Reward conditions control when a referred friend's purchase qualifies the advocate to earn a reward. They live on the Reward conditions subpage of each campaign — Referral and Affiliate campaigns share the same layout. There are three settings:
Minimum purchase amount by friend — the lowest cart subtotal that counts toward a reward.
Rewardable referred purchases ("It's the friend's") — whether the advocate is rewarded for the friend's first purchase, every purchase, or the first X purchases.
Maximum reward amount — a per-advocate cap on how many of their rewardable referred purchases count in this campaign.
Note: Reward conditions control when an advocate earns a reward based on the referred friend's purchase. They don't control when a customer becomes an advocate or who receives a referral link — for audience control, see campaign enrollment and target audience (segments).
For when rewards are actually delivered to the advocate after the conditions are met, see When will referral rewards be sent to an advocate.
What "rewardable" means
A rewardable purchase is a purchase made by the referred friend that counts toward earning a reward for the advocate, according to your campaign settings.
🧩 Reward conditions apply individually to each referred friend — each referred friend has their own purchase count.
Minimum purchase amount
When you set a minimum purchase amount, only purchases that meet the required minimum spend count toward a reward for the advocate or affiliate. These eligible referred purchases are called "rewardable" referrals.
Important (Shopify and BigCommerce only): When a referred purchase is fully refunded, ReferralCandy doesn't delete the purchase, but only modifies its amount to $0. You must set your minimum spend to at least $1 to avoid sending out rewards for refunded purchases.
Tips for setting a minimum purchase amount
For referral programs, it's recommended to set a low minimum purchase to encourage more participation. In some cases, you may want to target a higher cart value for reward eligibility, depending on the specific goals of your campaign.
If you're offering a cash reward, set a higher minimum purchase than the reward amount to avoid being out of pocket for each referral.
Does the minimum apply before or after the friend-offer discount?
The minimum purchase amount is checked against the subtotal after any discount is applied — including the friend-offer coupon you set up in this referral campaign — but before taxes and shipping. The minimum applies to this discounted subtotal, not the gross cart value.
Example: If your minimum is $70 and a friend's cart is $77 but they apply a $10 friend-offer coupon, the subtotal becomes $67. That's below the $70 minimum, so the purchase doesn't count toward a reward for the advocate.
If you want every above-minimum cart to count, set the minimum lower than the gross cart you're targeting minus the friend-offer discount.
What if my customer paid in a different currency than my store's primary currency?
The minimum purchase amount is set in your store's primary currency. When a referred friend buys in a different currency, ReferralCandy converts the purchase amount to your primary currency before checking it against your minimum.
Each ReferralCandy account uses a single primary store currency for this calculation — you can't set different minimums per currency.
Example: If your store's primary currency is USD and your minimum is $50, and a friend's cart in EUR converts to $48 USD after currency conversion, the purchase is below the $50 minimum and won't count toward a reward.
Rewardable referred purchases
Under It's the friend's, choose whether the advocate earns a reward for the friend's:
First purchase only (default and most common) — the typical referral campaign. The advocate is rewarded only for the new customer's first qualifying purchase. Works for most merchants whose goal is acquiring net-new customers.
Every purchase — useful for high average-order-value merchants where every purchase a referred friend makes is valuable enough to justify rewarding the advocate each time.
First X purchase(s) — middle ground. Useful for subscription merchants who want to reward advocates as long as referred subscribers stay active — each subscription cycle counts as a purchase.
How rewardable purchases work for subscription orders
ReferralCandy counts rewardable purchases based on the referred friend's purchase count that ReferralCandy has recorded (1st purchase, 2nd purchase, 3rd purchase, and so on). It doesn't treat subscription renewals as a separate category — renewals are simply additional purchases if they show up as additional orders.
What this means in practice:
First purchase only — the advocate only earns a reward on the referred friend's first recorded purchase, even if that customer renews a subscription later.
Every purchase — the advocate can earn a reward on future purchases made by that referred friend, including subscription renewals, as long as each renewal is recorded as a new order.
First X purchase(s) — the advocate can earn rewards up to the first X purchases made by that referred friend (subscription renewals can count toward X if they're recorded as new orders).
Note: ReferralCandy only charges the success fee on the first three (3) purchases that a referred friend makes through a referral link. Learn more
Maximum reward amount
Despite the name, this is a count of rewardable referred purchases per advocate — not a dollar cap, and not a count of rewards. The dashboard field is labeled Maximum rewards per advocate: it limits how many of an advocate's rewardable referred purchases count toward rewards in this campaign over their lifetime in this campaign. Once they hit the cap, additional purchases don't count even if they would otherwise be rewardable.
In most campaigns 1 rewardable purchase = 1 reward, so the cap effectively becomes the max rewards an advocate can earn from the campaign. If your campaign uses Referrals required for advocate reward > 1 (each reward requires multiple successful referrals), the actual rewards earned = cap ÷ Referrals required. Example: with the cap set to 6 and Referrals required = 3, the advocate earns up to 2 rewards.
Useful for limited-run campaigns where you want to cut off advocate earnings after a set number of referrals — e.g., a promotion where each advocate can earn rewards on their first 5 successful referrals only. Leave the field blank for no cap.
Changing your reward conditions
To change your reward conditions:
Open the Reward conditions subpage of your campaign:
Shopify: from your Shopify admin > select your campaign > Set rewards section > Reward conditions.
Other platforms: from your ReferralCandy dashboard > select your campaign > Set rewards section > Reward conditions.
In the Referred purchase conditions section:
Set the Minimum purchase amount by friend.
Under It's the friend's, choose Every purchase, First purchase only, or First X purchase(s).
(Optional) In the Maximum reward amount section, set the per-advocate cap — or leave it blank for unlimited.
Click Save.