Footwear Referral Program Examples: Nisolo Shoes

Nisolo is a socially conscious lifestyle brand that produces ethical, handmade shoes and accessories in a way you can feel good about.

While working in Peru, co-founder Patrick Woodyard realized that there were many talented shoemakers there who had trouble gaining access to a global market to sell their goods.

Together with Zoe Cleary, they started Nisolo – a label that focuses on ethical production and taking care of their craftsmen.

With an admirable purpose, and beautifully handmade products made by passionate artisans to boot, it's no surprise many of their customers tell their friends about Nisolo.

To date, Nisolo enjoys a pretty awesome referral rate of 6.3%, which means that 6 out of every 100 purchases comes from referrals!

We got hold of Lee Smith-Bryan, Director of Customer Acquisition at Nisolo, and asked him about their marketing targets, getting customers to refer more, and their success using ReferralCandy.

But first, here's some background on the company:

• Team of approx. 30 – 11 - 12 working in the main office in Nashville, Tennessee, and 20 working in Peru.
• Sells online from their website.

“What are the top 3 things that you care the most about?”

1. "Our customers – We care a lot about our customers, so making them happy is a big deal for us."
2. "Growth and impact – We want to grow in a healthy way, and to have an impact on our consumers and our artisans in Peru. Can we make an impact that will help their families? So it’s not only game-changing for our consumers and customers, but it’s life-changing for our artisans in Peru, because we’re giving them a way to connect both consumers and producers."
3. "Our teammates – We are all in this, so we are not alone. So that means as a team, not only in Peru, but in Nashville as well, coming in and making sure that we do a good job everyday. It’s what gets us up in the morning and keeps us coming into the office. There's also the impact that we can make, not just as an individual but as a team as well."

“Can you tell me what your marketing or growth targets are like, if you have any?”

"We want to expand organically, which includes producing a lot of different types of content for our customers.

We’re also looking to use social media, not just for advertising, but to connect with our customers and answer any customer service inquiries they might have."

“Why did you start using ReferralCandy?”

"ReferralCandy was already set up before I started at Nisolo.

But what I like about it was it’s straightforward and it’s easy to use. Plus, we've had a lot of success from it."

"How do you get your customers to join your referral program?"

"We mostly get referrals through the "Refer a Friend" link on the website. Apart from that, we don’t do much outreach or promotion for the referral program.

The referral program CTA is in the top navigation bar on the site, so it tends to get a lot of exposure that other parts of the website doesn’t.

So far, placing the link there has been really successful for us."

"So what are 2 features that you like most about ReferralCandy?"

"The overview that shows us at a glance what’s going on – the activity summary, the trends and top referrers are really helpful for us.

I like the fact that it’s so easy to use and frees up time for us. Any changes that we want to make can be done really quickly and easily.

Also, I like how it works on our website and it's not only effective but easy to use as well."

Interested to know more about Nisolo? Head over to check them out now!

Next: Referral Program Examples – An Epic List of 74 Referral Programs