Designing Your Offer
Once you have chosen a reward type, the offer is everything wrapped around it: whether you reward one side or both, what a referee has to do to qualify, and how long the reward stays valid. The short answer for most Shopify stores: run a double-sided offer, add a minimum purchase requirement only if you have a margin reason to, and give rewards a gentle expiry to create urgency without punishing genuine customers. This article explains those choices, then links the Bloop settings that apply them.
The offer is where generosity meets guardrails. Too loose and you pay for low-value or abusive referrals; too strict and you suppress the shares you were trying to encourage. The goal is the lightest set of conditions that still protects your margin.
Single-sided vs double-sided
The first decision is who gets rewarded.
Double-sided
Both the referrer and the referee get a reward
Almost every store — it gives the referrer something to talk about and the friend a reason to act
Single-sided (referrer only)
Only the existing customer earns
Stores where the product sells itself and the friend needs no incentive
Single-sided (referee only)
Only the new customer is discounted
Pure acquisition pushes where you are not trying to reward advocacy
Default to double-sided. A referrer-only offer asks customers to recommend you while their friend gets nothing, which makes the pitch awkward; a referee-only offer is really just a discount channel, not a referral program. In Bloop each side has its own Reward status toggle, so you can switch to single-sided by turning one off.
Minimum requirements: only when margin demands it
A minimum requirement decides what a referral must achieve before the referrer reward is issued. Bloop offers four options: none, minimum purchase amount, minimum quantity of items, and a minimum number of referees.
None is the right default. Every extra condition costs you some conversions, so add one only to solve a real problem.
Minimum purchase amount protects margin when a referee could otherwise claim a generous reward on a tiny order. Set it just above the point where the order becomes profitable.
Minimum quantity of referees rewards in cycles — at the 5th, 10th, 15th successful referee, for example — which suits programs aimed at a few high-output advocates rather than broad word of mouth.
Between thresholds, a referrer on the minimum-referees option gets a "not enough referrals yet" notification instead of a reward, so be transparent about the rule in your messaging.
Expiry: urgency without resentment
Reward codes can be set to never expire or to lapse after a set number of days. A reward that never expires loses its nudge; one that expires too fast frustrates customers who were ready to buy.
For most stores, a valid period in the range of a few weeks creates useful urgency.
Bloop sends a reminder email before a code expires, so set the window long enough that the reminder has time to land and be acted on.
For high-ticket or considered purchases, lean toward a longer window — the decision itself takes time.
Match the offer to who can refer
Your offer and your audience rule work together. A wide-open audience paired with a rich, no-minimum reward is the combination most exposed to abuse; a tighter audience lets you be more generous safely. Decide the two together rather than in isolation — see Set your referral target audience for the eligibility options.
Set it up in Bloop
Apply the offer shape, minimums, and expiry in Set up referrer and referee rewards.
Set who is allowed to refer in Target audience.
For ideas on structuring multi-step or milestone offers, see multi-step referral rewards.
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