Loyal customers don’t shy away from word-of-mouth marketing of their love for the products. Shopify referral program is a way to reward these customers for their loyal association with the business.
A loyalty program or referral program in Shopify will help to retain existing customers turned brand advocates by acknowledging their efforts and also acquire new customers through referral. Referral marketing in Shopify creates a win-win situation.
We, with this blog, help you learn how to create a Shopify referral program that can help build a solid customer relationship and boost revenue.
Reduce your customer acquisition cost by turning your existing customers into brand advocates with ease using Afflr
How does a Shopify Referral Program work?
A Shopify Referral Program works in a very simple yet efficient way. It encourages your existing customers to promote the business to their friends and family and incentivizes their efforts through rewards.
The following steps will help to start a referral program in Shopify:
- Launch a Shopify referral program with attractive rewards and customer discount
- Create a dedicated referral link or referral code that is unique to each customer.
- Encourage customers to advocate about the products among friends and use the link or code to purchase
- Monitor the key performance metrics related to sales, rewards, and referrals
- Analyze and optimize the program to generate maximum revenue
Additionally, the Shopify referral program can be integrated with a loyalty program to award customers loyalty points that they can encash or redeem in the future.
Scaling is easy for referral marketing as it grows along with the customer base and by embracing the use of any existing best Shopify Referral Apps, you can eliminate the manual labor and automate the entire referral marketing campaign for a streamlined process.
How to start a Referral program for Shopify?
To start a referral program for Shopify, you ought to follow certain steps that can structure the Shopify referral marketing campaign.
To help in this, it is imperative to employ a dedicated Shopify referral app that can automate the process and help management of the Shopify referral program effortlessly.
Afflr is a one-stop solution for all your word-of-mouth marketing troubles. It is affordable, easy to use, and provides various features to enhance the referral marketing experience.
Starting from the creation of a Shopify referral program, setting up flexible rewards and discounts, managing the referral links, adding customers as ambassadors, and eventually monitoring performance to support redefining, Afflr takes care of the steps in its user-friendly platform.
Elevate your marketing strategy to boost sales and revenue using referral marketing with the help of Afflr
1. Create a Shopify Referral program
To create a Shopify Referral Program, Go to your Shopify admin dashboard -> Apps -> Afflr -> Programs and then click on the Add Program button
2. Set up the Customer Referral Program for Shopify
Setting up the customer referral program for Shopify using Afflr is an effortless process.
Let us see an example of creating a very simple Shopify referral program namely “Give $10, Get $10”
The logic behind this Shopify referral program is that new customers purchasing through a referral will get $10 off, while the referral partner who recommended the new customer will get a reward of $10.
This screenshot depicts the example thus discussed where the reward is set to a fixed amount, $10, and even the discount is set to $10.
Furthermore, Afflr also allows additional features that can help customize your Shopify referral program further. This will enrich the potential of your customer referral program and enable flexibility based on the scope and requirements of the referral marketing strategy. These additional features include activating recursion commission, setting minimum requirements, setting usage limits, or limiting to one use per customer.
3. Add customers as brand advocates
There are two ways to add customers as brand advocates:
- Add Customer Manually by Admin
- Referral sign-up
To convert customers to be your brand advocate, it is important first to educate the customers about the benefits of referral marketing in Shopify and encourage them to sign up.
Add Customer Manually by Admin
To add customers using the Afflr admin dashboard, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Affiliates and click on the Add Affiliate button.
Referral sign-up
Referrals can sign up voluntarily in Afflr using two ways:
a. Referral Landing Page
b. Referral Portal
a. Referral Landing Page
A referral landing page is a part of your webpage that has detailed information about your Shopify referral program like the products, referral rewards, links to sign-up forms, etc.
Afflr not only helps to create a referral landing page but also customizes it to match the visual tone of your Shopify store.
To access the Referral Landing page for your Shopify store using Afflr, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Settings and toggle the Enable button.
b. Referral Portal
A referral portal is a platform that is dedicated to customers to access their affiliate link and check their performance like recent sales, commission earned, products part of the Shopify referral program, etc.
With Afflr, you can easily activate the portal and share links for customer sign-up.
To access the Referral Portal for your Shopify store using Afflr, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Settings and toggle the Enable button.
Import List
If you already have a list of referral partners you are working with and want to merge the list with an app to enable automation, you can easily import the list to the app using its ‘Import Affiliate’ feature.
4. Generate Referral Link and Referral code
Generating a referral link and referral code is easy using an automation tool like Afflr as they are auto-generated and also enable tracking for quick sales tracking and commission allocation.
Referral Link: It is a unique URL for the referral partner.Purchase is made by clicking on the link. Discounts will be automatically applied and sales will be recorded.
Referral Code: It is a unique alpha-numeric code that can be customized. Code is used for offline or phone purchase. Referral code can be used at the time of checkout.
Both the link, as well as code, can be shared via social media, emails, or blogs.
Referral link and code access by Admin
For the admin to access the referral link and code in Afflr, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Affiliates and click on the customer name
The next page will display the details of the customer including the link and code as seen in the screenshot.
Referral link and code access by customer
The Referral link and code can be accessed by customers from the Referral portal and promote the link to their family and friends to purchase the products or services.
As seen in the screenshot, customers can find the link along with other important information like sales, commission, payout, etc.
5. Tracking Shopify Referral Program Performance
Tracking the Shopify referral program’s performance can help you get better insights to help you analyze the program, and refine and optimize to build a better strategy to bring more sales and revenue.
Track Referral sales
To track referral sales using Afflr, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Sales
As shown in the screenshot, all referral sales made through customer promotion are displayed here.
Track Referral Rewards
To track the affiliate commission using Afflr, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Commissions
As shown in the screenshot, all rewards awarded to customers for their referrals are listed here
6. Payout the rewards
Paying rewards to customers with Afflr is a streamlined process. Customers who make a successful sale will be placed in the payout queue automatically.
You can choose when and how these customers will be rewarded. The four modes of payout are
- Manual payout
- PayPal payout
- Gift Card
- Coupon
Using Afflr, to initiate the process of payout to the affiliates, Go to your Afflr admin dashboard -> Payouts.
Click Pay to choose the amount to be paid and payment mode.
What is an example of a successful customer referral program?
An example of a successful customer referral program is the Shopify Affiliate Program. This program allows individuals or businesses to earn commissions by referring new customers to Shopify.
A unique link is provided, which can be shared through various platforms such as social media, blogs, referral websites, or email marketing. When someone signs up for a Shopify plan using this link, the affiliate earns a commission.
Shopify allots commission based on the based on location which varies from $25 to $250. Shopify will allot the reward amount once the referrals sign up by paying the full price.
The Shopify Referral Program taps into the potential of referral marketing to increase customer acquisitions and sales.
This collaborative approach benefits customers with passive income and also helps businesses by increasing customer base and boosting sales.
Reach your target audience across the globe through referral marketing. Afflr can help you kickstart your journey in minutes.
Conclusion
The Shopify Referral Program is a valuable tool to rope in satisfied customers and turn them into referral partners. By encouraging these customers by incentivizing businesses can drive sales, build loyalty, and expand the customer base.
Leverage the knowledge provided in the blog to create your first Shopify Referral program and begin your referral marketing journey to elevate your business.
Further Reading
- How can Referral Marketing benefit your Shopify Store?
- 10 Best Shopify Referral Apps in 2024
- How to set up your Instagram affiliate marketing?
- Ultimate Guide to Shopify Affiliate Marketing
To create a referral program, first, define your program goal and target audience. Then, determine referral incentives, promote the Shopify referral program across various channels, and track and analyze to optimize the program.
Yes, Shopify supports referrals through a referral marketing app. Merchants can choose from the best referral apps to set up and manage their Shopify referral programs.
To set up an e-commerce referral program choose a referral program automation tool that integrates with your e-commerce platform. Define program objectives, determine incentives, promote referral links, and monitor performance to optimize as needed.
Yes, you can set up an affiliate program for your Shopify store using various affiliate marketing apps available in the Shopify App Store. These apps allow you to create and manage affiliate programs seamlessly.
The benefits of a referral program include increased customer acquisition, higher conversion rates, high ROI on marketing costs, an increase in sales and revenue, and enhanced customer relationships. Shopify Referral programs leverage word-of-mouth marketing, tap into existing customer networks, and incentivize customers to promote your brand.
Another name for a referral program is an “affiliate program”, “refer-a-friend program”,”Ambassador program”, “creator program” or “Loyalty Program” or “Influencer program”. All these follow the pattern of incentivizing an individual for new customers and sales they bring.
