Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful ways to grow a store. The Perkie referral program turns that into something you can actually measure — and reward. Customers share a unique link, a friend clicks it, places an order, and both of them get something nice. You get a new customer. Everyone wins, and once it’s set up you barely have to think about it.
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Why It Matters
Referred customers convert better and tend to stick around longer than customers from ads. They arrive with a built-in layer of trust because someone they know vouched for your store. And because both sides of the referral get rewarded, you’re giving your existing customers a real reason to share — not just hoping they’ll remember to mention you.
The referral program runs itself. You set the rules once, and Perkie handles the rest: tracking clicks, recording referrals, applying rewards, and surfacing everything in your customers’ My Account pages.
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Before You Start
- Enable the feature toggle first. The referral program is turned off by default. Go to Tracksies > Settings > Features, find the Perkie tile, and make sure Referral Program is toggled on. Without this, the Referrals tab won’t appear in your Perkie settings.
- Make sure Perkie is active and your points programme is set up (earn rate, tiers) before enabling referrals. Referral rewards are issued in points or coupons, so having your base programme configured first will make the settings feel a lot more intuitive.
- If you’re planning to use the Coupon reward type, it helps to decide on a prefix and expiry period before you dive in.
- Think about your return window. The clearance period setting is designed to match it — so if you offer 14-day returns, you’d set clearance to 14 days (or a little over).
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The Steps
Step 1 — Enable the Referral Program
- In your WordPress admin sidebar, go to Tracksies > Perkie
- Click the Referrals tab at the top of the Perkie settings page
- Find the Referral Program section and toggle Enable Referrals on
- Click Save Changes
That’s the master switch. The rest of the settings on this tab only take effect once referrals are enabled.
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Step 2 — Set the Referrer Reward
The referrer is the existing customer who shared the link. This is what they get when a friend places a qualifying order.
- Under Referrer Reward, choose your reward type: Points or Coupon
- If you choose Points, enter the number of points (default is 500)
- If you choose Coupon, the coupon settings section will appear — see Step 5 for those
- Click Save Changes
The default of 500 points is a good starting point, but adjust it to feel meaningful relative to your earn rate. If customers typically earn 50–100 points per order, a 500-point referral reward feels like a genuine thank-you.
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Step 3 — Set the Referee Reward
The referee is the friend who clicked the link and made a purchase. This is their welcome reward for trying your store.
- Under Referee Reward, choose your reward type: Points or Coupon
- If you choose Points, enter the number of points (default is 250)
- If you choose Coupon, configure the coupon settings in Step 5
- Click Save Changes
You can use different reward types for the referrer and the referee if you like — for example, points for your existing customer and a discount coupon for the newcomer.
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Step 4 — Configure Cookie Duration and Minimum Order
Cookie Duration
When a friend clicks a referral link, Perkie sets a cookie in their browser. If they place an order before that cookie expires, the referral is recorded.
- Under Cookie Duration, enter the number of days (default is 30)
- Click Save Changes
30 days is a generous window and works well for most stores. If your products take some consideration before purchase, you might increase it.
Minimum Order
You can optionally require a minimum order value before a referral counts as successful.
- Under Minimum Order, enter an amount in dollars (default is $0, meaning any purchase qualifies)
- Click Save Changes
Leaving this at $0 maximises the number of successful referrals. Setting a threshold (for example, $50) means only orders above that value trigger rewards — useful if you’re concerned about very small orders gaming the system.
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Step 5 — Coupon Settings (if using Coupon rewards)
If you chose Coupon as the reward type for either the referrer or the referee, you’ll see a Coupon Settings section.
- Set the Coupon Prefix — this appears at the start of every generated coupon code (default is
REF-). You can change this to anything that makes sense for your store. - Set the Coupon Expiry — how many days the coupon is valid after it’s issued (default is 30 days)
- Check Stackable if you want these referral coupons to be combinable with other coupons at checkout. Leave it unchecked if you’d rather they can only be used on their own.
- Click Save Changes
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Step 6 — Clearance Period and Fraud Prevention
This section is off by default. It’s worth enabling if you want to protect against fraud or if your store has a return window.
Enable Delayed Rewards
- Find the Clearance Period section under the Referrals tab
- Toggle Enable Delayed Rewards on
- Set the Clearance Days — how long Perkie waits before issuing rewards after a referral order completes (default is 16 days)
A good rule of thumb: set clearance days to match your return window, or just slightly over it. If you offer 14-day returns, 16 days gives a small buffer.
Fraud Detection
- Toggle Enable Fraud Detection on
- Perkie will flag referrals that look suspicious based on three signals:
– Same billing address as the referrer
– Same email domain as the referrer (for example, both using the same company email)
– Same IP address as the referrer at the time of purchase
- Click Save Changes
Flagged referrals are held for your review — they are not automatically blocked or rejected. You’ll be able to see flagged referrals in the admin and decide whether to approve or discard them.
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The Customer Experience
Here’s what the journey looks like from your customer’s point of view:
- A customer visits My Account and clicks the Perks & Rewards tab
- They scroll down to the Refer a Friend section
- They see their unique referral link — something like
yoursite.com/?ref=ABC123— along with a Copy button - They copy the link and share it however they like: text, email, social media, whatever feels natural
- Their friend clicks the link. Perkie sets a cookie in the friend’s browser, valid for however many days you configured
- The friend browses the store and places an order
- Once the order is marked complete, Perkie records the referral as successful
- If you have delayed rewards enabled, both parties wait for the clearance period to pass
- Once cleared (or immediately if delayed rewards are off), both the referrer and the referee receive their rewards
Customers can also see their referral history right in the Perks & Rewards tab — how many successful referrals they’ve made, how much they’ve earned through referrals, and any rewards currently waiting for clearance.
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About Referral Codes
Each customer’s referral code is six characters long, using uppercase letters and numbers. To keep them easy to read and share, Perkie deliberately avoids characters that look alike — so you won’t see O and 0, or I, 1, and L in a code. Every customer gets one code that stays the same, so they can save and reuse their link as many times as they like.
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Common Questions
Can someone refer a customer who’s already bought from my store?
The referral system records a referral when the referee’s purchase completes. If the friend already has an account or has ordered before, Perkie will still record the referral and issue the reward — there’s no “new customers only” gate built in. If you’d like to restrict referrals to first-time customers only, this is worth bearing in mind when planning your reward values.
What if the referee returns their order?
If the referee’s order is refunded or cancelled after rewards have already been issued, those rewards are not automatically reversed. The clearance period is designed to give you a buffer here — by delaying rewards until after your return window closes, you can avoid issuing rewards for orders that end up returned. This is the main reason enabling Delayed Rewards is worthwhile if your store has a return policy.
Can I see all referrals from the admin side?
Yes. Referral records are visible in the Perkie section of your admin, giving you a full list of referrals, their statuses (pending, complete, flagged), and the associated customers on both sides. You can use this view to review flagged referrals and take action where needed.
What if a customer loses their referral link?
No problem — it’s always there in their Perks & Rewards tab in My Account. Their code never changes, so they can come back and copy their link any time.
Can a customer refer themselves?
Fraud Detection helps with this — if the referrer and the order share the same IP address, email domain, or billing address, the referral gets flagged for your review rather than automatically rewarded.
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If Something Goes Wrong
Referrals aren’t being recorded
Check that Enable Referrals is toggled on and that you’ve clicked Save Changes. Then double-check the referral link format — the ?ref= query string needs to reach the site intact. Some link shorteners or social media platforms strip query strings; if your customers are using one of those, the referral won’t register.
Rewards aren’t being issued
If delayed rewards are enabled, rewards won’t appear until the clearance period has passed. If the clearance period has elapsed and rewards still haven’t appeared, check the referral’s status in the admin — it may have been flagged for review and is waiting on your approval.
A referral is stuck on “Pending”
Referrals move to Complete when the order is marked complete in WooCommerce. If an order stays in Processing for a long time, the referral will stay pending. Check the order status first — once it’s set to Complete, the referral should update shortly after.
Coupons aren’t being generated
Make sure the Coupon reward type is properly saved and that WooCommerce’s coupon system is enabled on your site (WooCommerce > Settings > General > Enable coupons). If coupons are disabled in WooCommerce, Perkie can’t create them.
A referral was flagged but looks legitimate
Head to the referral record in your Perkie admin and approve it manually. The fraud flags are signals, not definitive blocks — family members living at the same address, for example, will trigger the billing address check even if the referral is completely genuine.