Shopify
What the RefRef app for Shopify does - referral capture with consent, paid orders and refunds as facts, friend offers, store credit and discount code Rewards, and the customer sharing surfaces.
The RefRef app is not in the Shopify App Store yet. To install it on your store, contact us.
The RefRef app connects one Shopify store to RefRef. It captures referral clicks on the storefront, turns paid orders and refunds into RefRef facts, and delivers Rewards as store credit or discount codes. Your store needs no custom code.
Install
When you install the app, RefRef creates the setup for the store:
- A Workspace for the store, with a Project pair (Live and Sandbox), the store connection, and a source.
- The shop owner becomes the Workspace owner. Other staff who open the app become admins.
- A development store connects to the Sandbox Project. A paid store connects to the Live Project.
- The Project accepts only new customers as referees: an order creates a referral only when it is the customer's first order.
Open the app in the Shopify admin to set up the referral Program and to see reports.
Capture referral clicks
Turn on the RefRef referrals app embed in your theme. When a visitor arrives through a referral link and gives marketing consent, the embed gets the browser's handle from RefRef and keeps it in the refref_handle cookie and in a cart attribute. A Web Pixel also reads completed checkouts.
A store has no account creation that RefRef can see, so the app identifies the handle at the customer's first order. The Shopify customer ID is the participant's externalId. RefRef never matches customers by email.
Orders and refunds
| Shopify webhook | What RefRef records |
|---|---|
orders/paid | A purchase Event, with the customer's order number |
refunds/create | A refund adjustment of the purchase |
orders/cancelled | The refunds of the cancelled order |
RefRef also reads recent orders on a schedule, within the last 59 days, and records orders that a webhook did not bring. After a referral, it reads the customer's earlier orders to prove whether a purchase was the first one. Test orders are ignored in a Live Project.
Offers and Rewards
- Friend offer. A referred visitor can get a single-use discount code before the first order.
- Store credit. A credit Reward is added to the customer's Shopify store credit, in the shop currency.
- Discount codes. A discount Reward is a single-use code that only that customer can use.
Rewards wait for the hold that you set before RefRef delivers them, so that a refund in that time can cancel them.
Where customers share
- A Share with friends block on the thank-you page
- A Referrals and rewards page in customer accounts
- A storefront launcher and a Referral page block for your theme
Shopify Flow gets triggers when a customer earns a Reward and when a Reward is ready.
Privacy
The app handles Shopify's customer data request, customer redaction, and shop redaction webhooks. A redaction removes the customer's external ID from RefRef; the same customer then returns as a new participant.
Limits
- Capture needs the visitor's marketing consent.
- A guest checkout of an unknown customer counts only when the checkout carries a handle of the Project.
- Native checkout, order receipts, and pixel processing have not been verified on a merchant store.
RevenueCat
Connect RevenueCat so in-app purchases, renewals, and refunds become RefRef facts, and RefRef gives free premium access as a Reward with a RevenueCat entitlement.
WooCommerce
Connect a WooCommerce store with the RefRef plugin - consent-based capture, paid orders and refunds as facts, friend offers, referrer coupons, and customer sharing.