Add a customer referral program to your digital products store

A referral program in ScaleEdges lets your customers recommend your products to their friends with a personal discount code. The friend gets a discount on their purchase, and once they buy, the customer who referred them automatically receives the same discount on that product. You turn it on in Marketing → Referrals, and it is included in every plan.

What is a referral program and why launch one?

A referral program rewards customers for bringing new buyers. Recommendations from a friend are among the most trusted sources of information before a purchase, and each new customer arrives with a discount that encourages them to buy.

A referral program helps you:

reach new buyers through people who already trust your work;
lower your acquisition cost, since you only give a discount when a sale happens;
reward your existing customers with a discount they earn by sharing;
grow word of mouth without managing codes by hand.

How does the ScaleEdges referral program work?

A customer creates a code. On the Referrals page of your store, a signed-in customer chooses a product and enters a friend's email address. ScaleEdges generates a personal code, such as FRIEND-4F9A21C3.
The friend buys with the code. The friend enters the code at checkout and gets the discount on that product.
The referrer is rewarded. As soon as the friend's purchase is confirmed, ScaleEdges creates a reward code for the referrer, such as THANKS-8B20D71E, with the same discount on the same product. It appears in the referrer's library on your store.

Both codes are protected: each one works once, only for the chosen product, and only with the email address it was created for. A customer cannot refer themselves.

How do you create a referral program?

Open Marketing → Referrals.
Turn on Enable referrals. This creates the /referrals page on your store and makes it available in the Website Builder.
Set the Default discount for both people, as a percentage. It is 10% by default and applies to every paid product unless you add an exception.
In Product availability and exceptions, choose a Rule for each product if needed:

Use default: the product uses the default discount;
Custom percentage: enter a specific discount for this product;
Not eligible: the product cannot be referred.

Select Save referral program.

Only paid, published, public products can be referred. Free and unlisted products are never offered on the Referrals page.

Choose a discount that feels generous to the friend and worthwhile to the referrer. For digital products, 10% to 25% is a common range. Since the referrer earns the same discount, each successful referral costs you at most two discounts on one product, and brings you a new customer.

How do customers find your referral page?

Your referral page is published at /referrals on your store:

on the ScaleEdges domain: scaleedges.com/c/your-store/referrals;
on your custom domain: yourdomain.com/referrals.

Make it easy to find:

Add it to your menu. Open the Website Builder, select your header, open Navigation links and add a link with the text Refer a friend and the URL /referrals.
Mention it after purchase, in your product content or your thank-you messages.
Promote it in your emails, for example in an automation sent a few days after a purchase. See Email campaigns and automations.

What do your customers see?

The customer opens the Referrals page of your store and signs in to their library, so the future reward can be linked to their account.
They select Refer a friend on a product card. The Share this product window opens. You can change the button label in the Website Builder.
They enter Your friend's email address and select Create code.
The Code ready to share window shows the code, with a button to copy it.
They send the code to their friend however they like: message, email or social networks.

Each customer can create up to 20 referral codes per day. If they create a code again for the same friend and product, ScaleEdges shows the existing code instead of generating a new one.

How do you track referral codes and rewards?

In Marketing → Referrals, open Generated referral codes to see every code: the friend codes shared by your customers and the reward codes earned by referrers. For each code, the table shows its Type, the Product / customer, the Discount and its Status.

To stop a code, select Cancel on its line, then Cancel code. It stops working immediately.

How do you pause or stop the program?

Turn off Enable referrals and select Save referral program. The Referrals page is no longer available, and customers can no longer create new codes. You can turn the program back on at any time.

Frequently asked questions about referral programs

Is the referral program included in the free plan?

Yes. Loyalty and referral programs are included in every ScaleEdges plan, including Starter. See Pricing.

Does the referrer need to have bought the product?

No. Any customer signed in to their library on your store can create a code for an eligible product. The referrer is only rewarded when the friend actually buys.

Can the friend use the code on another product?

No. Each friend code is valid only on the product it was created for, and only with the friend's email address.

What is the difference between referrals and affiliates?

Referrals reward customers with discounts for bringing friends. Affiliates are partners who promote your products and earn a commission on sales. See How to create an affiliate program in ScaleEdges.

Can I run a referral program and a loyalty program at the same time?

Yes. They work independently: referrals reward bringing new customers, and the loyalty program rewards repeat purchases.