Referral rewards not applying?

If referral rewards aren't applying the way you expect (no points awarded, or a referral coupon won't work), the cause is usually one of these: the Referral Program is inactive, the reward is set to No reward, the friend hasn't placed their first order yet, or the discount reward has restrictions that the order doesn't meet.

The referring customer receives their reward once the friend makes their first order. The Friend reward is intended to be used on the friend's first purchase.

Referral Program page showing Customer reward, Friend reward, and Referral status

Quick checklist

• Confirm the program is active Open Referral Program and look at Referral status. If it shows inactive, click Activate.

• Verify reward types (not “No reward”) In Referral Program, check both Customer reward and Friend reward. Click Edit and confirm the correct option is selected: Points or Discount (not No reward).

• Make sure the trigger happened Confirm the referred friend completed their first order. The referring customer's reward is only granted after that first order is placed.

• If using a Discount reward, check restrictions In the reward's Edit panel, verify restrictions like Applies to, Purchase Type, and Minimum spend match the test order.

• Rule out conflicts with other promos Temporarily pause other active promotions (for example in Discounts / Gift with Purchase) and retest. Overlapping offers can cause unexpected results.

Step-by-step troubleshooting

1

Referral status is inactive

If the program is inactive, no referral rewards will be generated or granted.

• Go to Referral Program.

• Find Referral status.

• If it shows inactive, click Activate.

2

The reward is set to “No reward”

Either side of the referral can be turned off. If a customer expects a reward but that reward is set to No reward, nothing will apply.

• From Referral Program, click Edit next to Customer reward.

• Confirm Points or Discount is selected (or intentionally keep No reward).

• Repeat for Friend reward.

Customer reward edit panel showing No reward, Points, and Discount options

3

The friend hasn't placed a first order yet

This is the most common reason the referring customer doesn't see points (or a reward) show up.

• The referring customer's reward is granted after the referred friend makes their first order.

• If you're testing, ensure the friend completes checkout (not just adds items to cart).

When testing, use a real customer account and complete a real first-order flow for the friend. Tests that stop before checkout completion won't trigger the advocate reward.

4

Discount reward restrictions don't match the cart

If your referral reward is a Discount, it behaves like a coupon-style discount with rules. If any rule doesn't match, the code may not apply.

In Referral Program, click Edit on the reward and review:

• Applies to (for example, Specific products or variants)

• Select variants (if set, the cart must include those variants; you can use Browse to choose them)

• Purchase Type (for example, One-time purchase or Both)

• Minimum spend

• Expires after (if not No expiry, the code can become invalid after the set number of days)

Friend reward edit panel showing Discount settings including Code prefix, Applies to, Purchase Type, Minimum spend, and Expires after

If Applies to is set to Specific products or variants, the discount will only work when the cart includes those items. A common testing mistake is using a different product (or a different variant).

5

The discount looks smaller than expected on a multi-product order

A referral reward applies once per order, not once per product.

If the cart holds several qualifying products, a fixed-amount reward is spread across them. Each line shows part of the discount, and the amounts add up to the reward you configured. A $30 reward across two products might show as $23.66 on one and $6.34 on the other.

This is the reward applying correctly. Check the order total rather than the per-line amounts.

6

Another promotion or coupon is taking precedence

If you run multiple offers at once (or the customer uses another coupon), it can change what applies at checkout.

• If you're also running offers in Discounts / Gift with Purchase, temporarily pause them and retest the referral reward.

• If the customer redeemed points (loyalty coupons) from Redeem points → Ways to redeem, those coupons may conflict with other discounts.

If you're unsure whether you're testing a referral coupon vs. a loyalty coupon, double-check where it was configured: referral coupons come from Referral Program when the reward type is Discount.

FAQ

The friend reward coupon won't apply, what should I check first?

• In Referral Program, click Edit on Friend reward and confirm it's set to Discount (not No reward).

• Check Minimum spend, Applies to, and Purchase Type restrictions.

• Confirm the friend is using the reward on their first purchase.

The advocate didn't get points, does it happen immediately?

No. The referring customer receives their reward once the friend makes their first order.

What does “Code prefix” do?

Code prefix sets the starting characters for generated referral discount codes. The example displayed under the field updates to show a preview of the code format.

Why does one referral show as one, when the code appeared on several products?

A referral is counted against the order, not the number of products the code touched. One referred friend placing one order is one successful referral. See Manage referrals.