Referrals
Customers who bring in new customers earn loyalty points, and the Referrals screen shows how Litestore credits each referrer.
With referrals, customers invite friends and earn loyalty points when those friends buy something. The Referrals screen shows how Litestore credits each referrer and where people drop out of the referral funnel.
Litestore gives every customer a referral code and a short link at /r/{code} when it creates their record. When someone clicks the link, Litestore counts the click and sets a cookie. If the visitor then signs up, Litestore immediately writes the referrer onto the new customer's record, and the referrer earns loyalty points once the new customer's first order is paid.
Litestore credits the referrer at signup rather than at purchase so that the signup step in the funnel reflects actual signups, instead of being inferred later from orders.
Navigation
Marketing → ReferralsThis screen is read-only. Nothing on it is created or edited, because it only reports on the funnel. The data comes from two records, the customer and their link.
Referral links
Litestore generates the code when it creates the customer record. A referral code can't match another customer's code or any short-link slug, so the store's short links and referral links never conflict.
Customers who were created before Litestore managed referral links get a link the first time someone uses their code.
Referral credit
Click
Litestore counts the click on the customer's /r/{code} link and sets a cookie.
Referral cookie
The cookie lasts for the attribution window, which is 30 days by default.
Sign-up
Litestore records the referrer on the new customer's record when they sign up.
First order
The referrer then earns the reward.
Because the third step happens at signup, Litestore credits a referrer before any order exists. That's where the signup numbers in the middle of the funnel come from.
A customer can't refer a new account that uses their own email address.
Reward hold
The reward is loyalty points, 100 by default. Litestore grants the points after the referred customer's first order is paid, but it holds them for a period that covers refunds, 14 days by default. This prevents people from earning points by buying something and then refunding it.
If an order is linked to both a collab and a customer referral, the collab gets the commission and the referrer doesn't get any points, because each order is credited only once.
Referral report
The screen shows one row per referrer.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Code | The referrer's code. |
| Clicks | The link's click count. |
| Signups | How many signups the referrer drove. |
| Orders | How many orders the referrer drove. |
| Reward points | How many points the referrer earned. |
| Last order | The referrer's last attributed order. |
| Status | Whether the link is active, inactive or expired. |
Settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Referrals | Turns the customer referral programme on or off. | On |
| Reward points | Sets how many loyalty points a referrer earns. | 100 |
| Reward hold | Sets how long Litestore holds points before granting them. | 14 days |
| Attribution window | Sets how long the referral cookie lasts. | 30 days |
These are fixed defaults in the store's code, not admin settings, so whoever runs the store changes them.
If you turn customer referrals off, Litestore stops crediting new signups and stops granting rewards. Customers keep any points they've already earned.