How to Set Up Refer a Friend Program in WooCommerce

Home Woocommerce Development How to Set Up Refer a Friend Program in WooCommerce

Every day, in the US, about 2.4 billion brand-related conversations happen between people. To make your brand a part of people’s stories, you need to implement a WooCommerce refer a friend program that encourages people to talk about you.

Referral programs have become really popular, and big companies like Dropbox and Uber have been using these programs to hack their growth.

If you do it right, you can also be one of these success stories.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the process of implementing a WooCommerce refer a friend program on your WooCommerce store.

But before we dig into the technical side, let’s look at some of the basics: What is a referral program, why do you need it, and how does it work?

The Need for a Referral Program WooCommerce

I don’t need any statistics and data to prove how incredibly powerful word-of-mouth marketing is. Asking around and getting recommendations from people we trust is what we are naturally inclined to do when we want to buy something.

On the other side of the spectrum, people are also naturally inclined to talk about the things they like. So, if your customers like your service, they’re going to talk about you.

Word of mouth marketing is, in essence, the natural or ‘organic’ way of marketing.

But there’s a catch.

You treat your customer well and hope that he’ll go out and talk about you. But wait… you didn’t realize that your customer might simply forget to do it!

Don’t let that opportunity slip off your hands just because of someone’s forgetfulness. Go remind that customer to talk about you and share his great ‘happy’ story with his peers.

That’s exactly what a WooCommerce refer a friend program is and why you need it.

With a referral program in place, store owners don’t expect word-of-mouth marketing only to happen naturally. Instead, they use techniques to encourage the customer to share their experience with others.

So, does your online store need a referral plugin program? Of course, it does!

A referral program helps boost sales, increases revenue and profit, and improves customer loyalty and retention. This will ultimately help grow your business.

Unless this is the last thing you care about, a referral program is definitely a must-have for your store.

Also Read: Simple Customer Retention Strategies To Drive Up Profit

How Does a WooCommerce Referral Program Plugin Work

The mechanism is simple: you offer an incentive to your existing customers to refer you to their friends and family.

In most cases, the incentive (a referral reward) can be availed only when the referred person signs up with your business and makes a transaction with you.

To make it even more enticing, the referral reward is offered to both the parties – the existing customer who has referred and the person he has referred to.

It’s like saying: “Hey, I bought such an awesome product from this store that you’ll definitely fall in love with. And if you use the link I am sending here to place your first order; you’ll get a whopping 25% off!”

This referral plugin offers two-fold benefits. They can get recommendations from people they trust and lucrative rewards.

That’s why, when done right, a referral program can be so effective in increasing your store’s sales. 

How To Implement a Referral Program Plugin On your WooCommerce Store

Implementing a referral program on your WooCommerce store is really simple. There are quite a few WooCommerce referral plugins out there, which you can use to get started.

The plugin we are going to use here in this tutorial is the Referral System for WooCommerce plugin, developed by Codup.

What makes this plugin stand out is its integration with the WooCommerce Points and Rewards Referrals Extension. This makes it possible for you to incentivize your customers and their referrals with Loyalty Points as referral rewards instead of the usual discount offers.

The Referral System plugin works both ways – as a standalone referral plugin or as an add-on to the WooCommerce Points and Rewards Extension.

If you use it as a standalone plugin, you can only offer discount rewards – either as a percentage off or a fixed price off.

But if you integrate it with the WooCommerce Points and Rewards Referrals Extension, you can offer loyalty points as referral rewards. This will allow you to set up a WooCommerce referral program in conjunction with your Loyalty Program.

It’s like hitting two birds with one stone. With a referral program, you attract more customers and expand your customer base. And with a loyalty program, you make sure the customers you attract stay loyal to you – improving customer retention.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we are using the second option, i.e. integrating Referral System with WooCommerce Points and Rewards Extension.

Step 1: Install the Referral System for WooCommerce Plugin

To install the plugin, you first need to buy it.

Just follow this link and purchase the WooCommerce referral plugin from here. Once you’re done with all the checkout formalities, you’ll receive a zip file.

Handle this file with care because this contains your key to increasing your sales and revenue. Jokes aside, this zip file simply contains the referral plugin, and you’ll need to upload it on your WordPress site.

So, the next step is to go to your WordPress site and install the plugin there.

Again, this is a simple procedure.

On your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins -> Add New and click on the Upload Plugin button at the top left. Choose the zip file you stored earlier and upload. The plugin will be installed on your site.

After installation, navigate to Plugins -> Installed Plugins to see the list of plugins installed on your site. Search for Referral System for WooCommerce plugin in this list. Click on the ‘Activate’ link to activate the plugin.

Since we’re using this plugin with the Points and Rewards extension, we must install the Points and Rewards extension before proceeding.

Follow this link to buy the WooCommerce Points and Rewards extension and upload, install, and activate it the same way you did before.

Once you’ve done it, please proceed to the next step to set the program up and do its work without you having to worry about anything.

Step 2: Configure the Referral Plugin and Set Up the WooCommerce Refer a Friend Program

Navigate to WooCommerce -> Settings and click on the Referral System tab at the top.

The Settings page will appear where you’ll see different options and checkboxes to select.

To integrate the plugin with the WooCommerce Points and Rewards extension, you need to select the second option here:

integrating woocommerce referral system plugin with loyalty points extension

Note that this option is disabled if you haven’t yet installed and activated the WooCommerce Points and Rewards extension yet. It’s a WooCommerce loyalty points plugin that’s necessary to work.

After selecting this option, you’ll see a prompt that says you have to save the settings on this page.

Before doing so, take a look at the configuration settings just below the message.

setting up woocommerce referral system plugin

These settings let you customize the referral link by selecting the slug type and slug name. The last option here is the most interesting. This option enables you to choose a page where your customers’ referral links redirect users when they click on it.

Here you can select the page you want people to land when they click on the referral link. You can create a beautiful landing page by going to Pages -> Add New. And then choose that landing page from the dropdown menu.

After you’ve done these settings, click on the Save button. Then, follow the link in the prompt message to configure settings for WooCommerce Points and Rewards.

setting up woocommerce refer a friend program

Follow that link to go to the Points and Rewards Settings page.

On the settings page, you’ll see the options and settings for “WooCommerce Referral System Integration – Points Setting”. Under this heading are several options to specify the number of points awarded – both to the referrer and the referee.

configuration settings of woocommerce refer a friend plugin

You can set two types of referral rewards – on sign up and on first purchase.

Just fill in the fields here with the number of points you want to reward.

Below this section are some more settings for the WooCommerce Points and Rewards extension. Here, you can set the redemption rate of points to currency and the reimbursement rate of the currency to points.

There are several different settings below this section as well that will help you set up your loyalty program.

Customize the messages to match the tone and style of your business.

Make sure your loyalty program is in full gear so when you acquire new customers with a referral program, the loyalty program would help to retain them.

See how the Referral System plugin for WooCommerce works: 

Acquire New Customers with WooCommerce Refer a Friend Program

Now, it’s time to share goodness with everyone. Let your customers know about your referral program so they can start referring you to their friends and family and earn loyalty points in return.

Marketing your referral program in the right way is integral to its success. You can send personalized emails to your customers with their referral links embedded. Good copy that conveys the benefits of your program will be really beneficial here.

Reach out to customers through email, SMS, and social media channels and let them know about your loyalty program and referral program.

The Referral System plugin for WooCommerce offers some nice social sharing features, which customers can use to share their referral link with their friends and family via Facebook, Twitter, and Email.

When marketing your referral program, let your customers know where to find their referral link and how to share it using the social sharing buttons. 

Customers can also keep track of their vouchers and reward points earned on their Account Dashboard. Make sure to communicate and let them know about this feature so they can keep track of their rewards and avail them when needed. 

Everyone loves to get discounts and save money. Just tell them how they can, and there is no reason why they won’t.

Get in touch with the experts at CODUP for premium WooCommerce development services.

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Maria Ilyas

A writer by profession, Maria Ilyas is an eCommerce and digital marketing enthusiast and is always digging into the latest marketing trends, best practices, and growth strategies.

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