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Every referral involves two people. The referrer is your existing customer who shares the offer. The referee is the person they introduce, tracked from that introduction through purchase, approval and reward. Rewards, journeys and reporting are all keyed on these two roles, so most configuration questions come down to “which side of the referral is this for?”

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The Referral Journey

A brand referral moves through a predictable sequence:
  1. Share. A referrer sees the offer, usually just after buying, and shares it with someone they know.
  2. Claim. The referee follows the share and lands on the offer page, where they claim their incentive.
  3. Register. The referee provides their details, so their eventual purchase can be attributed to the referral.
  4. Reward. Once the referee’s qualifying purchase completes and passes any review, both sides receive their rewards.
The pages and emails each role moves through make up their journey, and both journeys are edited and previewed in the campaign editor.

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How Referrers Enter the Programme

By default, customers are enrolled as referrers automatically at post-purchase, the moment your tag fires after checkout. Enrolment gives the customer a personal share URL with its own validity window, share count and successful referral count. For why post-purchase is the default entry point and when opt-in enrolment suits you better, see Understanding Automatic Enrolment at Post-Purchase. Where the offer appears on your site is called a situation: post-purchase, dashboard, landing page or product page. Each situation is a place your tag fires and a journey can start.

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Sharing Options

A sharing option is a channel a referrer can share through: email, a copyable link, social networks and messaging apps. Each offer carries a chosen set of them, and they can differ by device. Which options convert best varies by audience, which is why they are configured per offer rather than per programme. In product referral, sharing works slightly differently: the product tag injects a share link on your own product pages, which copies the sharer’s personal URL when clicked.

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Who Sees the Offer

Triggering rules are per-campaign conditions deciding which customers are offered the chance to refer, grouped by subjects such as customer details, customer history and segments. A situation can also act as a rule subject, so an offer can appear on the dashboard but not at post-purchase, or only for customers in a given segment.

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Promoters Are Not Referrers

In product referral you will also meet the promoter: a customer ranked by product-page shares and the revenue those shares drive. A promoter is not a referrer moving through a campaign journey; the term exists so product-sharing behaviour can be discussed without implying the two-sided brand referral flow.

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See Also

Customer Journeys

Edit the pages and emails referrers and referees move through in the campaign editor.

Sharing

Choose the channels referrers can use to share the offer, set per device, and understand which work best.

Trigger

Set when a campaign runs and which customers are eligible, using eligibility rules and qualifying purchase rules.

Understanding Automatic Enrolment at Post-Purchase

Why customers are enrolled in your programme immediately after purchase by default, and when opt-in enrolment suits you better.
Last modified on September 25, 2026