The referral program lets you reward both loyal customers and their friends with incentives that are easy to set up and customize. You can update or change referral rewards at any time as your program evolves.
Available referral reward types
When adding a referral reward, you can choose from the following reward types depending on whether the reward is for the referring customer or their friend.
Referring customer reward options:
Amount discount (for example, $10 off)
Percentage off (for example, 10% off)
Free shipping
Free product
Gift card
Points
Referred friend reward options:
Amount discount (for example, $10 off)
Percentage off (for example, 10% off)
Free shipping
Free product
ℹ️ Note: It’s not possible to offer points as a reward to the referred friend, as they don’t yet have an account to receive points.
Add referral rewards
To set up referral rewards, you’ll create one reward for the referring customer (an existing customer in your loyalty program) and another for the referred friend (a new customer who has never placed an order on your store).
To add referral rewards:
From Smile Admin, navigate to Program > Referrals.
In the Referring customer reward card, click Add reward.
Choose a reward you'd like to offer the referring customer.
Click Save.
In the Referred friend reward card, click Add reward.
Choose a reward you'd like to offer the referred friend.
Click Save.
✅ Tip: Smile recommends offering both the referring customer and referred friend rewards of equal value to encourage participation for both customers.
Modify a referral reward value
If you want to keep an existing referral reward but change the reward value, you can edit it:
From Smile Admin, navigate to Program > Referrals.
In the Referring customer reward card, click Edit.
In the Reward value section, change the points or discount value.
Click Save.
Repeat these steps in the Referred friend reward card to modify the friend’s reward.
ℹ️ Note: This option only lets you change the value of the existing reward. To switch to a different reward type (for example, from a fixed discount like $10 off to a 10% discount), you must delete the current reward and add a new one.
Change a referral reward
If a referral reward already exists, you won’t see other reward types until the current reward is deleted. For example, to switch from $10 off to 10% off, delete the existing reward and then add a new one.
To change the reward:
From Smile Admin, navigate to Program > Referrals.
In the Referring customer reward card, click Change.
In the warning message, click Delete reward. This action cannot be undone.
In the Referring customer reward card, click Add reward.
Choose a reward you'd like to offer the referring customer.
Click Save.
Repeat these steps in the Referred friend reward card to change the friend’s reward.
ℹ️ Note for BigCommerce users: On BigCommerce, Smile completes referrals based on the first order made by the referred friend. If the first synced order is incomplete — for example, if the customer navigated away from billing during checkout or the payment was declined— Smile will not complete the referral after a later successful order. If this occurs, we recommend manually awarding the referring customer with their reward.