7 apps for better eCommerce 👀 

You know what’s awesome? 

Word of mouth. 

It works 1000x better than advertising, and it theoretically costs nothing.

This edition is about making it happen intentionally. 

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📚 Why people talk

In the early days of SnapPad, we attended an RV rally in Tucson to help launch our second product line. 

Luckily, there was a rare rain shower that morning. Our product helps people avoid having to crawl under their rigs, so before the show even began, someone walked up and bought a set.

One hour in, there was a lineup at the booth. By hour four, we had sold out of our entire inventory for the weekend. 

No Facebook ads. No major campaign. Not even a fancy booth. 

Just…customers talking.

But why do people talk?
They share what’s helpful, delightful, different, or makes them look good.

SnapPad had a few built-in WOM advantages:

• It solves a painful problem in a unique way (no more crawling under RVs in the rain)

• It stands out visually (you could literally see it on a parked rig)

• It operates in a community-based culture (campgrounds, rallies, forums)

What about you? 

You’re at a stage where you have to be ruthless about what growth tactics you invest in.

Because squander enough time, money and energy and your business fails. 

So, should you invest in word of mouth? 

A checklist. 👇️ 

🤔 Is word of mouth for you?

Yes, if:

✅ 1. You are POST product–market fit

See if people come back, reorder, or actively use the product (not just buy it once and vanish).

Tactics for early eComm brands:

• Repeat Purchase Rate (RPR):
  Track the % of customers who buy again within 30/60/90 days. Anything above 25–30% within 60 days is a strong early signal for consumables. For durable goods, look at complementary purchases or referrals.

• Time-to-Repeat Curve:
  Plot how long it takes before 2nd orders arrive. Is there a reliable window where people tend to return?

• Cohort Retention:
  Use Shopify or a simple spreadsheet to track:

  • % of customers from Month X who reorder in Months Y and Z

  • % of email subscribers who open/click after buying (if engagement drops off immediately, that's a red flag)

• Qualitative supplement:
  Run a post-purchase survey asking: “Do you see yourself buying this again in the next 3 months?” (Then track if it lines up.)
  

✅ 2. You have strong product love

Figure out if people not only use your product—but like it enough to talk about it.

Tactics:

• Basic NPS-style survey:
  Send a simple 1-question email post-purchase:
  “On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend [Brand/Product] to a friend?”
  Score >60 = very strong. Even >40 is great for early-stage DTC.

• DM or email mining:
  Look for unsolicited praise. Are customers tagging you, emailing thanks, or leaving enthusiastic reviews? Flag emotion-rich language: “love,” “game changer,” “obsessed,” “never going back,” etc.

• Use Exit-Intent Feedback on site:
  Ask site visitors: “What’s stopping you from buying today?”
  If your actual buyers didn’t have those objections—and respond passionately—you’ve got a signal.

• Review analysis:
  Count how many reviews are:

  • 5 stars AND emotionally expressive

  • Mention repeat purchase intent

  • Say something like “I told my friend/family…”

✅ 3. You already have meaningful users coming from word of mouth

Understand how many people show up because someone else told them to.

Tactics:

• Attribution Question at Checkout or Signup:
  Add a multiple-choice or open-ended field:
  “How did you hear about us?”
  Include options like “Friend,” “Online community,” “Saw someone post about it,” “Other.”

• Track Discount Code Sharing:
  If you give 10% off for referrals (even informally), count how many orders come through those shared codes.

• Look for Referral Language in Reviews & Emails:

  • “My friend told me about this”

  • “Bought this after seeing [X] use it”
    Use these mentions to estimate rough % of referral-based customers.

• Use UTM links with influencers, creators, or customers:
  Give unique tracking links to key advocates and see which drive sales—even if it’s small volume.

• Early proxy metric:
  If 5–10%+ of orders come from people you didn’t directly target (no paid ad, no email list), and they self-report word of mouth, that’s meaningful.

⚠️ Note: even if you don’t have all the above, WOM tactics are great for retention. Just don’t bother if people literally don’t like your product. 

🔥 How to Actively Spark Word of Mouth

The four systems we built at SnapPad that helped WOM spread on purpose.

✅ Turn Support Into a Superpower

Your support experience is often the first real test of trust. It can quietly become your most viral moment.

At SnapPad, we:

• Replied quickly—even during off-hours

• Made returns easy and non-combative

• Resolved issues with generosity, not policy

People expect mediocre support. Blow past those expectations, and they’ll tell others.

✅ Celebrate Your Advocates

Reviews and shoutouts are signals. A lot of founders and brands might privately celebrate the wins, but we made it a point to celebrate pro-brand behaviors:

• Sent personalized thank-you emails and DMs

• Gave surprise SWAG to 5-star reviewers

• Let people know their review was shared in our Slack or newsletter

Recognition can help turn happy customers into active promoters.

✅ Use Merch as a Social Multiplier

Merch is underrated WOM fuel. 

Not because it sells, but because it spreads. That’s why we treat our branded t-shirts and hats as more than just accessories. 

By listing them on our site with real prices, we anchored their perceived value. Then we turned around and gifted them to customers who placed large orders or had a long history with us. 

We also made sure every influencer or creator we seeded product to got our best t-shirt design in the box. That one move alone led to multiple videos where creators showed off the product while wearing our gear.

This wasn’t just about branding, it was about making customers and advocates feel like part of something. A tribe. A club. A brand they could wear proudly.

Customers felt like insiders and became walking billboards in the campground. 

✅ Build a Post-Purchase Journey That Nurtures Advocacy

It’s tempting to go silent after checkout. That’s a mistake.

Remember that the sale is not the end of the relationship, it's the start of it. Consider tactics to help nurture the relationship from “customer” to “advocate” once the product has left your warehouse.

For example, your post-purchase email flow doesn’t need to be strictly transactional. Instead, you can:

• Tell your founder story and mission

• Provide tips for product use and care

• Highlight customer reviews and success stories

• Tease your VIP or referral program

Loyalty starts with education and emotional alignment. Post-purchase is where you can plant the seed.

🎁 Bonus: Reward & Incentivize

People don’t share because you pay them. They share because it makes them feel helpful, smart, or connected.

So how do you guide that behavior without killing the magic?

✅ Use Tools That Make Sharing Easy

We use Social Snowball to:

• Automatically generate referral codes for customers when they buy

• Reward them with discounts or perks and incentive tiers

• Block self-referrals and promo code abuse

A good referral tool removes friction, helps you track results, and lowers the risk of abuse and fraud. 

✅ Build and Reward a VIP Community

Consider creating a segmented VIP email list of your best customers. Earmark multiple purchasers, 5-star reviewers, 10/10 promoters in your NPS (net promoter score) survey, and your top creators/influencers. 

Then send them special, VIP-only “insider” email campaigns, like: 

• Early access to new products

• Exclusive behind-the-scenes updates

• Surprise perks and secret sales

Your best customers often want to be closer to the brand. Invite them in. It will make them want to buy more, but also talk about you more. 

✅ Create Real Life Moments Worth Sharing

At RV rallies, we didn’t just set up a booth to sell, we created moments that made people stop, smile, and share.

Example: We invited existing customers to sign a massive SnapPad banner that we used as a table runner. 

It became a visual magnet. 

People walked by and asked what it was or why someone was signing it. 

Once we saw the stir that could create, we took the next step at other rallies. We set up an area with a phone to film 15- to 30-second testimonials from “fans” in exchange for SnapPad shirts or hats.

Giving gifts to happy customers on the spot, just for saying hi, created a ripple effect. 

Crowds formed. New customers joined. I’ve watched as existing SnapPad customers actively sold window shoppers on why they should buy our product. 

💡 Word of mouth isn’t just about what people say online. It’s about what they experience, say, and do in real life as well. 

📈 Wrap-Up: WOM Isn’t a Miracle. It’s a System.

Word of mouth isn’t just a lucky side effect of selling a good product. It’s a powerful growth engine hiding in plain sight, and you can build it into your brand from day one.

I can honestly say WOM is by far the most powerful lever we were able to pull in order journey from penniless startup to an established brand. 

Don’t just hope people will share their love for your brand. Find ways to make it happen. 

— Kent

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