Referral program
Set up customer referrals to drive word-of-mouth growth.
A referral program turns your customers into advocates by rewarding them for bringing in new customers.
How it works
- Each customer gets a unique referral code and link
- Customer shares their link via social media, email, or direct message
- Friend clicks the link and browses your store
- Friend adds products to cart (referral code is automatically attached)
- Friend completes purchase
- After a configurable delay, referrer receives store credit
- Optionally, friend receives a discount on their first order
Configuration
In the Bonde app, go to Loyalty and click Referral Program. Change the settings below, then click Save at the top of the page.
Advocate Reward
Configure what the referring customer earns:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Credit Type | Fixed Amount per referral (default, $10) or Percentage of Order of the friend's order |
| Credit Value | The amount or percentage of store credit the advocate earns |
| Credit Expiration | Use Store Default, Custom Period (a number of days), or Never Expire |
| Send email notification to advocate | Notify the referrer when they earn credit from a successful referral (on by default) |
Friend Discount (Optional)
Optionally give the friend an incentive to complete their purchase:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Enable friend discount | Check to give friends a discount on their first order |
| Discount Type | Fixed Amount (e.g., $5 off) or Percentage (e.g., 10% off) |
| Discount Value | The amount or percentage off |
Friend discounts may require additional setup with Shopify discount codes or automatic discounts.
Advocate Earning Cap
Check Enable earning cap to limit how much credit an advocate can earn from referrals: set a Maximum Credit and a Cap Period (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly or Lifetime).
Fraud prevention
The Fraud Prevention card protects the program against abuse:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Reward Delay | Minutes to wait after the friend's order before issuing the reward, to allow for cancellations or refunds (default: 60) |
| Require new customer | Only issue rewards when the referred friend is a first-time customer (on by default) |
| Minimum Order Value | Optional: only orders above this amount trigger a reward |
Program status
A new program starts in Draft. Use the button beside Save to change its status:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | Program is being configured. Referral tracking is disabled. Activate Program makes it live |
| Active | Program is live. Customers can share and earn rewards. Pause Program stops it |
| Paused | Program is temporarily stopped. Existing referrals are honored. Resume Program makes it live again; Deactivate returns it to Draft |
Sharing options
When you add the Referral Widget to your theme, customers can share their link via:
- Copy link: Copies the referral URL to clipboard
- Native share: Uses the device's share menu (mobile-friendly)
- Facebook: Opens Facebook with a pre-filled share post
- Twitter: Opens Twitter with a pre-filled tweet
- Email: Opens email client with a pre-filled message
The referral link looks like: yourstore.com?ref=ABC123
Tracking
The system tracks:
- Clicks: How many times the referral link was clicked
- Conversions: How many clicks resulted in purchases
- Earnings: Total store credit earned from referrals
Customers see their stats in the Referral Widget. You can view aggregate stats in the Bonde admin.
Referral lifecycle
Click
When someone clicks a referral link, the code is stored in their browser for 30 days.
Cart
When they add items to cart, the referral code is automatically attached as a cart attribute.
Checkout
The referral code travels through checkout with the order.
Order placed
After purchase, the system detects the referral code and creates a pending referral.
Processing delay
The system waits for the configured delay period.
Validation
The system verifies: order meets minimum value, customer is new (if required), referrer hasn't exceeded caps.
Reward issued
Store credit is added to the referrer's account.
Example configurations
Generous referral program
- Referrer reward: $15 fixed amount
- Expiration: 90 days
- Cap: $150 per month
- Friend reward: 15% off first order
- Delay: 60 minutes
- Require new customer: Yes
- Minimum order: $25
Conservative referral program
- Referrer reward: 5% of order value
- Expiration: 30 days
- Cap: $50 per month
- Friend reward: Disabled
- Delay: 1440 minutes (24 hours)
- Require new customer: Yes
- Minimum order: $50