There are a few reasons why your advocate or affiliate hasn't received their reward. Reward delivery happens in two parts:
The purchases must qualify, pass review, and meet any required purchase count or tier threshold — covered under Conditions to be rewardable and Other reasons below.
The reward type's delivery process — most reward types are issued immediately after the above; cash rewards have additional payout-method-specific steps. Covered under Additional delay based on reward type below.
Other situational reasons (existing customer, tier minimum not reached, PayPal email setup) are covered under Other reasons.
Conditions to be rewardable
Note: Even when a purchase meets the conditions below, the reward isn't issued until the review period also ends (or the merchant manually approves the referral on Shopify), and any required purchase count or reward-tier threshold is met. See Additional delay based on reward type below for what happens after the review period.
The following conditions must be met for the advocate to receive a reward. To see if the purchase is rewardable or not rewardable:
Go to your Purchases and referrals page:
From the ReferralCandy dashboard, go to Purchases & Referrals.
From your Shopify admin, go to Purchases & Referrals.
In the search bar, find the purchase using the associated name, email address, or reference ID.
Once the purchase is found, check the Status to see if the purchase is rewardable or not rewardable.
To see more details about the purchase, click its Purchase ID (or its Shopify ID, on Shopify).
The Status section on the purchase page shows whether the purchase meets your reward conditions. If it doesn't, it lists the conditions that weren't met:
Text displayed | Details |
This purchase exceeds the allowed number of rewardable friend purchases | This referred friend's purchase is beyond the campaign's allowed purchase count. For example, with First X purchase(s) set to 3, the friend's fourth purchase is outside the limit. |
This purchase did not meet the minimum purchase amount | The purchase did not meet the minimum purchase amount required. |
The purchase was refunded and is not eligible for rewards | The purchase was refunded, cancelled, or deleted. |
The advocate is banned and cannot get rewards | The advocate was banned and/or their purchase was disqualified. |
The purchase was made while the campaign was paused | Advocates can't make new referrals when your campaign is paused. |
Other reasons
There are possible reasons why the advocate or affiliate didn't receive a reward after the review period, aside from those listed in the table above:
Existing customer - The referred friend is already a customer of the store. Only new customers are eligible to be referred.
Maximum rewards per advocate reached — The campaign's lifetime cap applies across the advocate's referred friends. Purchases beyond that cap do not count toward further rewards. See Reward conditions.
Required purchase count not reached — If your campaign requires several eligible purchases for one reward, they accumulate for the same advocate across their referred friends. A purchase can qualify and pass review while the advocate is still waiting for enough purchases. See Reward conditions.
Tier minimum not reached - If you're using FlexiTiers, your advocate or affiliate must reach the minimum number of referrals to reach a tier and get rewarded. They’re kept in the loop while they wait: a successful referral that doesn’t earn a reward yet triggers the referral progress email, which tells them how many more referrals they need to reach the next reward.
Email not linked to PayPal (PayPal cash payouts only) - If your cash payout method is PayPal, the email address used by the advocate to register for your campaign must be linked to an active PayPal account. Coordinate with your advocate and have them open a PayPal account or link their email address to an existing one.
Note (PayPal-specific): Advocates and affiliates can only update their PayPal email address via the portal after they earn their first reward. This requirement doesn't apply to Tremendous or self-managed cash payouts.
Additional delay based on reward type
Whether and when an advocate receives their reward depends on two things: a universal review-period step that applies to every reward type, and what happens after that — which differs by reward type, and for cash rewards, by the cash payout method.
Step 1 — Review period must end (applies to every reward type)
Before any reward of any type is issued, these requirements must be met:
The referred purchase qualifies as rewardable (the conditions covered above are met).
The review period ends — either by elapsing automatically or by the merchant manually approving the referral (Shopify only).
Any required purchase count or reward-tier threshold is met.
Until these requirements are met, the reward is not issued — regardless of reward type.
Step 2 — What happens after that, by reward type
Once Step 1 is complete and any required purchase count or reward-tier threshold is met:
Coupon — issued immediately. The reward email is sent and the coupon is accessible from the advocate's rewards page.
Store credit — issued immediately. Shopify applies the credit directly to the advocate's customer account.
Custom — an email alert is sent to the advocate and the merchant. Fulfilment is on you (the merchant) — manually, outside ReferralCandy.
Cash — an additional step applies, depending on your cash payout method:
PayPal — the reward is queued. It's paid out after you pay the monthly cash-rewards invoice; PayPal then processes the payout in 1 to 3 days.
Tremendous (Invoice funded) — the reward is queued. Tremendous issues the reward after you pay the monthly cash-rewards invoice.
Tremendous (Balance funded) — the reward is issued immediately, provided your Tremendous balance is funded.
Self-managed payouts (Affiliate campaigns only) — fulfilment is on you (the merchant). Export the payout CSV from ReferralCandy, pay the affiliate outside ReferralCandy, then upload the updated CSV to mark as paid.
For full details on each reward type:
Advocate Reward: Cash (full Tremendous funding-method detail and self-managed payouts)