This article is for merchants on non-Shopify platforms. If you're using Shopify, see [Shopify] Getting started with ReferralCandy.
This guide walks you through setting up ReferralCandy on your ecommerce platform and launching your first campaign — connecting your store, setting your rewards, customizing your program, enrolling customers, and going live. Each step links to a detailed guide if you want to go deeper.
New to referral marketing? ReferralCandy 101 explains how referral programs work end to end — who the participants are, how customers become advocates, and how referred purchases turn into rewards.
How ReferralCandy works
ReferralCandy runs your referral program for you: it enrolls your customers as advocates, gives each advocate a personal referral link and a friend offer to share, detects referred purchases in your store, and sends out rewards automatically. You choose the incentives and the look — ReferralCandy handles the invitations, tracking, and reward delivery.
Step 1: Connect your store to ReferralCandy
To start using ReferralCandy, create your account and connect your store so ReferralCandy receives your store's purchases — that's how it detects referred purchases and knows when to send rewards. Check the list of supported platforms and their setup guides, and see the Integration overview for the different ways to connect. Once set up, you'll manage everything from the ReferralCandy dashboard at my.referralcandy.com. ReferralCandy comes with a 7-day free trial — see current plans at referralcandy.com/pricing.
If your platform doesn't have a direct integration, ReferralCandy can still receive your purchases through one of these methods:
Email integration — you forward your store's invoice emails to ReferralCandy.
JavaScript integration — you add a JavaScript snippet to your purchase-completed page.
API integration — you connect your platform to ReferralCandy via API.
Note: the JavaScript and API integration methods require programming experience.
Step 2: Create your first campaign
ReferralCandy supports two campaign types, and you can run several campaigns at the same time:
Referral campaigns reward your existing customers (advocates) for referring friends to your store — the typical first campaign. See Creating a campaign for the step-by-step.
Affiliate campaigns pay cash commissions to creators and partners who promote your store. See Managing affiliate signups for how affiliates join.
Step 3: Set your rewards
Every referral campaign has two incentives to configure: the advocate reward (what your customer earns for a successful referral) and the friend offer (the discount their friend gets on a first purchase). Choose the type and amount of each:
Advocate reward types — coupons, cash, or a custom reward.
Friend offer types — the discount that referred friends receive.
You can also control when a referral counts toward a reward: set a minimum purchase amount and the number of rewardable purchases per referred friend in Reward conditions, set the required number of referrals per reward, or reward advocates at referral milestones with FlexiTiers.
Worried about returns, cancellations, or fraudulent referrals? Set a purchase review period to hold rewards until you've had time to review each referred purchase.
Step 4: Customize your referral program
ReferralCandy sends referral emails and hosts referral pages on your behalf — customize them so everything matches your brand:
Customize your referral emails, pages, and widgets — add your logo and banner, and set your brand colors and fonts.
Edit the default sharing messages your advocates share on X, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
Customize your referral program's unique subdomain — the address used in your advocates' referral links.
Advanced: add dynamic content to your emails and pages with ReferralCandy Liquid variables.
Step 5: Enroll your customers
Once your campaign is live, ReferralCandy starts enrolling customers as advocates: eligible customers are enrolled based on your campaign's target audience, and customers can also sign up themselves through surfaces like the post-purchase popup, an embedded signup form, or your hosted Join Page. Each new advocate receives a welcome email with their personal referral link. Campaign enrollment covers every way a customer can join, and Widgets for your referral program covers where these signup surfaces appear on your store and how to enable them.
Your campaign's target audience controls who gets invited — everyone, or a specific group defined by a segment. See Understanding segments and target audience.
Step 6: Test your campaign and go live
Before launching your campaign, use Test Mode to safely walk through the advocate and friend experience end to end — see Testing the referral process. When you're ready, set your campaign's state to Live — Campaign states explains what Live, Paused, and Stopped mean. Once your campaign is live, referred purchases appear on the Purchases & referrals page of your ReferralCandy dashboard as they're detected.
After launch: grow your program
After your campaign launches, a few extra moves help more customers join and refer:
Invite your past customers — import contacts to a segment and add that segment to your campaign's target audience. If you use Klaviyo, you can import your Klaviyo lists and segments directly.
Promote your program beyond your store — share your campaign's Join Page or portal link on your homepage, in your newsletter, or on social media. See Advocate and affiliate portals for where to find your campaign's portal URL.
Learn what works — browse the Best practices collection for referral marketing tips.
Getting started FAQ
Do I need a developer to set up ReferralCandy?
Do I need a developer to set up ReferralCandy?
It depends on how you connect your store to ReferralCandy. Platform integrations and the email integration don't require any code. The JavaScript and API integration methods do require programming experience, so you may want a developer's help for those.
Can I run more than one campaign at the same time?
Can I run more than one campaign at the same time?
Yes — you can run multiple ReferralCandy campaigns at the same time, including referral and affiliate campaigns side by side. Each campaign has its own target audience, rewards, and design.
What do my customers see after they join?
What do my customers see after they join?
After joining your campaign, each advocate gets a welcome email and their own Share Page with their personal referral link, plus a rewards dashboard where they can track their rewards. See What advocates see after signing up for the full advocate experience.