To set up a refer a friend program in WooCommerce, Affiliate and Referral Program for WooCommerce includes a complete customer referral module: ordinary customers share a personal link, the friend gets a discount at checkout, and the referrer earns store credit they can turn into coupons. It runs alongside your affiliate program but is a separate system with its own settings, rewards and dashboard — affiliates use the affiliate program; everyone else can refer friends. Part of the plugin documentation.
Turn the program on
↑ Back to top- Go to: WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Customer Referral > Settings.
- Turn on Enable Customer Referral System.
- Set the two rewards (next section) and Save Changes.
A floating Refer & Earn button now appears on your storefront for every visitor who is not an affiliate — logged in or not. Prefer to place the button yourself? Turn on Enable Referral button shortcode — the floating button is replaced by the [rtwapwcm_cust_ref_button] shortcode, which you can put on any page. The button’s Background Color and Text Color are configurable on the same screen.
Set the two-sided rewards
↑ Back to top- Customer Commission Type and Customer Commission Amount – what the referrer earns as store credit when a referred friend’s order completes. Percentage or Fixed, calculated on the friend’s order total.
- Friends Discount Type and Friends Discount Amount – the discount the friend gets at checkout for arriving through a referral link. Percentage or Fixed, applied to the cart’s product subtotal.
The two rewards use different bases: the referrer’s credit is calculated on the friend’s order total, while the friend’s discount applies to the cart subtotal — keep that in mind when you balance the two amounts.
What your customers see
↑ Back to topClicking Refer & Earn opens a small panel that asks for an email address; Get Referral Link then displays the customer’s personal referral link with a Copy Link button. The friend opens the link, shops, and sees the discount in their cart. After the order, the referrer’s credit appears in their referral dashboard — a tab in My Account showing their credit balance, referral link, referral history, and a coupon generator that converts credit into a store coupon.
Approve referral rewards
↑ Back to topReferred orders appear under WooCommerce > Affiliate & Referral > Customer Referral, where you approve or decline each reward. To skip the manual step, set Customer Referral Automation to Completed or Processing — rewards then approve themselves when the friend’s order reaches that status, and the referrer’s credit is available immediately.
From store credit to a coupon
↑ Back to topReferrers spend their balance by generating a coupon from the referral dashboard. The coupon is locked to the customer’s own email address and is single-use — if the order it is used on comes to less than the coupon’s value, the remainder is carried back into a fresh coupon automatically, so no credit is lost.
Keep it separate from your affiliate program
↑ Back to topThe separation is enforced by the plugin: affiliates do not see the Refer & Earn button, customer store credit is a separate balance from the affiliate wallet, and the customer program’s referral link uses its own slug (Slug in Customer Referral Link, default rtwapwcm_cust). If you are looking for the feature where the affiliate’s referred customer gets a checkout discount, that is Two-Way Commission — part of the affiliate program, not this module.
The customer program has no minimum-order requirement, no reward cap, and no self-referral prevention — a customer using their own link is rewarded. If your margins are tight, factor that into the reward amounts you choose.
FAQ
↑ Back to topCan a customer be in both programs?
↑ Back to topA customer who becomes an affiliate switches tracks: they use the affiliate dashboard and earn commissions, and the Refer & Earn button no longer shows for them. Their referral rewards do not merge with affiliate earnings.
When does the referrer receive their credit?
↑ Back to topWhen you approve the referral — or, with Customer Referral Automation on, as soon as the friend’s order reaches the chosen status.
Can customers spend credit directly at checkout?
↑ Back to topNo — credit is spent by generating a coupon from the referral dashboard and applying that coupon to an order.