Shopify is considered one of the best eCommerce platforms for its versatility. Not only does it provide users with a website on which to market their goods and services, but Shopify also has a unique feature that sets it apart from its competitors: a pool of dynamic applications that can be used to build Shopify stores of any scale. One of them is referral apps.

In this article, readers will find the top eight applications that help you get the most out of your Shopify platform in terms of referral marketing. Shopify referral apps enable store owners to run referral services to reach a new and broader audience. People only trust entities that have been promoted by others, so having the right Shopify app will help with word-of-mouth marketing. 

Referral marketing is a fantastic way to advertise your business because it takes advantage of your existing clients to increase traffic and revenue. Let’s figure out the best Shopify referral apps in 2021. 

>>> Besides, are you curious about other types of apps on the Shopify store? Check our Shopify review series here!

What is a Referral Program?

A referral program is all about getting satisfied consumers to tell their friends, family members, social media followers, and everyone else who spread the good word about your business. 

People are more likely to trust a business if they get endorsements from people they know. According to Nielsen, 92% of people prefer recommendations from friends and family to some other kind of advertisement. 

Moreover, referrals help to raise profits while expenses remain low. It’s easy to see why referrals are so valuable. So how do you make your business a referral marketing campaign successful? Implementing a referral program is the simplest way to facilitate referrals.

>>> Other options to benefit your store in a breeze: Check Best Shopify Popup Apps!

What factors contribute to a good Shopify referral program?

The strongest referral program, for the most part, has three factors: a tailored promotion, good brand advocates, and motivational compensation rewards. These factors, based on the multiple recommendation systems we’ve seen, are the bedrock of a good campaign.

But every business is distinctive, which means every business has its own unique referral service. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; you must create a referral package that is tailored to your target market. Here are some must-have particulars kicking in a successful referral program.

Unmissable

Don’t cover your referral program on your website or other marketing materials if you’re going to invest in one. Create a media campaign to support it constantly. Take advantage of social media ads, in particular, writing about the initiative on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on a daily basis. Customers will be able to quickly exchange information about the program with others, broadening the scope.

Obvious

When it comes to marketing a good or service, you must persuade customers to invest money. Your referral program, on the other hand, just has to persuade people to share some information in return for a payout. As a result, the referral program’s messaging doesn’t have to be complicated. In truth, if it’s as straightforward as possible, it’ll work easier.

Tempting

Referral programs operate by rewarding people who refer others. However, if the incentive isn’t appealing enough, you’ll probably get a bad return. Consider what kind of offer would inspire the highest number of people who use your product or service while determining what you’ll give consumers in exchange for referring your business.

In certain cases, cash is a good choice, but you could also give away gift cards, merchandise, or collectible specialty pieces, depending on your personal business. Understanding the client and what motivates them is crucial.

Simple

You’ll miss a number of referrals if you find signing up for your referral program difficult. You want to keep the amount of information a client needs to submit to a bare minimum, whether you use a dedicated URL or bits of paper to sign people up with your service. Keep it simple for those who have been referred when you touch them. Provide direct links or transparent contact details, and if you’re offering a coupon, make it simple to redeem.

Useful

You don’t want to participate in a referral scheme that doesn’t work well with the existing market system and activities. If you have a sales force, for example, you want to make sure the referrals made by your campaign are ones that your sales team will use and that they’re distributed in a seamless way so they don’t get misplaced. Since every business is different, you’ll want to customize your campaign to meet your business’s unique needs and activities.

Top 9 Best Shopify Referral Apps In 2021

BLoop Referrals & Rewards (FREE)

Overall Rating: 5/5. 

Pricing: Free plan.

Yes, you may be wondering why we put a free and very new Shopify app on our top list of best referral apps. We consider all the aspects like price, features, and performance to recommend this. BLoop Referrals & Rewards stands among the top fast-growing in the market of loyalty, rewards & referrals. Currently, BLoop is mainly offering referral & affiliate marketing features.

The app flow starts from the moment an ambassador leaves their email. Then, they share your referral program with friends and family by a custom referral link, or directly on social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Once a friend places an order by that referral link, the BLoop system will automatically reward them via email. 

BLoop team concentrates on this flow, and creates as many touchpoints as possible to drive Shopify merchants more potential customers, keep them engaged and boost buying loops. It helps increase traffic and sales a lot. 

Although it was born later than other referral apps, it includes many strengths and removes the shortages that can be easily spotted in Shopify referral apps. 

Features

• Easily design and automate an on-brand referral program with the referral page and popup. 
• Build attractive reward amount and set minimum amount to prevent fraud. 
• Customize referral sharing messages on multiple channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp (the first and only app allows to do this). 
• Encourage advocates to share on different social media. 
• Be flexible with multi-currency and multi-language. 
• Manage referral performance on a neat dashboard. 

Referral Candy

Overall Rating: 4.8/5 (over 1300 reviews)

Pricing: 30 days free trial, $49/month

ReferralCandy is one of the popular Shopify referral apps that focuses exclusively on referral services. You’ll have more time to manage the business and the incentives will be charged directly with no human work thanks to ReferralCandy. To make referral marketing easier, Referralcandy can lend you a hand. ReferralCandy helps you to reward your customers for suggesting their friends to your store. Entrepreneurs may use Referralcandy to simplify their referral systems.

ReferralCandy provides a basic dashboard that helps you to monitor referral traffic and retarget consumers who have previously connected with your store. Also, you can incentivize your loyal customers to share the word about you, resulting in more customers for you with no additional cost.

You can monitor and configure any special feature in ReferralCandy, from landing pages to emails to pop-ups, to match the taste of your brand.

ReferralCandy also interacts with other common marketing platforms such as MailChimp and Klaviyo, which enable you to leverage your email marketing to produce further referrals, and Recharge, which is great for subscription businesses.

Features

• Integrate with third-party apps like ReCharge, ChargeBee, PayWhirl 
• Support JS and API integration
• Connecting to your marketing applications is a breeze
• Get the referral service more automated
• Invite consumers back again though they’ve completed their purchase
• Detect active referrals automatically
• Fraudulent practices would be prohibited immediately

Smile: Rewards & Loyalty

Overall Rating: 4.7/5 (over 3700 reviews)

Pricing: Free Trial (up to 500 program members), free plan, plan starts from $59 to $599/month.

Smile io is one of the best Shopify referral apps that gives you full control of how your current customers share their referral connections. You can also generate a message centered on your brand’s meaning, customize it with an illustration, and distribute it to your consumers so they can share it with their friends.

Getting new clients is difficult and expensive, but with Smile, you can easily gain and maintain customers by running a referral program. You can use this app to get your current customers to recommend your store to others who share their values and develop your community without investing a dime.

You can still ask your loyal customers to assist you in expanding your business. Give points for and good recommendations to encourage the best clients to support social networking. This will increase customer loyalty, and they will be more likely to participate in all of the store’s campaigns in the future.

 

Features

• Easy to keep track of referral flow
• Easily achieve word-of-mouth promotion
• Each customer receives a unique referral connection
• Emails and pop-ups may be used to distribute connections
• Bonus points can be earned by creating a sense of urgency
• Set bonus point expiration dates 
• A fun pop-up that makes it easy to recruit new guests
• No coding technique required 
• Pay customers have access to customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Loyalty, rewards and referrals

Overall Rating: 4.6/5 (355 reviews)

Pricing: Free Plan, plan starts from $159/month to $699/month

By providing loyalty points, tiers, referrals, and discounts, Loyalty, rewards, and referrals by LoyaltyLion are one of the best-in-class Shopify referral apps for creating a long-term customer engagement plan for your store.

It’s a loyalty and referral app that enhances your marketing campaigns and can help you expand your business by providing you with tips and useful tools across its website. The app allows you to set up a loyalty scheme to thank consumers for doing things like leaving reviews and referring friends to your business. Current members are encouraged to take these decisions thanks to the loyalty scheme.

Features

• Allows you to gain new customers by using the built-in refer-a-friend function
• Customers who leave ratings are rewarded with points
• Allows you to reward Facebook views, Twitter followers, and Instagram followers
• Fit every business model

Conjured Referrals

Overall Rating: 4.9/5 (155 reviews)

Pricing: 14-day free trial, Plan includes – Intro: $29/month, Small business: $99/month, Plus: $299/month, Enterprise: $1,000/month

With Conjured Referrals, customers can recommend friends and colleagues to your Shopify store to earn discounts, close to how other recommendation applications function.

The app is fully automated that helps you choose your incentives, build your campaign, and wait for the sales to roll in. The app also makes it easier for your clients to share a referral link through email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, or WhatsApp then their friends can get a unique coupon. 

Conjured Referrals’ dashboard allows you to quickly manage your referrals by creating campaigns, reviewing results, and even checking if referral connections are being broken. To make it easier, you can even handle your referral service from the Shopify dashboard. Furthermore, the app automates discounts, allowing you to deliver coupon codes or prizes to consumers without having to do so manually.

Features

• “Set it and forget it” with automatic newsletters, coupon codes, and gift cards
• Customizable campaigns to complement the brand’s look
• Shared referral links through email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, or WhatsApp
• No commission/ transaction costs
• Choose prizes for each campaign with ease
• Current references submitted to existing clients can be blocked
• Create a static link for each supporter or a unique link for each referral

Loyalty, Wishlist, Reviews UGC

Rating: 4.9/5 stars (1308 reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available, Basic – Starter plan $29.99/month, Enterprise $299.99/month

Growave is the most suitable app for you if you are looking for an all-in-one rewards, referrals, and loyalty app. Product ratings, wish lists, loyalty plans, referrals, social login, and user-generated content (UGC) are just among the marketing resources available in the app to help you expand your business. 

Growave helps you to thank your group members for posting on social media, sending emails, and recommending friends, and you can choose from a number of reward choices. Users can modify the app’s messages, language, and colors to match the brand’s style. It complies with GDPR requirements and does not exchange information with third parties. You can reach out to the company’s customer service department via email, live chat, or phone.

Features

• Easy to use
• Reward loyal clients with points/ discounts for referring your store/ following your social media page
• Nudges and point expiration notifications increase involvement
• Let you create a shoppable gallery from your Instagram feed and user-generated content
• Using user reviews help increase conversion rates
• Improve consumer relationships and boost repeat transactions with its loyalty and rewards scheme

Gift Cards & Loyalty Program

Overall Rating: 4.9/5 (731 reviews)

Pricing: 7-day free trial, from $19.99/month,  additional charges may apply. The highest plan is the premium plan $599.99/month

With Gift Cards & Loyalty Program by Rise.ai, you can easily attract and bring new clients to your store. This loyalty and referral program makes use of gift cards and cash rewards to do that. This app helps your consumers to deliver customized digital gift cards to their friends and family with a pop-up that allows them to personalize the look of the card, add notes and photographs, arrange the gift card to be delivered on special days, and print or connect the gift card.

This one-of-a-kind app gives your clients and recipients a more personalized experience. As consumers send a gift card, the user gets an email with a connection to a page where new prospective customers can see a card being opened. It’s a fantastic app to have, especially for popular holidays during the year such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, and Mother’s Day.

Features

• Build great client experience 
• Let current clients make and send out branded digital gift cards/ coupons via email and instant messaging
• Integrate affiliate and referral program to clients referring their friend
• Allow to mail out bulk gift cards and coupons in preparation for upcoming promotions 
• Offering your clients a last-minute shopping choice with the instant delivery feature
• Give gift cards as a way to thank regular consumers or to issue refunds

Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards

Overall Rating: 4.7/5 (2161 reviews)

Price: Free plan available, silver plan $29/month, gold plan $249/month

Yotpo Loyalty and Rewards are one of the favored referral apps used to maximize word-of-mouth referrals by allowing users to create customized incentives, build tailored, customer-centric loyalty and referral programs in order to maintain current clients and attract new ones. You can use the app’s enterprise-grade tools, build a package that is exclusive to your brand and KPIs, with configurable point-earning campaigns, tiered VIP perks, personalized bonus opportunities, and more.

By allowing users to reach and reward the right buyers, the app will maximize repeat sales and promote positive experiences with the brand. Its campaign is adaptable and customizable, allowing you to maintain consistent branding. Their recommendation marketing platform is an excellent way to transform consumer loyalty into a low-cost sales generator.

Features

• Get new clients with an easy and user-friendly referral marketing UI
• Comprehend how clients engage with the app and how you can enhance it through detailed analytics
• Customize/Change the look and feel of the whole program, including fonts, program place, details, and photographs, to achieve a look and feel that is consistent with your brand
• Offer flexible incentive system (you can reward referrals in a variety of ways, including points, items, shop credit, and discounts)
• Through their dashboard, you can keep track of and review your referral program
• Multiple networks are supported, allowing you to inspire your clients to make referrals through various channels

Social Boost Giveaways Contest by Apps Mav 

Overall Rating: 4.8/9 (88 reviews)

Price: Free plan available, Plan starts from $10/month to $20/month

Social Boost is a Shopify referral program that lets you run viral discounts, giveaways, competitions, referral ads, and sweepstakes on your website, Facebook, Tumblr, and other social networking platforms. It’s a competitive incentivization tool for growing email lists, referrals, and fans, among other things. With a social boost, you can increase customer loyalty and revenue by a factor of ten.

Users can quickly turn shop guests into consumers with a social boost by thanking them for posting your personalized posts on social media. This would boost your following on social media sites including Facebook and Twitter by introducing your business to potential consumers.

It’s one of the most recommended Shopify referral apps for increasing social media traffic, and you can maximize your revenue by expressing appreciation for each referral. It’s quick to set up and incorporate, and once you’ve done that, you can start designing multiple recommendation strategies with ease.

Features 

• Multi-language
• Create as many campaigns as you wish 
• Set a variety of restrictions, including age, country, and zip code
• Outstanding deliverability of emails 
• Built-in campaign models 

Start a campaign in a matter of minutes:

	Free trial	Price	Rating	Referral CTA	Ways to refer	Support	Ease of use
Referral Candy	30 days	$49/mo	4.8/5	“Refer friends. Get rewards.” (Get Invite Link)	Emails, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Messenger	Email, Live Support	Easy
Smile: Rewards & Loyalty	Free Plan available	$59-$599/mo	4.7/5	“Refer friends and Get rewards”	Using personalized referral links	24/7 Email, Online Customer Support	Easy
Loyalty, rewards and referrals	14 days	$159- $699/mon	4.6/5	“Invite Friends”	Email, get referral links	Email, Online Support	Medium
Conjured Referrals	14 days	$29-$1,000/mo	4.9/5	“Invite a friend and take $5 off” (CTA to refer friends)	Email, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, or WhatsApp	Email, Online Support	Easy
Loyalty, Wishlist, Reviews UGC	Free Plan available	$29.99-$299.99/mo	4.9/5	“Share to earn points”	Social media, Email	Email, Online Support	Easy
Gift Cards & Loyalty Program	7 days	$19.99-$599.99/mo	4.9/5	“Let’s send your gift card”	Email, get referral links	Email, Online Support	Medium
Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards	Free Plan available	$29-$249/mo	4.7/5	“Get $25 off”	Instagram, Email, Facebook	Email, 24/7 Online Support	Easy
BLoop Referrals & Rewards	Free Plan	N/a	5/5	“Refer a friend”	Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp, Twitter, Email	Email, 24/7 Online Support	Easy

WRAPPING UP

A successful referral program would please current clients while still aiding in the creation of new leads, resulting in improved purchases and revenue. Many of the Shopify referral apps are available to assist you. You can also test them out for free, and have more features with paid plans. We hope you could find the most appropriate referral apps that help your store grow.

>>> Keep reading: Top 11 Best Shopify Shipping Apps [2021 Updated]