Referral marketing is an effective eCommerce marketing strategy used by successful brands to acquire new customers at a lower customer acquisition cost. In this strategy, you turn your happy customers into brand advocates who will promote your products and stores among their peers and in exchange they earn attractive rewards in the form of store credits, discounts or other offers.
As a Shopify store owner, starting a referral marketing program for your store has never been as easy as it is today. You have tons of apps that you can simply add to your store and set an attractive referral marketing program within a few minutes. That also, without coding or any technical hassle of setting up referral tracking, reward payouts, etc.
A good Shopify referral app enables you to create and manage referral marketing campaigns smoothly by automating all the tasks like reward payout, email reminders, and most importantly fraud protection.
So, in this article, we will show you some of best Shopify referral apps that you can consider using for your Shopify store to run an effective referral marketing program.
Key Features of Shopify Referral Marketing Apps
There are several referral apps in the Shopify App Store, but most of them are not reliable to run a successful referral marketing program.
So, selecting the right Shopify referral app is crucial for your Online store. Here are some of the essential features that you must look for when evaluating Shopify referral apps –
- User-Friendly Interface: The app should be easy to set up and navigate, both for you as the store owner and for your customers. A user-friendly interface ensures a smooth experience for all users to find their referral links, coupons and redeem their rewards.
- Customization Options: Look for an app that allows you to customize the referral program per your business requirements. You should be ables to customize reward options, referral emails, landing pages, and widgets to match your brand’s aesthetics and messaging
- Rewards and Incentives: Ensure that the app allows you to set up rewards and incentives for both referrers and referees. This can include discounts, store credits, cash rewards, or other enticing offers.
- Tracking and Analytics: The app should provide detailed tracking and analytics to help you monitor the performance of your referral program. This includes tracking referrals, clicks, conversions, and ROI.
- Automated Reward Fulfillment: Look for an app that automates the reward fulfillment process. It should be capable of sending out rewards automatically when referrals meet the specified criteria.
- Referral Program Rules: Check if the app allows you to set specific rules for your referral program, such as referral limits, eligibility criteria, and expiration dates for rewards.
- Integrations: Make sure that the app seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack for marketing, customer services and store designing. It should sync customer data, order information, and other relevant data to help you run the program effectively.
In addition to these features, you should also consider your budget and other features that you might need for your business. By carefully considering all these factors, you can choose a Shopify referral app that best suits your business needs and helps you leverage the power of word-of-mouth marketing to grow your online store.
9 Top Shopify Referral Apps for Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Now, based on the above mentioned features, we have reviewed some of the best Shopify referral apps to help you pick the most suitable one based on your needs.
Here are the top 5 Shopify referral apps –
| Referral App | Starting Price | Offers |
|---|---|---|
| ReferralCandy | $49/month | Start 30-day trial |
| SC Conjured Referral | $29/month | Start 14-day trial |
| Growave | $49/month | Get 30-day Extended Trial |
| Loloyal | Free | Create Free Account |
| UpPromote | Free | Create Free Account |
| Stamped.io | Free | Create Free Account |
Now let’s dive deeper into these apps and a few more.
1. ReferralCandy
ReferralCandy is the best Shopify referral app that lets you leverage more sales via attractive referral programs. It removes your burden by sending payouts automatically to your customers so you can concentrate on other important tasks.
You can customize rewards for both referring customers and referred friends. The rewards include:
- Percentage discount
- Dollar discount
- Cash
- Custom gifts like free shipping
ReferralCandy lets you design on-branded referral programs for your Shopify store. You can upload logos, banners, apply your branding colors, and everything will be set on time.
Another important aspect is that you’ll get notified when there is any suspicious activity. This lets you prevent referral fraud activities so you can offer rewards only to legitimate customers.
Key Features –
- Easy to set up with no technical hassle
- Send automated invitation emails to new customers
- Automatically send rewards to referrals and customers
- Highly customizable referral program pages & emails
- Built-in fraud detention features
- Intuitive analytics reporting dashboard
- Seamless integration with Shopify marketing and subscription apps
- 24/7 Live Chat Support
Pricing Plans – It offers a 30-day free trial and the premium plan starts at just $49/month.
2. SC Conjured Referral
A conjured referral is a quick and easy-to-use referral marketing app of Shopify that enables a “Refer-a-friend” marketing strategy to boost sales. It allows you you customize each step of the referral marketing campaign to suit your business needs.
The app helps you create simple and automated referral programs that automatically generate a referral link for each customer that they can share with their friends and acquaintances to promote your store.
As a merchant, you can offer rewards to the referrer and referred customers in the following ways –
- Gift Cards
- Discount Vouchers
- Promo Coupons
Conjured referral app lets you monitor your referral program analytics right from the Shopify dashboard which saves time and enables you to focus on other crucial things to upgrade your store.
Key Features –
- Easy One-click installation & set up
- Highly customizable referral program
- Customizable referral program landing page
- Automatically reward incentives to referral partners
- Detailed reporting on referrals and revenue generated
- Supports multiple languages
- Provides 24/7 customer support
Pricing Plans – The app has 3 paid plans with a 14-day free trial. Each plan has a cap limit on monthly referral revenue. For instance, the Intro plan costs $29/month and allows up to $500 referred revenue/per month. For unlimited referral revenue, you can choose its highest plan which costs $299/month.
3. Growave
Growave is an all-in-one Shopify marketing app that lets you run loyalty programs, referrals, enables one-click social login, boosts credibility via reviews, and promotes social selling via Instagram.
Talking about its referral program, it’s relatively easy to implement. It potentially rewards both the referrer and the referrals, which leads to effective monetization of word-of-mouth marketing.
The multiple rewarding options for your referral program are as follows –
- Gift cards
- Discounts on their subsequent purchases.
- Points on every purchase made by the referred customers.
Growave enables your customers to share a unique referral link via email, social media, and other reliable platforms. You can also keep track of your analytics and monitor how your referral sales grow over time.
To learn more about its features and functionalities, you should read our detailed Growave review.
Key Features –
- Dedicated referral program landing pages
- Combine a referral program with a loyalty program
- Reward customers with a variety of options
- Built-in email templates for referral updates & reminders
- Solid analytics reporting on referrals and revenue generated from it
- Seamless integration with Klaviyo, Omnisend, Gorgias, and other popular apps
- Excellent customer support
Pricing Plans – It offers the most affordable plans to start a referral reward program. Its basic plan starts at just $9/month with all the features and goes up to $299/month, providing advanced rewarding features and integrations. It offers a 14-day free trial, but with our Growave coupon, you can get a 30-day extended free trial.
4. Loloyal
Loloyal is another Shopify app for reward programs that empowers you with customer retention tools. Boosting sales and enhancing customer loyalty, Loloyal offers points, referrals, rewards programs, and VIP tiers. Referral program is one of their powerful reward function that it offers.
With its Referral Program, you can reward both referrers and referred friends with unique coupon codes, encouraging both parties to promote and shop from your store. Loloyal gives you a complete flexibility to customize the referral program per your strategy – from allowing referral reward on specific products, collections or the entire catalogue.
The app will generate unique referral link for every customer and allows them share their referral links via Facebook, Twitter, and Email right from your site. It also provides detailed reporting on program performance, enabling you to make informed decision about it.
Key Features –
- Customize your referral program to match your brand perfectly.
- Keep customers engaged and informed referrals with customized referral messages.
- Refer and reach global customers effortlessly with Multiple Languages.
- Set up Reward Expiration to remind customers to use their rewards to place orders.
- Keep tracking your customers’ activities with Program Analytics.
- Rewards can be applied to specific collections.
Pricing Plan – Loloyal has a free plan with some basic features, like referral program. It also offers Starter Plan and Growth Plan. Starter Plan costs up to $29/month. Growth Plan goes up to $69/month, providing all advanced features and integrations.
5. UpPromote
UpPromote is another powerful affiliate/referral marketing solution compatible with Shopify stores. It enables you to build a professional affiliate campaign and easily approach potential affiliates with Uppromote Marketplace.
With UpPromote, no technical knowledge is required. You can easily build a professional affiliate campaign by generating unlimited commission programs. Also, you can quickly create and assign coupons/ referral links for affiliates/ influencers with complete customization flexibility to match your brand.
Apart from this, it provides a reliable tracking process that enables you to track every click, order from your referral partners and avoid fraudulent transactions.
Key Features –
- Highly customizable referral and affiliate program
- Customizable post-purchase pop-up to invite customers
- Automatically generate coupon and referral links
- A dedicated dashboard for referral and affiliate partners to track their performance
- Auto-pay your referral partners in cash or other reward options
- Advanced fraud detection features to save you money
- Dedicated customer support to help you through the process
Pricing Plans – If you’re a starter, UpPromote has a Free plan with all basic features to help you build a professional affiliate campaign. Besides, depending on your business size, the plan ranges will be from $21.99/mo to $139.99/mo. UpPromote offers 14 days free trial for all pricing plans.
6. Stamped.io
Stamped is a powerful Shopify referral app that turns your potential customers into free marketers. It boosts repeat purchases by letting you implement a customizable referral program which eventually increases word-of-mouth marketing.
You can create exciting referral incentives based on your requirements with multiple reward types. They are as follows:
- Accelerated earning points
- Free Shipping discount.
- Fixed amount discount.
- Percentage discount
The lifeblood of a referral program lies in providing numerous options to spread the word about you. With Stamped.io, you can enable customers to share the referral program in Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, email, and SMS.
To understand how well your referral program works, Stamped.io lets you track three key metrics. They are top advocates, total referrals, and referral traffic with which you can uncover the reasons for optimizing your referral campaigns.
Apart from the referral programs, Stamped also enables you to create loyalty programs and gather customer reviews. If you want to get a complete overview of it, you should check our detailed Stamped.io Review.
Key Features –
- Display reward launcher on the website
- A dedicated referral program page with customization options
- Invite customers to join the program with an attractive post-purchase popup
- Detailed referral analytics reporting
- Supports integration with Shopify email marketing apps and more.
Pricing Plans – Stamped has a free plan for stores with up to 100 orders/month. The Paid plans start at just $39/month and scale up to $479/month for growing stores with up to 3,500 orders/month.
7. Retainful
Retainful is a sales optimization app that primarily focuses on reducing cart abandonment. Its referral program feature is designed to turn your customers into brand advocates and to acquire new customers at a low cost.
Starting a referral program with Retainful is super easy – you can make it live within just a few minutes. It has three reward options, namely –
- Flat discount
- Percentage discount
- Free shipping
Your customers can share via Facebook, Twitter, and email to boost visibility. It contributes to increasing sales by setting up purchasing thresholds to attain rewards. This motivates them to spend more so they can enjoy your exclusive benefits.
Retainful automatically enrolls customers into the referral program and generates a unique referral link after the first purchase. Also, you can send automated reminders to customers regarding the program and encourage them to take desired actions.
Key Features –
- Generate coupons automatically for advocates and new customers
- Display Chat like widget on your website to promote your referral program
- Display a popup on your Thank you page to invite customers to join
- Send automated email notifications regarding referral updates
- Customizable email templates for referral updates
- Analytics dashboard to track rewards issued, total revenue generated, and other data
- Provides automatic fraud prevention via IP and emails
Pricing Plans – Retainful has a pricing plan based on the number of contacts. It offers a free plan, allowing up to 300 contacts. However, to start a referral program, you will have to opt for one of the paid plans, starting at $15/month and going up to $159/month.
Once you reach the contact limit, the plan will be automatically upgraded to the higher plan to ensure continuous tracking for referrals.
8. Smile.io
Smile.io is one of the top-rated Shopify referral apps that help grow your community by launching attractive referral programs. It makes it easy for your customers to claim their rewards as all they have to do is enter the email and hit the send button.
You can promote sharing activities by awarding points for referrals and social sharing. The four different types of referral rewards that you can offer to your customers are:
- Free product
- Free shipping
- Percentage discount
- Dollar discount
While providing unique referral links, you can enable customers to share it instantly across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., with predefined messages.
Key Features –
- Easily customize every aspect of the referral program to match your branding
- Add a rewards launcher on your website
- Send automated reminder emails to customers about their referral link
- Auto-translate referral program to one of 6 preset languages
- Direct integration with Klaviyo and Mailchimp for email marketing
Pricing Plans – It offers a free plan with very limited features. The Paid plans start at just $49/month and go up to the Enterprise plan.
9. Bamboo
Bamboo is a simple yet impactful Shopify referral app that helps generate free influencers for your Shopify store by providing stunning referral programs. It lets you monetize your customer’s efforts by offering coupons, points, and free products that ignite the advocacy trait hidden in them.
Bamboo is a simple yet impactful Shopify referral app that generates free influencers via stunning referral programs. Starting from the referral page to the checkout popup, you can optimize your referral flow to boost engagement levels.
It offers built-in templates to create eye-catching referral programs. You can offer them the following rewarding options to add value to their efforts:
- Percentage discount
- Dollar discount
- Free product
Bamboo ensures that you run profitable programs as it lets you reward customers only after they make the referral. It also enables you to send timely notifications to bring more referred customers to complete their first purchase.
It also provides a detailed analysis of all your referral marketing efforts. This Shopify referral app presents key statistics like your referrer’s identity and source. You can also compare your performance with the industry benchmarks to witness where you stand in this eCommerce competitive field.
Key Features –
- A dedicated dashboard for customers to track their referrals
- Customizable referral landing page
- Send timely referral email reminders to encourage customers to share referral links
- Easily track referral sources and other data from the analytics dashboard
Pricing Plans – The pricing is based on your contact size. The Pro plan starts at $29/month for 100 contacts, and to access more features, you can upgrade to the Enterprise plan.
10. Rise.ai – Shopify Gift cards and Referral App
Compared to other Shopify referral apps, Rise.ai is slightly unique. Instead of offering a flat discount, free products, dollar discounts, etc., it rewards customers with store credits.
You can allow your customers to accumulate store credits every time they successfully refer you to their peers. With store credits, customers can instantly make any purchase which improves their overall shopping experience.
Additionally, you can reward bloggers, influencers, and brand ambassadors who refer your store to their network. Even you can encourage VIP influencers to promote your brand by offering customized referral links and tags that boost your brand’s credibility.
Pricing Plans – It offers a 7-day free trial, and the Starter plan starts at just $19.99/month.
Choose the Best Shopify Referral App
Shopify is undoubtedly one of the most powerful eCommerce platforms and as a Shopify store owner, you must create a loyalty and referral program for your store.
A loyalty program helps you stay connected with your existing customers, increasing the customer lifetime value (LTV) and Referral programs encourage your existing customers to promote your products and bring in new customers for your store.
Loyalty and referral programs are a win-win strategy for both the parties – customers & store owners which makes it one of the effective marketing tactics in the eCommerce space.
Finally, we hope this article helped you pick the app to start an engaging loyalty & referral program for your store. If you are looking for more tools to improve your Shopify sales, you should check out these hand-picked articles –
