Referrals: Reward Customers Who Bring Their Friends

Overview

Each customer gets a referral code and a share link on their account page. A friend who uses it gets a discount on their first order. Once that order has been paid and not refunded for your hold window, the customer who referred them earns a reward: store credit, or a single-use discount code. The reward is emailed to them automatically.

Referrals are part of the Growth plan and above.

Step 1: Set up the programme

Go to Marketing → Referrals → Settings.

1. Friend gets — a percentage or an amount off their first order, optionally only over a minimum order value.
2. Referrer earns — store credit, a single-use amount-off code, or a single-use percent-off code. Optionally set how many days the reward stays usable.
3. Hold window — how long the friend's order must stay un-refunded before the reward is issued. Match it to your return window.
4. Caps — the most rewards one customer can earn, and the most your store issues in a calendar month (UTC).
5. Tick Run the referral programme and save.

What customers see

On their account page, customers see their code, their link, what their friend gets and what they earn. They can copy or share the link, or ask you to email an invitation to a friend (up to 10 a day, never twice to the same address, and never to an address that unsubscribed from your emails). They also see how many friends ordered and the rewards on the way and earned.

A friend who follows the link sees a note that their reward is applied at checkout. They can also type the code in the discount box. A referral code takes the discount-code slot, so it cannot be combined with another code. Automatic promotions still apply.

How it is kept fair

• One reward per new customer — a friend can be referred once, on their first paid order only.
• No self-referrals — a shopper cannot use their own code. We compare email addresses (ignoring dots and "+" tags, so [email protected] is the same as [email protected]), the signed-in account, and the device the customer opened their referral page on.
• Same address — a friend shipping to an address the referrer uses keeps their discount, but the reward waits for your review.
• Refunds — an order refunded, cancelled or disputed during the hold window earns no reward. A reward already issued is not taken back.
• Caps — when a cap is reached the referral is recorded as Cap reached and no reward is issued.

Step 2: Review flagged referrals

When a flagged referral passes its hold window, it appears under Activity → Waiting for your decision. Approve sends the reward straight away; Reject means no reward.

The report

Activity shows every referred order: the referrer, the friend, the order value, the friend's discount, its status and the reward. The totals show referred orders and sales, rewards issued and what is waiting for review. Top referrers lists the customers who brought the most orders.

Codes lists every customer's code. Switch a code off to stop it working. You can also give a customer a code yourself with Give a customer a code.

Where the money goes

The friend's discount is part of the order's discount, so tax, refunds and your reports treat it like any other discount. Store credit rewards appear in the customer's Store credit on their account page and are spent at checkout like a gift card. Discount-code rewards appear under Marketing → Discounts and can be used once.