Product Seeding and Starter Samples

Approving a creator is not the same as getting content. A starter sample closes that gap: instead of asking a creator to buy in before they can post, you remove the first cost entirely, so the only thing standing between approval and a published piece of content is the creator's own time.

That is an acquisition move, not a loyalty perk. It exists to turn an approved applicant into someone actually promoting, faster than waiting for their first purchase would.

A starter sample becomes claimable the moment you approve a creator on a campaign that carries one; there is no sales target to hit first. Only creators you have approved can claim it, and the claim captures a shipping address snapshot for that one fulfilment.

The mechanics of claiming, shipping, and confirming receipt are covered in full in Rewards for Brands; this guide focuses on why and how to run seeding as a strategy, not the claim mechanics themselves.

On WooCommerce, a claimed sample creates a zero-value order automatically in your own store, using the creator's captured address; from there it ships like any other order. On Shopify, the current draft-order permission creates a 100% discounted draft and completes it to €0.00; older installs keep the claim in your Rewards queue so you can place the order yourself.

Either way, fulfilment runs through your own store, not a separate ThreeStove shipment.

A starter sample costs you the product and the shipping, nothing more; there is no platform charge on a sample order, and it does not draw from the campaign's cash escrow. Cash rewards and commission are what your funded reserve backs.

Budgeting for seeding is therefore a product-cost decision, separate from the cash balance you fund for commission and cash rewards on the same campaign.

A shipped sample is not a result on its own. The honest measure is what happens after: did the creator publish, and did any attributed orders follow, per creator rather than in aggregate.

Track published content and attributed orders per creator who claimed a sample, not the count of boxes sent. A sample that never turns into content or a sale is useful information too: it tells you something about creator fit, not just cost.