Connecting your WooCommerce store to ReferralCandy lets ReferralCandy read your orders, so it can detect which purchases came from a referral and reward the advocate behind them. From plugin version 3.0 onwards you connect by approving ReferralCandy once inside WooCommerce. There are no API keys to find, copy or paste.

If you already run the plugin with API keys, nothing about your setup breaks. Skip to If you're already using plugin 2.x below.

Before you start, three things need to be true of your WooCommerce store. The plugin checks the first two on its setup screen and tells you which one is missing.

The plugin also checks whether your store already has a ReferralCandy account. If it does, it offers to confirm that connection rather than creating a second one.

You also need WooCommerce 9.0.1 or higher, with WordPress 6.4 or higher and PHP 7.4 or higher. The plugin installs on older versions but shows a notice and won't run, so if your store is below those versions, use one of our other integration methods instead.

The connection between WooCommerce and ReferralCandy has two parts, and it helps to know which does what.

Approving ReferralCandy inside WooCommerce is what links your store. The approval creates a WooCommerce API key whose description starts with ReferralCandy, which you can see under WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > REST API. That key is how ReferralCandy reads your orders, and it's the only permission you ever grant us.

ReferralCandy also creates your friend offer coupon codes in your WooCommerce store. Each advocate gets their own code, created when they join your campaign, and a purchase that uses one is detected as that advocate's referral. This runs through the store connection, so it works whether or not the plugin is installed.

The ReferralCandy plugin adds the other half. It recognises a friend who arrived through an advocate's referral link, so referrals are detected by the click and not only by the coupon code. Without the plugin, a friend who buys without using a code isn't detected as referred.

You can see both at a glance under Integrations > WooCommerce in your ReferralCandy dashboard: it shows Connected when your store is linked and Plugin active when the plugin is running, along with confirmation that coupon rewards are being created in your store and orders are syncing from it.

To install the ReferralCandy plugin, use either of the two methods below. You only need one of them.

To connect your store, open ReferralCandy in your WordPress menu. The plugin opens on a single screen with one button, and that button starts the approval that links your store.

You can also start from ReferralCandy rather than from WordPress. If you don't have an account yet, sign up at my.referralcandy.com/signup/woocommerce: it asks for your store address, then sends you to your WordPress admin to approve access, with no keys to copy. If you already have a ReferralCandy account, go to Integrations > WooCommerce.

Whichever way you start, install the ReferralCandy plugin as soon as you can. Your store connects and your friend offer codes are created without it, but until the plugin is active, friends who arrive through an advocate's referral link and buy without using a code aren't detected as referred.

Connecting your store isn't the last step, and starting a campaign is easy to miss. A new ReferralCandy account begins with a campaign that is stopped, and a stopped campaign sends nothing at all: no referral emails, no rewards, even though your store is connected.

The plugin tells you when this is the case. The Overview reads Connected. Now launch a campaign. and the campaign list underneath shows each campaign's real state: Running, Paused, or Not running. Start or resume one in your ReferralCandy dashboard, then reload the plugin page.

If you're already using ReferralCandy plugin 2.x with API keys, updating to 3.x breaks nothing and nothing is urgent. Your API Access ID, App ID and Secret Key are kept exactly as they were and keep working: orders keep being sent, tracking keeps rendering, and your settings are preserved. The key fields are simply no longer shown, because version 3 has one setup path and it isn't a form asking you to copy three strings.

Your settings still live under Settings in the ReferralCandy menu, and the old WooCommerce > Settings > Integration tab redirects there.

When you're ready to move over, the plugin's Overview offers Connect through WooCommerce. It runs the same one-click approval a new store gets. After that, ReferralCandy reads your orders directly and the plugin stops sending them, so the same order isn't sent twice.

The ReferralCandy plugin's settings live under Settings in the ReferralCandy menu, grouped into Tracking (called Order Tracking if you're still on API keys), Checkout and Post-purchase popup. What you see depends on how your store is connected.

The Tracking group controls where the ReferralCandy tracking code renders. It always renders on your store's order-received page, and the page you pick here is an extra location on top of that. The list holds your store's own pages and always has one selected, starting on Checkout, so there's nothing to switch off here. Change it only if your theme sends customers to a different page after checkout.

If your store is still connected with API keys from plugin 2.x, this group is called Order Tracking instead, and it also contains Process orders with status. Orders are sent to ReferralCandy once, when they reach the status you pick here. Completed is the safest default; Processing rewards referrals sooner. Once your store is connected through the WooCommerce approval, ReferralCandy reads your orders directly and this setting disappears, because there's nothing left to configure about sending them.

The Checkout group controls the accepts-marketing checkbox shown to customers at checkout, and its label. It works with both the classic shortcode checkout and the block checkout. Turning the checkbox off marks every customer as unsubscribed from referral emails by default.

The Post-purchase popup group shows the ReferralCandy post-purchase popup on your thank-you page, so customers are invited to join your program just after they've bought something. On WooCommerce you turn it on here in the plugin, with no code snippet to paste.

Switching the popup on is what reveals the rest. Turn on Enable at checkout and a Campaign dropdown appears beneath it. Once your store is connected through the WooCommerce approval, that dropdown lists your own campaigns by name: pick the one whose offer the popup should show, then click Save settings. If the only entry is Connect your store to choose a campaign, the plugin hasn't received your campaigns yet, usually because your store is still on API keys. The plugin won't save the popup switched on until there's a campaign to pick, so connect through WooCommerce first. If you're already connected, check that a campaign exists in your ReferralCandy dashboard, then reload the plugin. If you set the popup up on plugin 2.x it keeps working in the meantime: the dropdown shows its campaign key, marked in use, alongside that entry.

Enable the quickfix beside it only if the popup breaks the layout of your thank-you page. If turning on the quickfix doesn't resolve it, our support team can help, just let us know.

If something goes wrong while connecting your WooCommerce store, work through the checks below, starting with the most common.

If the plugin won't install or shows a notice that it can't run, the WordPress account you're signed in with may not be allowed to install plugins, or your store may be below the versions the plugin supports. Sign in as a WordPress administrator and confirm you're on WooCommerce 9.0.1 or higher, WordPress 6.4 or higher, and PHP 7.4 or higher. If your host manages updates, ask them to bring the store up to date before you try again.

If the connect button isn't available, the readiness checks on the setup screen show you which one hasn't passed. The usual causes are a storefront that isn't served over HTTPS, or a WordPress account without permission to manage WooCommerce. Install a TLS certificate for your public storefront, sign in as a WordPress administrator who can manage WooCommerce, then reload the ReferralCandy setup screen.

The plugin distinguishes two reasons a connection can't be confirmed, and the fix differs. If it says your store approved access but ReferralCandy couldn't be reached to confirm it, nothing is lost: click Try again. If it says the approval link has expired or was already used, click Restart connection and approve once more. Approving again takes a moment and creates nothing new on the ReferralCandy side.

This message comes from WooCommerce, not from ReferralCandy, and it means WooCommerce approved the connection but couldn't hand the new credentials over to ReferralCandy. Start the connection again from the plugin. If you're already connected with API keys from plugin 2.x, that connection is unaffected and you don't need to change anything. Our support team can look into it with you, just let us know your store URL and roughly when you tried.

If the plugin says your ReferralCandy account needs a plan, your store is linked but the account never finished at the plan picker. Click Choose a plan, finish it, and reload the page. Don't approve again, because that part is already done.

If your store was connected and the plugin is now asking you to connect again, there are a few possible reasons: the WooCommerce API key was revoked, someone disconnected the store in your ReferralCandy dashboard, the ReferralCandy account was deleted, or your store has moved to a new address. If your store is still on the same address, press the connect button once more to grant a fresh key. If you have moved to a new domain, read the FAQ below first, because reconnecting from a new address behaves differently.

If you see several keys starting with ReferralCandy under WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > REST API, that's expected: every approval adds one and older keys aren't removed automatically. They're harmless, so there's no need to tidy them up, and it's best not to: the newest key isn't necessarily the one ReferralCandy is using.

If purchases from referral links aren't being detected, the ReferralCandy plugin may be missing or deactivated. If your store is connected through the WooCommerce approval, the plugin also needs to be on version 3.x or higher. Recognising a friend who arrived from a referral link is the plugin's job, so install or update ReferralCandy for WooCommerce and activate it in WordPress. To check, open Integrations > WooCommerce in your ReferralCandy dashboard: it shows Plugin active alongside Connected when the plugin is running. On a store connected through WooCommerce, referrals that came through a friend offer coupon code are detected either way, so this affects link referrals only.

The tracking code always renders on your store's order-received page. If your theme sends customers to a different page after checkout, select that page in the Tracking settings so the code runs there too. If a custom thank-you page is still giving you trouble, our support team can take a look at your setup, just let us know.

If your store is connected but no referral emails are going out, every campaign is probably paused or stopped. Open your ReferralCandy dashboard and start one. The plugin Overview names this specifically when it's the cause.

If none of these resolve it, our support team can look into your account. It speeds things up if you include your store URL, your plugin version, your WooCommerce version, and roughly when you tried to connect. Never send us your passwords or your WooCommerce secret keys.