as far as Patagonia by donating 100% of profits, but even offering a small percentage and explaining it to your audience can have a significant impact.

13. Update your product descriptions

If you haven’t updated your product descriptions in a while, Black Friday is a great time to do that.

This can significantly increase your conversion rates.

Some product description ideas you can implement are:

• Highlight discounts and urgency: Update your product descriptions to mention the Black Friday discounts clearly.
• Focus on benefits: Black Friday shoppers are looking for value, so highlight the benefits that matter most to them.
• Incorporate customer reviews: Add snippets of positive customer reviews directly into the description to increase social proof.
• Add visual elements: If possible, include icons, badges, or short video clips that showcase the key selling points.

14. Build a connection with video messages

According to Wyzowl's study of video marketers, 88% said videos helped users understand their products or services better.

If your product/service is more complex or you just want to use video marketing for Black Friday, it's a great idea.

Here are some ideas to implement:

• Work with influencers: You can collaborate with influencers to create video content for their social media channels. For example, you can announce a sale with the influencers for Black Friday.
• Countdown videos: Create engaging countdown videos leading up to your Black Friday sale. This helps to build anticipation.
• Customer testimonials: Genuine customer feedback can provide social proof and influence new buyers during Black Friday.
• Behind-the-scenes content: Share behind-the-scenes footage of your team preparing for Black Friday. This adds a human touch to your brand and can build excitement.

15. Improve your checkout

Customers are quick to leave your website if your checkout process isn’t optimized.

Ecommerce brands lose up to $18 billion in sales due to shopping cart abandonment - which happens 18% of the time (according to Bogdan Klopov from Visme).

The simple way to resolve this? 

Simplify your checkout process as much as possible. Reduce the number of steps involved, and ensure customers don’t have to sign up to purchase.

This will improve sales and eliminate cart abandonment to ensure smoother sales for your store. But remember - you’ll want to collect emails so you can re-market to these new customers during the slow seasons.

16. Black Friday ideas for small businesses

We’ve discussed lots of Black Friday ideas for small businesses that you can take advantage of right away. 

Here are three more ideas you can implement:

• Team up with other small businesses: Working with small businesses that complement what you sell can be great for business. For example, if you sell wine openers, you can team up with wine brands. You may choose to offer a discount or design and launch creative Black Friday campaigns for your users.
• Promote your offers across platforms: If you sell on more than one platform, such as Shopify and Amazon, make sure to use the promotional tools available on each platform to get the word out.
• Don’t make it passive, have a landing page: Make sure you have one or more landing pages to welcome visitors to your Black Friday marketing campaigns. Show them how they’ll benefit from your deals. Go above and beyond. Remember that other businesses are making offers too. So make sure yours stands out.

An extra tip: Use word-of-mouth marketing for Black Friday

Using word-of-mouth marketing through referral and affiliate programs is an effective way to increase Black Friday sales and keep customers retained afterward.

ReferralCandy helps to increase word-of-mouth sales by letting users start their customer referral programs.

To automate the process of running the referral program, ReferralCandy has advanced automation tools available.

If this sounds interesting, you can easily sign up for ReferralCandy’s 14-day free trial.