Referral and loyalty tools are essential for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands looking to build and nurture customer relationships. Referral tools enable brands to create programs that incentivize current customers to refer new customers, often offering rewards for both the referrer and referee. Loyalty tools, on the other hand, focus on rewarding repeat customers for their ongoing business, typically through points, discounts, or exclusive offers.
For DTC brands, these tools are important as they help foster a community of brand advocates and loyal customers. Referral programs leverage word-of-mouth marketing, which is highly effective and cost-efficient. Loyalty programs, meanwhile, encourage repeat purchases and can increase customer lifetime value. Both types of tools aid in creating a strong brand connection and enhancing customer retention.
Popular tools in this category include ReferralCandy and Smile.io. ReferralCandy is popular for its ease of setup and integration with various e-commerce platforms, making it a favorite for brands seeking to implement straightforward, effective referral programs. Smile.io is renowned for its comprehensive loyalty program capabilities, offering a range of customizable rewards and engagement options. Both tools stand out for their user-friendly interfaces and proven success in boosting customer engagement and driving sales through referrals and loyalty initiatives.
One the most powerful marketing weapons if used correctly. Brands in the apparel space such as Rothy’s rely on tools like Talkable and other like UNDERDAYS leverage ReferralCandy. Here’s the full list.
Superfiliate has built a platform that empowers brands to run end-to-end affiliate, influencer and referral programs, turning every link shared by a creator or customer into a co-branded landing page. Co-branded landing pages create a personalized experience for the shopper as every page has its own unique content, curated products and reviews from the creator, driving a higher conversion rate (by >20-30%) and deepening the sense of partnership between the brand and the creator. Superfiliate also handles campaign management, product seeding, payout management, tracking/ analytics, promotions and much more within the affiliate, influencer and partner workflows. Native integrations with email, sms, subscription, payment, analytics & measurement providers make it seamless to onboard, launch, accelerate growth and measure success.
UpPromote is the top recommended affiliate/referral solution for Shopify brands. Create loops within your sales funnel centered around influencers, brand ambassadors, and existing customers with the most-favored affiliate marketing software.
Storista enhances D2C brand engagement on Shopify by enabling the integration of Instagram content via widgets. Brands can embed Instagram Posts, Highlights, Stories, or Reels on their website, showcasing products in a familiar format to boost sales and engagement. The app allows for content synchronization, multiple widget templates for brand alignment, and performance optimizations to ensure a seamless user experience.
Affiliate marketing made frictionless. Social Snowball makes it easy to build, launch, and automate your word-of-mouth marketing programs. Whether you want to turn your customers into revenue-generating affiliates or launch a TikTok influencer program, Social Snowball is the control center that lets you configure programs, track referral sales, send commission rewards, and automate it all.
Smile.io powers reward programs for 30,000 merchants across the globe, making it the most popular eCommerce rewards platform in the world. Create a mobile-friendly program that rewards your customers with points, VIP status, and referral bonuses.
Influence.io is designed to streamline influencer marketing for D2C brands. It helps brands identify, connect, and collaborate with the right influencers to boost their visibility and sales. Influence.io ensures that influencer partnerships are effective and impactful via robust analytics and campaign management tools.
High-growth brands can get more out of every customer with Friendbuy. With a best-in-class referral and loyalty program, brands can achieve at least 5-15% of new customer acquisition, with a 4x higher lifetime value. Friendbuy works with DTC brands like Casper, AWAY, and Outdoor Voices as well as Fortune 100-ranked companies like Walmart, Disney and Nestle. Plus, Friendbuy integrates seamlessly with your tech stack, so you can incorporate referrals and loyalty seamlessly into your customer journeys.
ReferralCandy helps online stores attract new customers, increase sales and grow their brand with easy-to-setup and automated referral and affiliate programs.
Mention Me is a user-friendly and easy to set up referral marketing solution. Mention Me enables customers to complete and share their referrals in up to 14 different ways including social media, email, and word of mouth recommendation.
Viral Loops is a referral marketing solution for all. They pride themselves on simplicity to setup and their large database of templates based on past referral marketing successes. Viral Loops also offers no-code abilities to create landing pages to promote your referral program.
Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals (formerly Swell Rewards) helps eCommerce brands maximize LTV by incentivizing repeat purchase, referrals, social engagement, and content creation.
Conjured allows you to launch a "Refer-A-Friend" program quickly and easily. Encourage customers to refer their friends. If their friend buys, your customer gets a discount, and your revenue increases. Discount codes or Gift Cards are created automatically, so there's no need for manual entry.
Turn influential creators into your brand’s ambassadors — and reach more customers. Vyral helps brands connect with social media creators who want to promote their products in exchange for commission. Creators can discover a brand’s store, join as affiliates, and start marketing products using trackable referral links or discount codes. It simplifies the process of launching and managing affiliate campaigns directly within Shopify, without requiring content approval or management. Easily search for and invite creators to collaborate with your brand. Track sales and reward creators only when purchases happen. Find your ideal brand partners using built-in analytics.
Clean Sweeps is an all-in-one sweepstakes and giveaways platform designed for Shopify merchants. It lets you set up purchase-based contests where shoppers earn entries for every dollar spent and unlock extra entries at higher spend thresholds. The tool provides customizable widgets, banners and checkout extensions, a referral program that gives each customer a personalized code to share, and automated post‑purchase emails with sweepstake details. You can run multiple sweepstakes, select winners automatically and manage entries without any coding.
Pabloo offers a platform for Shopify retailers to manage and distribute store credits. With Pabloo, businesses can easily implement store credit programs to reward customers, boost sales, and increase customer loyalty. The platform offers flexible management tools and integrates seamlessly with popular e-commerce systems.
BLOOP Referral & Loyalty is a comprehensive referral program tool designed for ecommerce brands to enhance word-of-mouth marketing and drive sales. It enables merchants to create customized referral programs that can be shared via email, social media, or unique links, helping to leverage existing customers' networks for new customer acquisition. With features like automated discount codes, performance tracking, and branding customization, BLOOP empowers brands to effectively manage and monitor their referral marketing efforts.
Everything you need to build a better D2C brand, business and tech stack.
