This article discusses features and capabilities available only for Shopify merchants. If you're using another platform, visit this article.
The purchase review period setting allows you to define the length of time before you the system sends the referral rewards to advocates. This gives you time to review and verify the referred purchases and take necessary action if a purchase is determined to be non-rewardable. During the purchase review period, you can:
Delete a purchase due to a customer refund or return
Disqualify a purchase due to fraudulent behavior
The review period should be aligned with your return policy to take into account any cancelled or returned purchases before an advocate reward is sent. Learn more about deleting or disqualifying a referred purchase.
Set a review period
The review period you set applies to all the referred purchases made through all your live campaigns.
To set the purchase review period:
From Shopify admin, go to ReferralCandy > Account > Purchase Review Period.
To set a custom duration, select the Review period is X days option.
Enter your custom review period in the Days of review period field.
Click Save.
Review period "frozen" in a stopped campaign
When you set your campaign to Stopped, the review period for pending referred purchases is frozen. Once the campaign is set to Live, the purchase review period continues and the rewards are queued for processing.
This can also happen to campaigns that have been stopped or accounts that have been suspended by the system due to a significant error that you need to resolve. You can set the campaign to live again after the issue is fixed.
Purchase review period FAQ
How do I approve referrals? Can I approve referrals before the review period ends?
How do I approve referrals? Can I approve referrals before the review period ends?
The purchase review period gives you time to review referred purchases for refunds, returns, or fraud before rewards are released.
On Shopify, you can manually approve referrals before the review period ends.
If you want to reward an advocate earlier, you can approve the purchase in Shopify at any time.
If a referral was flagged as Suspicious (extended to 14 days), manual approval also ends the extended review period early.
How to approve early (Shopify)
Open your Shopify Admin.
Go to Apps → ReferralCandy.
Open Purchases & Referrals.
Select the purchase(s).
Click Approve Purchase.
Important notes
Approving ends the review period immediately.
Only approve referrals you’ve verified as legitimate.
Approval can’t be undone once rewards are issued.
Related guides
Approving referrals in Shopify: https://help.referralcandy.com/en/articles/6657380-shopify-marking-a-purchase-as-referred-approving-referrals
Handling suspicious/fraud referrals: https://help.referralcandy.com/en/articles/2457821-how-to-handle-fraud
Marking a purchase as referred: https://help.referralcandy.com/en/articles/6657380-shopify-marking-a-purchase-as-referred-approving-referrals
Why did the purchase review extend to 14 days?
Why did the purchase review extend to 14 days?
If a referral is flagged as suspicious, the system extends its purchase review period to 14 days for campaigns with a shorter review period. Review the referral to check for fraud. Otherwise, you can ignore the flag or confirm the referral to reward the advocate or affiliate for the purchase. Learn more
What happens if I make changes to the referral reward?
What happens if I make changes to the referral reward?
Advocates and affiliates receive their referral reward once the review period ends. That's when they become eligible for the reward, not at the time the referred purchase was made.
Here's an example that shows how the review period and updating a referral reward may affect the reward issued to an advocate:
April 1st
You run a referral program with Reward A, and your review period is 15 days.
You update Reward A to Reward B, which expires at the end of April, keeping your review period at 15 days.
All the advocates that make referrals with review periods that end after you updated the reward should receive Reward B.
These include referred purchases made from March 17th onwards as their review period will end from this moment forward after you updated the referral reward.
April 30th / May 1st
Referral Reward B expires and you update to Reward C, keeping your review period at 15 days.
All advocates that make referrals with review periods that end after you updated the reward will receive Reward C.
These include referred purchases made from April 16th onwards as their review period will end from this moment forward after you updated the referral reward.
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