ReferralCandy says its 2026 referral conversion benchmark uses a Q1 2026 dataset of 3,200 Shopify and WooCommerce stores.

Referral Program Benchmarks: What is a Good Conversion Rate in 2026?

ReferralCandy benchmark article using a Q1 2026 dataset of 3,200 Shopify and WooCommerce stores plus merchant dataset category medians. Firecrawl main-content output was incomplete, so Codex saved a direct curl HTML snapshot and verified public web text on May 11, 2026.

First-party ReferralCandy merchant benchmark. Ecommerce-heavy and platform-specific, so do not treat as all-market referral performance.


ReferralCandy says the median referral conversion rate for ecommerce brands in 2026 is 3% to 5%.


ReferralCandy says top-quartile ecommerce referral programs reach 8%+ referral conversion.


ReferralCandy defines a healthy referral share-rate range as 5% to 15%.


ReferralCandy gives a typical referral click-through-rate range of 10% to 25%.


ReferralCandy says strong referral programs can drive 10% to 30% of store revenue from referrals.


ReferralCandy reports that apparel and accessories brands have a 3.2% median referral conversion rate and 7.9% top-quartile referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy reports that beauty and personal care brands have a 4.1% median referral conversion rate and 8.5% top-quartile referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy reports that health and wellness brands have a 3.6% median referral conversion rate and 7.2% top-quartile referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy reports that food and beverage brands have a 4.8% median referral conversion rate and 9.1% top-quartile referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy reports that electronics and gadgets brands have a 2.9% median referral conversion rate and 6.4% top-quartile referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy says subscription brands typically add 1.5 percentage points to category median referral conversion rates and 2 percentage points to top-quartile figures.


ReferralCandy reports a 5.40% 2026 median referral conversion rate for apparel and fashion.


ReferralCandy reports a 2.98% 2026 median referral conversion rate for gadgets and electronics.


ReferralCandy reports a 3.87% 2026 median referral conversion rate for beauty.


ReferralCandy reports a 3.38% 2026 median referral conversion rate for books.


ReferralCandy reports a 5.01% 2026 median referral conversion rate for crafts.


ReferralCandy reports a 7.90% 2026 median referral conversion rate for food.


ReferralCandy reports a 7.23% 2026 median referral conversion rate for health.


ReferralCandy reports a 6.49% 2026 median referral conversion rate for home.


ReferralCandy reports a 7.86% 2026 median referral conversion rate for software.


ReferralCandy reports a 6.83% 2026 median referral conversion rate for sports.


ReferralCandy reports an 8.72% 2026 median referral conversion rate for vaporizers.


ReferralCandy reports an 8.58% 2026 median referral conversion rate for pet products.


ReferralCandy reports a 6.06% 2026 median referral conversion rate for jewelry.


ReferralCandy reports a 2.54% 2026 median referral conversion rate for its other category.


ReferralCandy says cash or percent-off discounts often beat points by about 40% in referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy says post-purchase popups plus account-page widgets can lift referral share rate by more than 30%.


ReferralCandy says showing review stars near referral share buttons can lift referral CTR by 10% to 15%.


ReferralCandy says auto-applying referral discounts can add 1 percentage point to referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy says brands can see measurable uplift within 4 to 6 weeks after optimizing referral rewards and reminders.


ReferralCandy says cash-equivalent referral rewards convert about 1 percentage point higher on average.


ReferralCandy defines referral rate as referred purchases as a percentage of total purchases.

What is a Good Referral Rate in 2026? Referral Benchmarks

ReferralCandy referral-rate benchmark article based on thousands of data points, 11 major industries, and users with at least six months of referral program data. Firecrawl main-content output was incomplete, so Codex saved a direct curl HTML snapshot and verified public web text on May 11, 2026.

First-party ReferralCandy platform benchmark. Referral rate means referred purchases as a percentage of total purchases, not referral conversion rate.


ReferralCandy says its referral-rate benchmarks were calculated from thousands of data points across 11 major industries.


ReferralCandy says referral rates tend to stabilize after about 6 months.


ReferralCandy reports a global average referral rate of about 2.35%.


ReferralCandy says a 2.35% referral rate means about 1 in every 50 sales comes through referrals.


ReferralCandy reports that software and digital goods have the highest referral rate among its categories at 4.75%.


ReferralCandy says Atmoph achieved a 24% referral rate.


ReferralCandy says Branch Basics reported a 9.57% referral rate.


ReferralCandy says iWader Fishing reported a 23% referral rate.


ReferralCandy says Farm Hounds reported a 22.25% referral rate.


ReferralCandy says Branch Basics generated over $1.5 million from its referral program and 10% of overall revenue came from referrals.

ReferralCandy customer example, not a market benchmark.


ReferralCandy says Farm Hounds generated over $600,000 in referral sales with a 22% referral rate.


ReferralCandy suggests advocate discount coupons of 10% to 25% of average order value when the product is regularly purchased.

ReferralCandy incentive guidance, not an observed market benchmark.


ReferralCandy suggests cash rewards ranging from 10% to 25% of the referred friend purchase.


ReferralCandy suggests giving referred friends at least 10% of average order value as an incentive.


Friendbuy says Get Back Necklaces saw a 320% increase in referral revenue after partnering with Friendbuy.

54+ Referral Marketing Statistics That Every Business Should Know

Friendbuy referral marketing statistics article with Friendbuy partner examples, Friendbuy customer CPA ranges, CTA placement findings, and some named third-party citations. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Friendbuy customer example, not a market benchmark.


Friendbuy says Thinx saw 114% year-over-year referral revenue growth in the first year using Friendbuy Shopify Plus referral integration.


Friendbuy says its referral program drives up to 7% of Tonal online revenue.


Friendbuy says Natural Dog Company found advocates from its referral program have 20% higher average order value than non-referral customers.


Friendbuy says five to 15% of new customers are acquired through a referral program.

Friendbuy article links this statement to another Friendbuy article; verify before treating as market-wide.


Friendbuy says its top-performing customers have achieved up to 30% of revenues by A/B testing referral offers and creative elements.

Friendbuy first-party customer-performance claim.


Friendbuy cites McKinsey for the claim that word of mouth marketing is the primary factor behind 20% to 50% of purchasing decisions.

Secondary citation surfaced by Friendbuy; use Friendbuy as the immediate source unless the McKinsey source is independently retrieved.


Friendbuy cites Reuters Events Marketing for the claim that 91% of B2B purchasers said word of mouth influenced their buying decisions.

Secondary citation surfaced by Friendbuy.


Friendbuy cites Influitive for the claim that 84% of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral.


Friendbuy cites Influitive for the claim that 86% of companies with formalized referral programs experienced revenue growth over the last two years, compared with 75% without referral programs.


Friendbuy cites 99Firms for an 11% average conversion rate for B2B referrals.


Friendbuy says customers referred by a friend convert five times faster than customers acquired through other channels.

Friendbuy article links to referral ROI material; verify primary source before broad reuse.


Friendbuy says most Friendbuy referral program partners hover around the $3 CPA mark.


Friendbuy says its apparel and accessories customer category achieves $1 to $10 referral CPA.

Friendbuy first-party customer category range.


Friendbuy says its essentials customer category achieves $1 to $9 referral CPA.


Friendbuy says its health and beauty customer category achieves $1 to $6 referral CPA.


Friendbuy says its subscription customer category achieves $1 to $11 referral CPA.


Friendbuy says its high-consideration customer category achieves $1 to $14 referral CPA.


Friendbuy says 24% of referral revenue on Friendbuy comes from a post-purchase overlay.


Friendbuy says a primary referral CTA above the fold on desktop has a 13% share rate, 14% conversion rate, and makes up 45% of overall referral revenue.


Friendbuy says adding a primary referral CTA to the mobile hamburger menu increased shares by 75%, conversions by 81%, and total referral revenue by 73%.


Friendbuy says including a referral program CTA on the customer account page has a 10% share rate, 6% conversion rate, and represents 36% of total referral revenue.


Friendbuy says Naturebox lifted sharing rate to 48.7% with the language "Get $10 for Free!" instead of "50% off product".


Cello says its B2B SaaS referral benchmark figures were derived from 400k referral users on the Cello platform during H1 2023.

B2B Referral Program KPIs and Benchmarks

Cello B2B referral KPI article using benchmark figures derived from 400k referral users on the Cello platform during H1 2023. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

B2B SaaS platform benchmark from 2023, not a 2026 all-market survey.


Cello says top-tier B2B freemium products can reach up to 20% annualized user-to-customer conversion through referrals.


Cello says top-tier B2B sales-led products can reach up to 6% annualized user-to-customer conversion through referrals.


Cello says freemium referral programs can reach up to 17% purchase conversion rate.


Cello says top-of-class free trial referral programs can reach up to 67% purchase conversion rate.


Cello says best-in-class freemium SaaS companies can achieve over 30% free-to-paid conversion and up to 5 times higher conversion than paid or higher-intent SEO efforts in the same companies.

Complete Guide to your B2B Referral Program

Cello B2B referral program guide published December 22, 2025 with B2B SaaS referral strategy context and cited external research. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Cello guide claim; use only as B2B SaaS referral context.


Cello cites the BCG B2B SaaS Growth Report 2024 for the claim that best-in-class SaaS companies rely 2-3x more on customer advocacy and referrals than peers.


First Page Sage says its 2026 cost-per-lead report was based on data collected from January 2022 through June 2025.

Average Cost Per Lead by Industry - 2026

First Page Sage 2026 cost-per-lead report based on marketing research team data collected from January 2022 through June 2025 and covering 30 industries across paid, organic, and blended CPL. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Agency research benchmark. Use for CPL context, not referral-only CPL.


First Page Sage says its dataset displays average CPL for 30 industries, broken out by paid, organic, and blended CPL.


First Page Sage reports B2B SaaS average CPL of $310 paid, $164 organic, and $237 blended.


First Page Sage reports ecommerce average CPL of $98 paid, $83 organic, and $91 blended.


First Page Sage reports financial services average CPL of $761 paid, $555 organic, and $653 blended.


First Page Sage reports higher education average CPL of $1,261 paid, $705 organic, and $982 blended.


First Page Sage reports IT and managed services average CPL of $617 paid, $385 organic, and $503 blended.


First Page Sage reports legal services average CPL of $784 paid, $516 organic, and $649 blended.


First Page Sage reports manufacturing average CPL of $691 paid, $415 organic, and $553 blended.


First Page Sage reports software development average CPL of $680 paid, $510 organic, and $591 blended.


First Page Sage says marketers should track channels by lifetime value, rate of referral, and satisfaction relative to acquisition cost.


First Page Sage says organic channels generally produce higher long-term ROI than paid channels but require a longer lead time.


Nielsen says 88% of global respondents in its 2021 Trust in Advertising Study trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel.

Beyond martech: building trust with consumers and engaging where sentiment is high

Nielsen 2021 Trust in Advertising Study, conducted globally in September 2021 with more than 40,000 consumers across Latin America, North America, Europe, MENA, and Asia-Pacific. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Trust survey, not a referral program performance benchmark.


Nielsen says its 2021 Trust in Advertising Study was conducted globally in September 2021 with more than 40,000 consumers.


Nielsen says the study covered Latin America, North America, Europe, MENA, and Asia-Pacific.


Nielsen says 50% more people trust recommendations than lower-ranked channels like online banner ads, mobile ads, SMS messages, and SEO ads.


Nielsen says trust in advertising is up to 20% lower in North America and Europe than in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.


Journal of Marketing says its referral-program customer-value study tracked approximately 10,000 customers of a leading German bank for almost three years.

Journal of Marketing research article first published online January 1, 2011, tracking approximately 10,000 customers of a leading German bank for almost three years. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Academic banking study. Strong for customer value direction, but not a 2026 ecommerce or SaaS benchmark.


Journal of Marketing reports that the average value of a referred customer is at least 16% higher than that of a nonreferred customer with similar demographics and time of acquisition.


Journal of Marketing says referred customers had a higher contribution margin, though the difference eroded over time.


Journal of Marketing says referred customers had a higher retention rate and that difference persisted over time.


Journal of Marketing says the referral customer value differential varies across customer segments, so firms should use a selective approach for referral programs.


Journal of Marketing Research reports that referred customers make 31% to 57% more referrals than nonreferred customers, conditional on purchase activities.

Referral Contagion: Downstream Benefits of Customer Referrals

Journal of Marketing Research article first published online May 15, 2024. The abstract reports a large-scale field dataset plus preregistered lab experiments and a field experiment. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Academic referral contagion research. Use for onward-referral behavior, not program-level ecommerce conversion rates.


Journal of Marketing Research says a field experiment found that reminding referred customers they joined through a referral boosted referral likelihood by 21%.


Journal of Marketing Research says the 31% to 57% finding comes from a large-scale field dataset.


Journal of Marketing Research says the referral contagion effect was replicated with preregistered lab experiments.


Journal of Marketing Research says referred customers perceive referring to be more socially appropriate than nonreferred customers do.


Knowledge at Wharton says the referral contagion research used a customer base with over 40 million customers.

The Trick to Boosting Customer Referrals

Knowledge at Wharton interview article discussing the referral contagion research and describing a field dataset with more than 40 million customers. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Interview summary of Journal of Marketing Research referral contagion work.


Knowledge at Wharton says referred customers can bring in almost 57% more referred customers than nonreferred customers.


Knowledge at Wharton says referred customers bring in 30% to 50% more customers depending on controls.

Interview summary; prefer Journal of Marketing Research for exact published range.


Extole cites an arXiv study for the claim that 55.8% of participants had shared an offer, reward, or discount with a friend before.

58 Referral Marketing Statistics That Every Enterprise Brand Should Know in 2026

Extole 2026 referral marketing statistics roundup for enterprise brands, with named source links for each statistic. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Extole secondary citation to an arXiv study.


Extole cites the same arXiv study for the claim that 74% of those participants shared in part to gain the reward themselves.


Extole cites the same arXiv study for the claim that 76% of consumers will try a product if multiple friends recommend it.


Extole cites GetTheReferral for the claim that 83% of consumers are willing to refer after a positive experience, but only 29% actually do.

Extole secondary citation to GetTheReferral.


Extole cites the same arXiv study for the claim that 40.9% of respondents would only share an offer if the process were not too complex.


Extole cites the same arXiv study for the claim that 50.4% of respondents missed an offer they intended to use because they forgot about it.


Extole cites the same arXiv study for the claim that 59% of respondents missed an offer because their attention was diverted elsewhere.


Extole cites Salesforce for the claim that 75% of retailers already offer a rewards program and another 22% plan to introduce one in the next 24 months.

Extole secondary citation to Salesforce.


Extole cites Salesforce for the claim that 57% of retailers say customer retention is the primary goal of their rewards program.


Extole cites Salesforce for the claim that 43% of retailers say customer acquisition is the primary goal of their rewards program.


Extole cites Simon-Kucher for the claim that referral and upgrade programs drive a 43% increase in telecom CLTV.

Extole secondary citation to Simon-Kucher.


Extole cites CUInsight for the claim that finserv customer acquisitions by referral cost 50% less than average finserv customer acquisition.


Prefinery says SaaS referral rates average 4.75% compared with 2.35% across all industries.

10 Key Referral Program Metrics to Track 2025

Prefinery referral program metrics guide published February 24, 2025, with SaaS referral metric benchmarks and performance ranges. Scraped with Firecrawl on May 11, 2026.

Prefinery repeats a software/all-industry benchmark that overlaps with ReferralCandy.


Prefinery says startup referral rates typically range from 15% to 25%, growth-stage company referral rates from 25% to 35%, and enterprise referral rates from 35% to 45%.

Prefinery SaaS referral metrics guide; verify before broad all-market reuse.


Prefinery says high-growth product-led startups can hit an 8% to 12% referral success rate.


Prefinery says creating dedicated referral landing pages can increase conversions by up to 27%.

Prefinery referral optimization guide; platform/vendor context.


Prefinery says referred customers show 37% higher retention, 25% larger average deal size, and 18% faster sales cycles than nonreferred customers in its comparison table.

Prefinery referral metrics guide with secondary-style benchmark table.


Prefinery says referred-customer annual churn is 12% compared with 20% for nonreferred customers in its comparison table.


Prefinery says referred customers bring 16% more profit compared with customers from other channels.

Prefinery referral metrics guide; overlaps with academic customer-value research.


Prefinery says referred customers are 54% more likely to buy again.

Prefinery referral metrics guide; verify primary source before broad reuse.


Prefinery says referred customers typically spend 11% more per order.


Prefinery says referred customers are 5x more likely to refer others.

Prefinery referral metrics guide; prefer Journal of Marketing Research for onward-referral claims.