This article outlines common issues and the troubleshooting steps related to referral detection.
Purchases not detected
Note: Referral detection can take up to 12 hours if you recently set up or tested your campaign.
If your test purchase is taking longer than 12 hours to appear, go through the following checklist:
Check if your store's integration with ReferralCandy is working. Make sure that you correctly follow the integration articles. If you're using email integration (Non-Shopify), check these two points:
For email forwarding, verify that the referred friend's purchase appears on the Purchases & Referrals page
For the tracking code, check that the last detected time is later than the time the friend's purchase was made on the Integrations page
Check that the test referral was carried out correctly. Make sure to review and properly follow the testing the referral process article.
Your referral test may have been blocked by the system's fraud detection measures. Purchases may be flagged and blocked if:
The referred friend's name or email address is similar or identical to the advocate or affiliate, also known as the referrer
The referred friend is already an existing customer in your store
You didn't clear cookies before conducting the referral test
You used the same device and network to make the test purchase
Check that the referred purchase meets the criteria for reward eligibility. The referred purchase should:
Be an amount equal to or higher than the minimum purchase amount
Meet the required number of purchases that counts towards a referral reward
Reach the minimum number of rewards to reach a reward tier, if your campaign uses a tiered reward structure
Check if the referral reward is valid.
The referral reward may be expired, if you set an expiry date
Your single-use coupons may have run out. Add more coupons to your campaign's Advocate rewards page.
Your campaign may have stopped. Make sure that your campaign is active, and not paused or stopped. If there are issues preventing your campaign from running, resolve them first. Learn more
Still having trouble with referral detection?
Still having trouble with referral detection?
Reach out to the ReferralCandy support team. Contact us with the following information:
Advocate's email address
Advocate's name
Referred friend's email address
Referred friend's name
Referred purchase time
Referred purchase amount
Did you follow the testing the referral process article? [Yes or No]
Was the referred friend a new customer? [Yes or No]
Did you carry out the test on a different computer? [Yes or No]
Did you carry out the test on a different network? [Yes or No]
Blocked rewards
If an advocate or affiliate didn't receive a referral reward, review the following checklist:
Referrals are not being detected. See the Purchases not detected section above to troubleshoot why referred purchases are not detected, thus blocking referral rewards.
Check if the referred friend is already an existing customer at your store. Existing customers can't be referred by advocates and affiliates.
Check that the referred purchase meets the criteria for reward eligibility. The referred purchase should:
Be an amount equal to or higher than the minimum purchase amount
Meet the required number of purchases that counts towards a referral reward
Reach the minimum number of rewards to reach a reward tier, if your campaign uses a tiered reward structure
The referral may have been blocked by the system's fraud detection measures.
This means that the referred friend made the purchase using a similar name or email address, or used the same computer and network as the advocate to make the purchase.
The referred friend may have not clicked the referral link. The friend may have made the purchase at your store, but not through the unique referral link shared by the advocate or affiliate. To fix this, mark the purchase as referred.
Still having trouble with blocked rewards?
Still having trouble with blocked rewards?
If you'd like ReferralCandy to investigate further into your referral detection issue, contact us with the following information:
Advocate's email address
Advocate's name
Referred friend's email address
Referred friend's name
Referred purchase time
Referred purchase amount
Was the referred friend a new customer? [Yes or No]
Employee orders detected as referrals
Orders placed by store employees may be detected as referrals by the system. This may happen when an employee views the referral link before placing an order on behalf of the customer. To prevent this:
Ensure that your employees view referral links on a device, network, or browser different from the one used to place an order on behalf of the customer.
Request to ban your office IP address from making referrals. Contact us with the IP address of your office or call center so the ReferralCandy team can process the request. Note that once banned, you can't make test purchases using your office network.
Remove the referral that was detected accidentally. You have 2 options:
Delete the purchase from your account. This is possible while the purchase is within the review period. Learn more
If the referred purchase has passed the review period, contact us.
Note: ReferralCandy won't be able to recall any rewards that have already been issued to customers.
Referral detection FAQ
Are successful referrals detected automatically?
Are successful referrals detected automatically?
Yes. Once set up, the ReferralCandy app monitors and detects* successful referrals automatically.
However, it may take a couple of hours after a purchase has taken place for the platform to run through all the necessary verification checks, so it isn't instantaneous.
Each advocate receives a unique referral link to share with their friends. A successful referral is tracked when a friend clicks the referral link, the JavaScript tracking code on the purchase completed page is triggered, and the purchase information is sent to the system.
*Note: For eCommerce platforms with specific integration plugins (e.g., Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce), the ReferralCandy app obtains information directly from the platform. The unique referral link together with the information obtained from the platform enables the app to track sales that come from referrals.
Does a referred friend need to click the referral link again to use the friend offer discount?
Does a referred friend need to click the referral link again to use the friend offer discount?
When referred friends or referees click an advocate or affiliate's referral link but don’t make a purchase immediately, they may still be able to apply the friend offer coupon depending on their browser cookies.
ReferralCandy tracks referrals using cookies, which typically expire after 30 days. If the referred friend returns before the cookies expire, they can still use the friend offer without clicking the referral link again, as long as they accepted the cookies, didn’t clear them, and are on the same device and browser.
💬 Need help? Click the chat widget on the right to start a conversation. Learn more