Update to Ecommerce Skills

{
  "description": "Use when designing or fixing a customer referral program for an online store — the headline offer, who gets what reward, how big the reward is, cash vs gift, and the pre-filled share message — e.g. \"design our refer-a-friend program\", \"should the reward be cash\", \"how much should we give per referral\", \"write the referral share message\", \"referrals aren't converting\".",
  "included_files": [
    {
      "relative_path": "reference.md",
      "size_in_bytes": 2625
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  ],
  "name": "referrals",
  "skill_md_contents": "---\nname: referrals\ndescription: Use when designing or fixing a customer referral program for an online store — the headline offer, who gets what reward, how big the reward is, cash vs gift, and the pre-filled share message — e.g. \"design our refer-a-friend program\", \"should the reward be cash\", \"how much should we give per referral\", \"write the referral share message\", \"referrals aren't converting\".\n---\n\n# Referrals\n\nDesign a referral program that gets more customers to refer and keeps referred customers profitable. The lever is framing: people refer because they think the friend will like it, and a reward aimed at the referrer's self-interest works against that.\n\n## When to use\n\n- The referral offer and headline; reward size and type\n- The pre-filled share message\n- A program with many referrals but low-value customers\n\n## When not to use\n\n- Reviews, ratings, or complaints → the `reviews` skill\n- Loyalty rewards for repeat purchase → the `post-purchase` skill\n\n## Inputs\n\nCollect, or state your assumption:\n\n- Current headline, rewards for referrer and friend, reward type, share message\n- First-order margin (to size the reward)\n- Goal: more referrals, more conversions, or better-quality customers\n\n## Procedure\n\n1. **Make the friend's benefit the headline.** \"Give a friend $20 off\", not \"Earn $20 per friend\". Keep a referrer reward, stated second and smaller. Altruistic framing made people up to 60% more likely to refer at least once; total referrals rose 86%.\n2. **Pre-fill the share message with one signal.** Either \"I already bought this\" (+11% friend conversion) or \"you can earn a reward for referring\" (+53% onward referrals). Pick by goal. Never both. Separately from the persuasion signal, if the sender earns a reward the message must say so — a brief \"(I get a thank-you if you use it)\" — because US/UK advertising rules treat an incentivized recommendation without disclosure as deceptive; the studies predate this expectation.\n3. **Reward in kind, not cash.** A free gift, upgrade, or other non-monetary benefit over cash or a cash discount; store credit as the fallback. †\n4. **Cap the reward size.** Higher rewards raise volume but pull in poor customers: when an online bank raised its reward from €20 to €50, profitability of referred customers fell 48%. Sizing against first-order margin is a conservative practitioner policy, not the study's finding — with strong repeat value a larger reward can still pay; if you use lifetime value, use *incremental* profitability of referred customers. †\n5. **Pay out after the friend's return window closes.** (Hygiene, not a study finding.)\n\n## Output\n\n**Program spec**\n\n| Element | Value | Why |\n|---|---|---|\n| Headline | \"Give a friend $20 off their first order\" | Altruistic framing: +86% referrals |\n| Friend reward | $20 off / free gift | Friend's benefit leads |\n| Referrer reward | Free [upgrade/gift], shown second | Non-monetary; secondary |\n| Reward size | Below the margin on a first order | High rewards → −48% profitability |\n| Payout timing | After return window | Hygiene |\n\n**Share message** (one signal):\n\n> \"I bought [product] and think you'd like it — here's $20 off your first order: [link] (I get a small thank-you if you use it)\"\n\nor, if the goal is chain referrals:\n\n> \"Here's $20 off [product] — and once you've tried it you can give friends $20 off too (I get a small thank-you for sharing this): [link]\"\n\n## Common mistakes\n\n- \"Earn $50 cash per friend\" as the headline — lead with the friend's benefit.\n- A share message with both \"I bought this\" and \"you can earn too\" — one or the other.\n- Raising the reward for volume — referred-customer profitability drops.\n- Cash payouts — gift, upgrade, or at minimum store credit.\n\n## Quick reference\n\n| Element | Do |\n|---|---|\n| Headline | Friend's benefit first, referrer reward second |\n| Share message | One of: \"I bought this\" / \"you can earn too\" |\n| Reward type | Gift or upgrade > credit > cash |\n| Reward size | Modest; cap against first-order margin |\n| Payout | After return window |\n\n† No primary citation on file for this rule — a practitioner tip, not a measured finding.\n\nEvidence and effect sizes: see [reference.md](reference.md).\n"
}