Litestore · Operator guide

Referrals

Learn about customer-to-customer referrals and how a referrer is credited at signup.

Every customer gets a referral code and a short link at /r/{code} when their record is created.

A click on it counts against the link and sets a cookie. If that visitor signs up, the referrer is written onto the new customer's record there and then, and earns loyalty points once the new customer's first order is paid.

Crediting at signup rather than at purchase is the deliberate part. It means the middle of the funnel is filled in from something that actually happened, instead of being guessed at later from an order.

Where it lives

Marketing → Referrals

The screen is read-only. There is nothing to create or edit on it — it reports the funnel and nothing more. The two records behind it are the customer and their link.

The code is generated with the customer record.

It is unique across both customer codes and short-link slugs, so a referral code can never collide with a link you created yourself.

Customers who predate managed referral links get one the first time theirs is used.

How a referrer is credited

  1. Someone clicks a customer's /r/{code} link. The click counts against the link and sets a cookie.
  2. The cookie lasts the attribution window — 30 days by default.
  3. The visitor signs up, and the referrer is recorded on the new customer's record at that moment.
  4. The referred customer's first order is paid, and the referrer earns the reward.

Because step 3 happens at signup, a referrer is credited before any order exists. That is what fills in the middle step of the funnel.

A customer cannot refer a new account under their own email address.

The reward is held

The reward is loyalty points — 100 by default.

They are granted after the referred customer's first order is paid, and the grant is held for a window covering refunds, 14 days by default.

The hold exists for one reason: buying and refunding cannot mint points.

One credit per order

When an order carries both collab attribution and customer referral attribution, the collab commission takes precedence and the referral points are not granted.

An order pays out once, down one path.

What the screen reports

For each referrer:

  • Their code
  • The link's click count
  • Signups driven
  • Orders driven
  • Reward points earned
  • Their last attributed order
  • Whether the link is active, inactive or expired

The settings you can change

  • Referrals on or off
  • Reward points
  • Reward hold
  • Attribution window

Turning customer referrals off stops attributing new signups and stops granting rewards. Points already earned are left alone — switching the programme off is not a way to take back what was given.

Reading the funnel

Clicks with no signups behind them means the link is being shared but the landing experience is not converting. That is a storefront problem, not a referral setting.

Signups with no orders behind them means the reward is never triggered, because the reward waits on the first paid order.

Points earned that you did not expect to see are worth checking against the reward hold — the hold is what keeps a refunded order from paying out.

The useful question when a referrer's row looks wrong is:

Which step of the funnel stopped — the click, the signup, or the first paid order?

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