Best practices: choosing the right referral reward

The reward you offer is one of the biggest levers on whether your referral program spreads, so decide it on purpose rather than copying a competitor. The short answer: match the reward type to how often your customers buy, and set the combined value below your profit on a referred order so every successful referral stays profitable. This article walks through how to make that decision for your store, then points you to the Bloop settings that put it live.

A Bloop referral has two rewards, and they do different jobs. The referee reward lowers the barrier for a new customer to try you, so it has to feel worth acting on. The referrer reward thanks an existing customer for the introduction, so it has to feel worth the small social risk of recommending you. Tuning both is the work; this page is about the strategy behind the numbers you eventually type into the rewards settings.

Start from your repeat-purchase pattern

The reward type should follow how customers buy from you, not what looks generous on a landing page.

Store credit pulls a customer back for another order, so it suits stores people buy from often. It also keeps the reward inside your store, which protects cash.
A percentage or fixed discount carries more weight when purchases are rare or one-off, because credit toward a “someday” order feels weak.
Cash is the strongest signal for high-ticket or infrequent purchases, where neither credit nor a discount feels worth a recommendation. Like a custom reward, it is tracked but not settled automatically, so plan to process it by hand.
A free product puts something from your own catalogue in the referrer’s hands, which costs you your unit cost rather than a slice of revenue. It works best when the product is a natural add-on to what they already buy — a sample, a refill, an accessory.
A custom reward — early access, swag, a service, anything outside your catalogue — thanks a referrer without any discount at all, which suits premium brands wary of markdowns. Bloop tracks who earned it and tells them; delivering it is on you.

Recommended rewards by industry

There is no universal right answer. Use the table as a starting point, then refine against your own margins.

Industry	Buying pattern	Suggested referrer reward	Suggested referee reward
Fashion & apparel	Frequent, impulse-driven	Store credit toward the next order	Percentage off the first order
Subscription	Recurring, retention-led	Store credit or a free billing cycle	Discount on the first cycle
Beauty & cosmetics	Repeat, habit-forming	Store credit to encourage restocking	Fixed amount off a trial-sized first order
Electronics & high-ticket	Infrequent, considered	Cash or a meaningful fixed amount	Fixed amount off the first purchase
Food & beverage	Low margin, high frequency	Modest store credit	Small percentage or a free add-on

The thread running through every row: high-frequency stores benefit from store credit because it loops customers back, while infrequent high-ticket stores often need cash or a sizeable fixed amount to feel worth a recommendation.

Position the reward, not just its price

The same value can read as a thank-you or as a markdown depending on how you frame it. Store credit framed as a “treat” or “thank-you” feels like a gift and keeps spend inside your store, while a raw percentage discount can read as just another sale. Tying the reward to a clear reason — “because you brought us a friend” — makes even a discount feel earned. And scale the reward to the ask: a one-tap share needs only a light nudge, while asking for a bigger commitment justifies a larger reward.

Set a value you cannot lose money on

The safe rule is simple: the referrer reward plus the referee reward should stay below the profit you make on a referred order. A referral that costs you more than it earns is a slow leak, even when conversion looks healthy.

Estimate the gross profit on a typical first order from a new customer.
Subtract the referee discount, which comes off that first order directly.
Whatever profit remains is your ceiling for the referrer reward.

If that ceiling is uncomfortably tight, lean on store credit for the referrer side — it is redeemed against a future order, so its real cost is your margin on that order, not its face value.

Be cautious with minimum-spend conditions on the reward: a “spend over X” string can make the offer feel like a sales push and suppress sharing, so weigh it against the margin it actually protects (see designing your offer). As your program grows, watch reward value too — an oversized reward on a very wide audience can start attracting sign-ups chasing the payout rather than customers who genuinely love you.

Decide where the reward applies

A reward only works if it is easy to use. In Bloop, discount, free-product and store-credit rewards settle automatically inside Shopify, while cash and custom rewards are tracked for you to handle manually — and cash needs a payment method configured in Referral → Settings → Payment method before you can settle it. If predictable, hands-off operation matters more than maximum motivation, prefer the automatic types and reserve cash for high-ticket programs where it genuinely moves the needle.

Set it up in Bloop

Once you have chosen a type and value:

Referee reward settings

Configure both sides in Set up referrer and referee rewards: reward type, value, minimum requirements, and expiry.
Set the review period for the whole store in Referral → Settings → Reward review period. It applies to every campaign, not to a single reward. See Reward Timing & Revocation.
Decide how referrers share that reward in Referral methods.
Once you have enough referral traffic to compare fairly, pit two reward variants against each other in A/B testing before rolling one out to everyone.
If one reward for everyone is too blunt, grow it with the referrer instead — FlexiTiers raise the reward at each milestone — or run a second campaign with a richer offer for a segment worth it.
Mind the wording: “your friend gets 20% off too” lands better than “earn a reward”.
For worked examples of incentive ideas across stores, see the best referral incentives.