📚 Introduction
The referral feature is available on the Starter plan and above, and provides a powerful way to drive word-of-mouth growth by rewarding customers for bringing in new business.
This guide is designed to help you launch your referral program as quickly as possible. It’s not a full customization guide — but if you want to start driving referrals right away, this is the fastest way to go live.
💡 Want to make your referral program unique to your brand? We recommend exploring our advanced settings once you're live!
🔄 Referrals pair brilliantly with your Earn & Redeem setup or our StampCard feature — offering even more incentives to stay loyal.
🛠️ Referral Setup (Customer & Friend Rewards)
🧭 Navigation:
Loyalty Program → Referrals → Landing Page
Go to Referral Settings →
⚙️ Setup:
To get started, you'll configure the two referral rewards. To do this we need to press Add Reward on both the customer reward, and friend reward. We're going to be selecting Percentage Discount for both reward types:
Customer Reward
Customer Reward
A 10% discount for the customer who made the referral
A Prefix of REF- for the discount generated who made the referral
Friend Reward
Friend Reward
A 10% discount for the friend being referred
A Prefix of REF- for the discount generated for the friend
No other settings need to be changed — you can keep all defaults to speed through setup.
🚀 You can update the reward types later (e.g. switch to loyalty points, free shipping, or amount-based rewards).
✅ Enabling Your Referral Program
Once both rewards are set up, click enable in the top right corner. Your dashboard should look something like this:
You're now live! 🎉
However, your customers can't use the referral program just yet! We need to get widget content on your site, to make this functional.
📌 Widget Install
In the interest of speed, we'll just be using the floating widget, although you can use one of our other widgets. If you do opt for another widget, like the Full-Page or dedicated referral widget, you'll need to update your Landing Page settings.
🧭 Navigation:
Widgets → Floating Widget
Go to Floating Widget →
⚙️ Setup:
When you click on the floating widget, you'll be greeted with the Widget Editor. Here you can make quick adjustments (like changing this match your brand colors, or brand voice).
Once you're happy with the customisation, press the Install button. The exact steps can differ depending on your platform
Shopify
Shopify
When you press Install you will be taken to the theme customiszer of your current active theme. Here you can enable the Floating Widget app embed, and the widget is live on your site! Just remember to save the changes.
You can also enable this on other themes, just search for the Floating Widget App Embed
BigCommerce
BigCommerce
When you press Install there will be a pop-up to take you to the BigCommerce theme customizer. From here you can drag & drop the floating widget block onto your site
Once this has been done, save the theme and your widget is installed!
Custom
Custom
When you press install, you'll be given the floating widget code block. However the relevant customer data needs to be passed into the code, otherwise we will not be able to display relevant data for your customers.
If you've followed the above steps correctly, you should see something like this on your website! If you've already enabled other sections of the Loyalty Program, or opted for a different widget, it may differ slightly. However, the referral section will be present within whatever widget you've opted for.
When the customer is logged in, they'll see their referral link
📧 Emails
Whilst we could stop now, and have a fully functional referral program, we'll take a few extra minutes to also setup email communication.
🧭 Navigation:
Emails → Emails about Referrals
Go to Emails →
⚙️ Setup:
Friend Receives reward
Friend Receives reward
When your customer referees their friend, they'll be prompted to enter their email. They'll be shown the discount code straight away, but this email will allow you to send them their code directly to your new customer too.
First press edit on the template type. This will open the editor, as seen below
You can change the colours of the button to match your brand colours, or change the email text to better match your brands voice.
To active the email, you need to toggle the status at the top left of the editor.
Customer Receives Reward
Customer Receives Reward
Once the referral has been completed, your customer will be given their reward. This will be present within their widget, for the next time they're on the site, however emailing them with their discount could help encourage them to return slightly quicker!
Again, press edit on the template type & you'll see the editor for the customer reward email.
Make the needed changes to match your brand & set this active using the toggle in the top left.
You can also manage your emails externally to Influence using one of our integrations:
🗺️ Customer Journey
A step-by-step breakdown of what happens — and who sees what — at each stage of the referral flow.
1. 👥 Existing Customer Shares Their Referral Link
The customer is logged into their account on your store
They can view and copy their unique referral link from the widget
They share this link with a friend (via social, email, WhatsApp, or directly)
2. ✉️ Friend Clicks the Link & Gets Their Reward
The friend clicks the referral link and is taken to your Referral Landing Page
They enter their email address
They’re immediately shown a discount code on-screen, and also receive it via email
💡 The referral tracking begins once the friend enters their email — not just when the link is clicked
3. 🛍️ Friend Places an Order
The friend completes a purchase using the discount code they were given
This triggers the referral completion process
4. 🎉 Referring Customer is Rewarded
The referring customer receives an email with their discount code
The reward is also visible in their Available Rewards section within the widget, ready to be redeemed on a future order