This article discusses features and capabilities available only for merchants on non-Shopify platforms. If you're using Shopify, visit this article.
The purchase review period setting allows you to define the length of time before the system sends the referral rewards to advocates. This gives you time to review and verify the referred purchases and take necessary action if a purchase is determined to be non-rewardable. During the purchase review period, you can:
Delete a purchase due to a customer refund or return
Disqualify a purchase due to fraudulent behavior
The review period should be aligned with your return policy to take into account any cancelled or returned purchases before an advocate reward is sent. Learn more about deleting or disqualifying a referred purchase.
Set a review period
The review period is set at the account level and applies across all your campaigns.
To set the purchase review period:
From the ReferralCandy dashboard, go to Account > Purchase review period.
Choose Review period is 6 hours, or select Review period is X days and enter the number in Days of review period.
Click Save.
Review period "frozen" in a stopped campaign
When you set your campaign to Stopped, the review period for pending referred purchases is frozen. Once the campaign is set to Live, the purchase review period continues and the rewards are queued for processing.
This can also happen to campaigns that have been stopped or accounts that have been suspended by the system due to a significant error that you need to resolve. You can set the campaign to live again after the issue is fixed.
Purchase review period FAQ
How do I approve referrals? Can I approve referrals before the review period ends?
How do I approve referrals? Can I approve referrals before the review period ends?
Yes. Once you have verified that a pending referral is legitimate, you can manually approve it from Purchases & Referrals to end its review period early. This also applies to a referral flagged as Suspicious.
Select the eligible pending purchase or purchases, click the approval button showing the number selected, then confirm with Approve. See Purchases & Referrals for the full steps.
If you do not approve early, the review period runs automatically. Keep time to check for refunds, returns, or fraud before rewards are issued: an issued reward cannot be recalled. Reward delivery still depends on reward eligibility and the processing or payment steps for your reward type. See When will referral rewards be sent to an advocate?
For flagged referrals, read How to handle fraud. To link a purchase that has no referrer, follow Marking a purchase as referred.
Why did the purchase review extend to 14 days?
Why did the purchase review extend to 14 days?
If a referral is flagged as suspicious, the system extends its purchase review period to 14 days if your review period is shorter than 14 days. Review the referral to check for fraud. Otherwise, you can ignore the flag or confirm the referral to reward the advocate or affiliate for the purchase. Learn more
What happens if I make changes to the referral reward?
What happens if I make changes to the referral reward?
Advocates and affiliates receive their referral reward once the review period ends. That's when they become eligible for the reward, not at the time the referred purchase was made.
Here's an example that shows how the review period and updating a referral reward may affect the reward issued to an advocate:
April 1st
You run a referral program with Reward A, and your review period is 15 days.
You update Reward A to Reward B, which expires at the end of April, keeping your review period at 15 days.
All the advocates that make referrals with review periods that end after you updated the reward should receive Reward B.
These include referred purchases made from March 17th onwards as their review period will end from this moment forward after you updated the referral reward.
April 30th / May 1st
Referral Reward B expires and you update to Reward C, keeping your review period at 15 days.
All advocates that make referrals with review periods that end after you updated the reward will receive Reward C.
These include referred purchases made from April 16th onwards as their review period will end from this moment forward after you updated the referral reward.