For most DTC brands, referral programs sound great in theory, but rarely deliver results in practice. Between clunky tools, poor tracking, and low motivation for customers to share, word-of-mouth ends up being an unmeasurable bonus instead of a real growth channel.

OUTWAY, a multi-million dollar performance sock brand, had tried to fix this multiple times. But every affiliate or ambassador tool they tested fell short, lacking critical automation, clean attribution, or scalable incentives.

When paid ad costs nearly tripled in just 12 months, OUTWAY had to make a change. They needed a channel that could drive revenue without increasing CAC.

So they went back to a strategy that had always worked—customer advocacy. But this time, they used Social Snowball to turn it into a system. In just a few weeks, OUTWAY transformed referrals from an afterthought into a performance channel:

• Achieved 5x ROI on affiliate-attributed revenue.
• Generated 9%+ of total revenue, now driven by referrals.
• Activated 5,000+ affiliates within the first week.

"The reason we decided to use Social Snowball is because it was the only app where the entire referral process was well thought from Shopify's end, the merchant's end, and the customer's end, all while delivering on the goal of driving significant revenue."

Rob Fraser, Founder of OUTWAY

About the brand

OUTWAY is a high-growth DTC brand known for performance socks that combine technical comfort with bold, creative designs. Founded by former pro cyclist Rob Fraser, the company has built a loyal customer base by consistently delivering high-quality products that stand out, both functionally and visually.

Challenge: Paid ads were getting expensive, and referrals weren’t working

OUTWAY had a strong brand and a loyal customer base. But as paid ad costs kept rising, the team knew they needed a new acquisition channel that could lower CAC without compromising growth.

Referrals felt like the obvious answer. Customers already loved the product and shared it organically. But every past attempt to build a referral program had failed. Here’s why:

• No system to capture organic word-of-mouth: OUTWAY knew people were referring the brand. They just had no way to track them. Without attribution, referral revenue was a black box, and they couldn’t scale what they couldn’t measure.

“There wasn’t a good way to track our organic attribution… everything else was just labeled ‘word of mouth’.”

• Previous tools lacked key functionality: Over six years, the brand tested nearly every affiliate and ambassador app available on Shopify. None of them worked. From broken discount code management to clunky payout flows, the tools created more problems than they solved.

“All the other apps only solved one or two parts of the problem and ignored the rest.”

• No real incentive for customers to refer: Fans of the brand had no clear reason to share. There was no structured program, no compelling reward, and no reminder after purchase. That meant OUTWAY was leaving real revenue on the table, simply because there was no system in place to activate it.

Solution: How OUTWAY turned referrals into a scalable revenue channel

Instead of launching a new referral program that would break down in a few weeks, OUTWAY took a different approach. The brand used Social Snowball, a purpose-built affiliate platform for DTC brands, to build a referral system that was automated, trackable, and easy for customers to use.

Here’s how they made it work:

Step 1: Embed referrals into the post-purchase journey

OUTWAY knew their customers loved the product, but the missing piece was activation. So they embedded referral touchpoints right where excitement was highest: immediately after checkout.

• Every new customer automatically received a unique referral code on the thank-you page.
• No extra steps, no friction. The process was fully synced with Shopify and required zero manual setup.

Step 2: Use flat, cash-based rewards to drive participation

Rather than confuse customers with complex commission tiers, OUTWAY kept things simple: $15 CAD cash per referral. 

The reward was easy to understand and genuinely motivating, even for non-creators and influencers.

“We wanted something that was simple and rewarding enough to share immediately.”

This clarity eliminated drop-off and made the referral experience a natural extension of the buying journey.

Step 3: Reactivate their existing customer base

The brand didn’t just focus on new customers. They mobilized their existing audience—people who had already bought and loved the product. 

They emailed their entire customer list, introducing the referral program and explaining how to join. A clean, purpose-built landing page made signup seamless and reinforced the value of sharing.

This campaign activated thousands of past buyers and superfans, many of whom were already recommending the brand informally.

Step 4: Sync with Klaviyo to nurture and optimize

To keep affiliates engaged, OUTWAY integrated Social Snowball with Klaviyo, allowing them to:

• Send automated nudges to customers who hadn’t referred yet.
• Trigger personalized flows based on referral performance.
• Track which customers were most active, and reward them accordingly.

This gave them real-time visibility into referral performance and made it easy to segment and scale top performers.

Step 5: Let automation handle the rest

Once the system was live, OUTWAY barely had to touch it. Social Snowball handled everything— affiliate code generation, cash payouts, fraud protection, and referral attribution.

“The program basically runs itself. Our main job now is to stay out of the way.”

By ditching disjointed tools and building a purpose-driven system, OUTWAY transformed word-of-mouth into a predictable growth channel—one that rewards loyal customers, acquires new ones, and relieves pressure from rising ad costs.

Results: 9% of revenue and a 5x ROI on autopilot

OUTWAY’s new referral program outperformed expectations within days of launch. Here’s what they achieved after implementing Social Snowball:

• 5x return on investment from affiliate-driven orders.
• 9% of total revenue now comes directly from tracked referrals.
• 500+ new customers acquired every month, with zero ad spend.

Unlike past experiments, this program didn’t fizzle out or need active management. It scaled on its own.

“We hit our goal of 1,000 signups in the first 24 hours. By the end of the week, we had over 5,000 active affiliates.” 

Even better, referred orders had a higher average order value than expected. Since referrals came from trusted sources, customers were more confident to buy, and often bought more.

With tracking in place, OUTWAY now knows exactly who is driving their word-of-mouth growth. This visibility helps them forecast referral-driven revenue and build deeper partnerships with top-performing advocates.

“Social Snowball is generating 8-10% of our total revenue now. The longer it runs, the better it performs.”

Ready to turn word-of-mouth into a reliable revenue stream?

Most ecommerce brands know their customers are talking about them, but few have a system to capture that momentum and turn it into measurable growth.

Without the right structure, referral efforts break down:

• Loyal advocates never get properly rewarded.
• Codes leak or go unused.
• Payouts are manual and inconsistent.
• Tracking is unreliable or missing entirely.

OUTWAY solved all of this by implementing an affiliate program with a tool that automated processes and allowed the brand to manage it from a single dashboard. Social Snowball allows you to:

• Automatically convert new customers into affiliates, right after purchase.
• Incentivize referrals with cash-based rewards that people actually care about.
• Track performance in real-time, so you know exactly who’s driving revenue.

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