A referral — an existing customer telling a friend about your shop — carries a level of built-in trust that no ad or SEO effort really replicates, since it comes pre-vetted by someone the new customer already trusts. Encouraging this deliberately, even without dedicated referral tracking software, is worth doing for a small shop.
The simplest version: a small, genuine discount code offered to both the referrer and the new customer, mentioned directly in a packaging insert or post-purchase email ("Know someone who'd love this too? Share code FRIEND10 for 10% off their first order, and we'll send you a thank-you discount too"). This requires no special software — just a standard discount code your platform already supports, tracked manually if needed for a small shop's volume.
Making the ask specific and easy matters more than the size of the incentive itself. A vague "tell your friends about us!" gets forgotten quickly, while a specific, concrete action ("share this code with one friend") paired with a tangible, immediate benefit for both people gives a customer an actual reason and an actual simple mechanism to follow through, rather than a vague good intention that fades without a clear next step.
Timing this ask right after a genuinely positive experience — shortly after a customer has received and presumably enjoyed their order, rather than immediately at checkout before they've even experienced the product — tends to work better, since enthusiasm and satisfaction are naturally highest right after a good experience, not before it's happened.
This doesn't need to be a major program with dedicated tracking infrastructure for a small shop — even a simple, occasionally-mentioned code, consistently included in packaging or post-purchase communication, captures a meaningful portion of the word-of-mouth referrals that would otherwise happen anyway, just without the small added incentive nudge that turns a passive "I liked this" into an actual active recommendation to a specific friend.