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Brand ambassador program case study: GreenStalk Garden
How GreenStalk Garden grew an ambassador program into half its revenue
The family-owned vertical planter brand rebuilt its ambassador program on Roster in 2023, and the channel has since grown faster than the business around it. Ambassador referrals now drive 49% of total online revenue on Shopify, and the switch that made the difference was replacing a commission-only model with action-based incentives.
The two numbers that matter
The brand
A patented planter, and a customer base that was already talking
GreenStalk Garden is a family-owned business known for its patented vertical planter, a stackable garden system designed to make growing food possible in small spaces. What started as a family figuring things out on their own took off in 2020, when demand surged and the company began building a team beyond family members to manage the growth, including a dedicated ambassador program.
GreenStalk sells direct to consumers on Shopify. Word of mouth had always been the brand's strongest channel: long before there was a formal program, customers and early creators were driving sales simply by sharing their experience with the product. Formalizing that into an ambassador and affiliate program was a natural next step, a way to reward the people already telling their friends and scale what was already working.
The model
Ambassadors who already own the product don't need renting
GreenStalk's ambassadors are gardeners who already own the planter, already post about it, and are given a reason to keep going. That distinction matters: an owned audience compounds, while a rented one resets the moment incentives stop.
The program also does double duty as a retention engine, which is unusual for a brand selling essentially one core product line. 22% of ambassador-referred revenue now comes from repeat purchases by previously referred customers.
That is the part most brands with a single hero product assume is impossible. It works because the reason to come back keeps changing, and the ambassadors are the ones carrying that news.
You'd expect people to buy a planter once and be done. But our returning customer rate is 50–65%, because we're always offering new colors and accessories, and our ambassadors are the ones sharing that with their audience. Autumn Lemon Ambassador Program Manager, GreenStalk Garden
The challenge
Glitching links, slow support, and no way to encourage posting
Before Roster, GreenStalk ran its ambassador program on LeadDyno, which covered the basics — link tracking, codes, and commission payouts — but nothing deeper. As the brand scaled after 2020, four problems became hard to ignore.
- Reliability. Referral links would glitch or stop working with no warning.
- Capacity. The team needed more bandwidth to manage a fast-growing roster.
- Support. Getting help when something broke was a real struggle.
- No lever for consistency. A commission-only model meant GreenStalk had no way to encourage ambassadors to actually post.
The fourth one is the interesting problem. Commission rewards the outcome but says nothing about the behaviour, so some ambassadors shared constantly and others never shared at all — and there was no mechanism in between.
We were growing fast, and our old platform couldn't keep up. Links glitched, support was slow, and Roster is the partner who actually shows up when something goes wrong. Autumn Lemon Ambassador Program Manager, GreenStalk Garden
The switch
The trigger was reliability, not features
The decision came down to two things: tracking that didn't glitch, and a support team that answers quickly when something needs attention. Not price, and not a feature comparison.
GreenStalk also gained the ability to track paid Meta and Google spend in the same place as ambassador performance, giving the team one view to compare how each channel is actually doing rather than stitching reports together by hand.
The mechanics
Three things GreenStalk runs on Roster
Actions to spark consistent sharing
Because the model is commission-based, some ambassadors historically shared often and others rarely at all. Actions give every ambassador something concrete to work toward around a launch or sale, without dictating what they say.
A two-tier structure
A recruited ambassador and affiliate tier, sourced mainly through YouTube outreach and a qualification-based application. Plus a Refer-a-Friend tier for everyday customers without an audience, earning $10 in credit per new customer referred.
Paid media, tracked in the same place
GreenStalk tracks its paid Meta and Google spend inside Roster alongside the ambassador program, so the team can compare channels on the same basis without manual reconciliation.
We were getting great feedback on new products, but affiliates weren't consistently sharing about them. Roster's Actions changed that. Now every launch comes with a built-in reason for ambassadors to post. Autumn Lemon Ambassador Program Manager, GreenStalk Garden
The results
The channel grew faster than the business around it
In 2025 versus 2024, ambassador-referred revenue — excluding anything attributed to Meta and Google ads — grew to 49% of GreenStalk's total online revenue, up from 46% a year earlier. Referred revenue grew 44% year over year against 36% growth for the brand overall, which is the number that matters: the program is not just keeping pace with the business, it is outrunning it.
Ambassadors now drive 46% of all orders and 39% of new-customer orders, with referred orders carrying a 15% higher average order value than non-referred. Referred new customers grew 45% year over year, referred order volume grew 48%, the number of selling ambassadors grew 29%, and the share of the roster actively generating sales climbed from 24% to 30%.
Before and after
What changed year over year
What made the difference
Five things worth stealing
- Actions solved the sharing-consistency problem. Small, concrete tasks tied to launches outperform an open-ended, commission-only model — because commission rewards the outcome and says nothing about the behaviour.
- Reliability and support were the switching trigger. Not price, not features. Glitching links and slow support drove the move off LeadDyno.
- Retention, not just acquisition, is where the program shines. 22% of referred revenue is repeat purchases, on a brand with essentially one core product.
- Long-term relationships compound. GreenStalk's affiliate program launched in 2018, and its longest creator relationships run back further. The team treats these as a durable asset, not a sales channel.
- There's still more to unlock. GreenStalk wants to raise its new-customer rate further, and is waiting on Roster's upcoming creator discovery tooling to make recruiting easier.
In their words
What the GreenStalk team says
We needed a reliable partner who'd grow with us, not glitch on us, and that's what Roster's been. Autumn Lemon Ambassador Program Manager, GreenStalk Garden
We don't script our ambassadors. We want their honest experience, not a performance. Autumn Lemon Ambassador Program Manager, GreenStalk Garden
Our top affiliates aren't new. We've worked with most of them for years, and that relationship is worth as much to us as the revenue. Autumn Lemon Ambassador Program Manager, GreenStalk Garden
I don't know why you wouldn't start one. It's the best way to get your product in front of as many eyes as possible. Brands get stuck worrying about margins, but you have to spend money to make money, and take the risk. Autumn Lemon Asked what she'd tell a brand still on the fence
FAQ
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Roster helps ecommerce brands like GreenStalk Garden turn ambassadors into an always-on engine for both revenue and content, with the structure, rewards and support to keep them engaged.
Brands on Roster have driven 1.5 million referred orders and $250 million in referred revenue, alongside 1.7 million pieces of user-generated content, at a typical program ROI of 4–6x.
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