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Migrating to the New Referrals Program
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Goals and Outcomes
In April 2024, we launched a new and improved referrals program. All active Shopify accounts must transition to the new referrals program starting December 20, 2024. The old referrals program will be gradually deprecated in the coming months.
Who needs to migrate:
Merchants who joined Yopto Loyalty & Referrals Free and Pro plans before April 2024.
Merchants who joined Yopto Loyalty & Referrals Premium and Enterprise plans before September 2024.
Important
Your program will be automatically deactivated if you don’t migrate to the new referrals program before the old version is deprecated. This means your customers won’t be able to refer new friends, and all active incomplete referrals will be canceled.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the migration process and help you activate your new referrals program.
Setup Process Overview
The migration process consists of three steps:
Edit your referral widgets
Update referral communications
Configure the new referral program settings
Let’s review each step below:
1. Edit Your Referral Widgets
To start activating the new referrals program:
Click the Start setup button in the banner at the top of your Loyalty admin interface.
Alternatively, go to Navigation Bar > Display On-site > Referrals (New).
This page displays your new referrals program widgets, ready for customization. To ensure a seamless shopper experience, align the new widgets as closely as possible with your current ones, so customers who interacted with the old program see a consistent design.
Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to update the design and configuration of your program after activation. However, for a smooth transition, it’s recommended to match the settings of the two programs during this phase.
Important
The new referrals program widgets will appear on your store only after you’ve activated the new program. Until then, their status will show “pending program activation.”
The Refer Friends Widget
Use the existing Refer Friends widget, you don’t have to create a new one.
Follow these steps:
Click Edit on the Refer Friends widget.
Update the widget’s configuration (Layout, Text & Share settings, and General Look & Feel) to align with your current program settings.
For example, ensure the rewards (e.g., $5 off for both the referring customer and referred friend) are reflected in the widget’s content to provide a seamless transition for customers.
Click Save. If the widget is part of your Rewards Page and you embedded it as a full page, it will update automatically after program activation.
If you have a dedicated Refer Friends page and/or embedded its code by section as part of your Rewards Page, click Copy code and follow the instructions:
Open Shopify and go to Themes.
From the three-dot menu on your theme, click Edit code.
Locate the Rewards Page with the Refer Friends widget and click on it.
Click the Show HTML icon, paste the new code under the existing code, and click Save.
Important: The existing code is your current widget. Keep it in your theme until the new program is activated. Once activated, only the new widget will appear in your store, and you can safely delete the old code (not mandatory).
If you need help adding the Refer Friends widget code to your Shopify theme, please contact the Yotpo team for assistance.
The Referral Welcome Popup Widget
Now, let’s edit the Referral Welcome Popup widget:
Click Edit on the Referral Welcome Popup widget.
Update the general appearance and text design to match your current program settings. This is an important step to ensure a seamless experience for your customers while transitioning to the new program.
For example, ensure the rewards ($5 off for the referring customer and referred friend) are reflected in the widget’s content.
Click Save.
Learn more about adding referral widgets to your Shopify store.
2. Update Referral Communications
In addition to the widgets, you’ll also need to configure your referral communication flows before activating the program. The new referrals program supports the following ESPs and webhooks:
Yotpo SMS & Email – If you use Yotpo SMS & Email as your ESP, your existing referral flows will automatically support the new program, and no further action is required. After activating the program, you can review and adjust the flows as needed. Learn more about the available communication flows in our Managing Loyalty & Referrals Customer Communication guide.
Klaviyo – If you use Klaviyo as your ESP, please follow the steps in our guide on Setting up Klaviyo for Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals. You’ll need to set up and customize the new V2 flows, which are designed for the updated referral program. If you have a Customer Success Manager, you can reach out to them to help set up the new flows.
Important
The old flows won’t work with the new program, so make sure to use the new flows (under Core Emails). You can still keep the old flows active to ensure a smooth experience for shoppers, no matter where the referral process started.
Webhooks – Learn more about the new Referral Link Share and Referral Completed webhooks.
3. Configure Your New Referrals Program
After you’ve updated your referral widgets and communication flows, it’s time to set up your new program settings. To do that, click Continue to program settings.
The system automatically transfers your old program settings to the new one. Your task is to review these settings, make any necessary adjustments, and configure the new options.
This will open all program settings, divided by sections.
Review the Friend and Referring Customer Rewards
Start by reviewing the reward settings for both the friend and the referring customer. In the new referral program, you can offer custom discounts, points, fixed-amount, and percentage-based rewards. We will migrate your rewards from the old program.
Note
If you use a custom discount in the old program, clicking on Activate Program will migrate all your available codes from your existing program. The number here will update automatically, and past referrals won’t be affected.
Tip
We recommend keeping the same rewards for referring customers and referred friends as in your current program to ensure a seamless transition. For example, if your current program offers $10 off to the referring customer and $10 off to the referred friend, retain these settings in the new program.
Configure the Program Requirements
Make sure to review all program requirement settings, starting with the minimum purchase amount.
Minimum purchase amount – Set a minimum purchase amount that the friend must spend for the referrer to earn a reward. Leave blank to reward the referring customer regardless of the order total.
How it works: The minimum purchase amount includes the coupon value. For example, if the minimum is $25 and the friend uses a $5 coupon, the referring customer still earns the reward, even if the final cart total is $20.
Additional settings: You can also define if the friend must meet this minimum to use their coupon:
Recommended: The friend must meet the same minimum to apply the coupon.
No minimum: The friend can use the coupon with no minimum spend. In this case, the Referral Welcome Popup widget will display 0 for the minimum spend. We recommend removing the {{min_spend}} placeholder if no minimum is set, to avoid confusion.
Login and verification (available for Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans only)
Referring customers login: You can require referring customers to log in before making a referral. If enabled, this will add a section in the Referral Share widget asking customers to log in.
Friend email verification: You can require referred friends to verify their emails to get a reward. If enabled, the friend must enter the 6-digit verification code that will be sent to their email to unlock their referral reward.
More settings – It’s now easier to add and manage UTM parameters.
Default UTMs: There are three pre-configured UTMs. The parameters cannot be changed, but you can edit their corresponding values.
Custom UTMs have been moved to a separate section where you can enter up to five unique UTM parameters and values, which will have no impact on the default UTMs. Learn more about UTM parameters.
Customize Fraud Prevention Settings
There are several new and improved settings to help prevent abuse of the program:
Limit the program to new customers – Rewards won’t apply if the referred friend’s email is associated with a previous purchase. However, this new setting lets you add an exception if the first purchase occurred more than 1, 2, or 3 years ago. This is a great way to re-engage inactive customers and encourage them to return to your store. By default, the option is disabled.
Prevent self-referrals – With the new “Check for similarities” option, you can detect up to 80% similarities between referring customer and friend emails to prevent fraud. For example, if “loyalty@yotpo.com” refers “loyalty+1@yotpo.com,” this referral will be blocked because it is a sub-address of the referring email. By default, this setting is off.
Blocked domains – Restrict participation in the referral program from certain domains or subdomains. You can add an unlimited number of blocked domains. All blocked domains from your old program will be automatically merged into the new program, and you can continue adding new ones. Learn more about blocked domains.
If a referral link is disabled, you can manually activate it through the Customer profile page. Go to Customers > Customer profile > Manage referral link.
Note
If you remove a dynamic variable (e.g. {{friend_reward}}) in a widget and replace it with a custom value (e.g. $10), any updates made in the program settings will not automatically reflect in the widget. Since the dynamic variable has been removed, you’ll need to manually update the widget to match the changes.
We recommend checking that your program settings and widget text are aligned.
After you’ve adjusted all settings, click Activate program. This will open a popup with a summary of what will happen after you activate the program. Click the Activate program button to finalize the process.
Congratulations! Your new referrals program is now live. If you encounter any issues, please contact Yotpo Support.
After You Activate the Program
Once you activate the new referrals program:
All new settings and widgets will replace the existing pages in your Loyalty & Referrals admin.
The new Refer Friends and Referral Welcome Popup widgets will replace the current widgets on your store.
Important
Referred friends will still get their reward, even if they received the referral link before the new program was activated.
The new referral communication flows you’ve set up will replace the old flows.
You’ll gain access to enhanced reporting tools, including the new Referral Activity and Link Summary reports, as well as the new Referrals Dashboard. Legacy reports will remain available to compare the performance of your old program with the new one.
Note
Merchants using the Fetch Customer Details V2 API will notice the referral code parameter response is now significantly shorter.