Glossary
Terms used in Bloop’s documentation — attribution, cookie window, and the rest — are defined here exactly as Bloop uses them. For a guided overview, start with How Bloop works. For broader industry vocabulary, see the referral program glossary on the blog.
A/B test — A side-by-side comparison of two reward variants within one campaign, split 50/50, to see which converts better. See A/B testing.
Affiliate — An external partner (creator, blogger, publisher) who promotes your store with a unique link and earns a commission on the orders they drive. Affiliates need no prior purchase. See Managing affiliates.
Affiliate portal - The affiliate-facing area where a partner logs in to find their link and coupon, track sales, and view their payouts. See the portal guide.
Attribution — Crediting an order to the right referrer or affiliate. Bloop attributes an order through the share code on a referral, or through the affiliate’s link within the cookie window.
Auto-apply discount — A campaign option that automatically applies an affiliate’s discount to customers who arrive through their link, with no code to enter. See Affiliate campaigns and commissions.
Branding theme — The complete look of one campaign — colours, fonts, copy and custom code across every storefront surface. A campaign holds a library of themes with exactly one applied. See Branding themes.
Campaign — The set of rules behind a program. A referral campaign defines who can refer, the rewards, the branding, the sharing channels and the emails — you can run up to five, and a customer can belong to several at once, with a separate link and code for each. An affiliate campaign defines the commission structure and cookie window. See referral campaigns and affiliate campaigns.
Cash reward — A referrer reward or commission paid manually outside Shopify; Bloop tracks the amount owed. Requires a payment method on your account. See referrer rewards.
Commission — The amount an affiliate earns on a qualifying order, calculated as a percentage, a flat amount per order, or a flat amount per item. See Affiliate campaigns and commissions.
Contacts - The store-wide list of the customers who joined as referrers, across all campaigns, with search and a Campaign filter. A campaign’s own Referrers view shows only the people in that campaign, with their invites, successful referrals and revenue. See Contacts.
Cookie window (attribution window) — How long after an affiliate click a purchase still counts for that affiliate. Bloop’s default is 30 days, set per campaign. See Affiliate campaigns and commissions.
Custom reward — A referrer reward you fulfil yourself — early access, a gift, anything Bloop can’t issue automatically. Bloop tracks who earned it and tells them; delivering it is on you. See referrer rewards.
Discount coupon — A Shopify discount code used as a reward or shared by an affiliate. As a referrer reward it can be a fixed amount or percentage; affiliates can share one alongside their link. See referrer rewards.
EPC (earnings per click) — Total commission divided by clicks — how much an affiliate earns per click on average. Useful for comparing affiliate performance across different traffic volumes.
Expiry (valid period) — An optional limit that makes a reward code unavailable a set number of days after it is created. Bloop sends a reminder before a code expires. See referrer rewards.
FlexiTiers — Referral reward tiers: the referrer reward grows as they hit new milestones, each tier carrying its own type, value and conditions. See FlexiTiers.
Fraud center: The Bloop area that flags suspicious referral activity (self-referrals, shared IPs, unusual volume) and holds the reward for 14 days while you review. Its Detection rules also hold fraud prevention, the IP and browser checks that block a self-referral outright before it becomes a case. See Detect referral fraud with the Fraud center.
Free product reward — A referrer or referee reward that gives a specific product at no cost, redeemed at checkout. See referrer rewards.
Minimum requirements - A condition on a reward: a minimum purchase amount or a minimum number of items, which the reward code checks at checkout, or a minimum number of referees, which decides when a referrer reward is issued. Only the referee count holds back the reward itself, and the other two do not apply to store credit or cash. See referrer rewards.
Minimum referees — Issues the referrer reward only after a set number of successful referees, in cycles (for example at referee #5, #10, #15). See referrer rewards.
Payment method — How you pay affiliates or cash rewards (for example bank transfer, PayPal). You enable and configure methods, and they define the fields collected from the recipient. Set affiliate methods in affiliate settings, and referral cash methods in Referral → Settings → Payment method.
Payout — A recorded payment of an affiliate’s approved, unpaid commission. Recording a payout moves the amount from outstanding balance into payment history. See Affiliate payouts.
Pending (affiliate status) — The status of an affiliate who has self-registered but not yet been approved. Pending affiliates cannot earn until approved. See Managing affiliates.
Referee — The friend a referrer invites — a new customer who uses a referral link or code to claim a discount on their first order. See Set up referrer and referee rewards.
Referee reward — The incentive a referee receives for using a referral, typically a discount on their first purchase. See referrer and referee rewards.
Referral code — A short code a referrer can type or say, useful for word-of-mouth and offline channels. See Choose a referral sharing method.
Referral hub — The signed-in page where a referrer finds their link and code, tracks their referrals, and sees every reward they’ve earned. See Referral hub.
Referral link — A unique URL containing a referrer’s share code, best for email, chat, and social sharing. See Choose a referral sharing method.
Referrer — An existing customer who shares a referral link or code with friends and earns a reward once a referee makes a qualifying purchase. See The referral journey.
Referrer reward — What a referrer earns after their referee’s qualifying purchase: a discount coupon, store credit, cash, a free product, or a custom reward you fulfil yourself. See referrer rewards.
Review period — A delay, in hours, before a referrer reward is approved. Set to 0 for instant approval; suspicious orders are held separately. See referrer rewards.
Revoke: Taking back an already-issued reward or commission because the order behind it was cancelled or fully refunded. For referral rewards, a refund of 90% or more of the order’s item value counts as a full refund. Bloop never revokes a reward the referrer has already used, or a commission already paid out. A partial refund on an affiliate order does not revoke the commission; if the sale is not yet paid out, Bloop recalculates it on the amount the customer kept. See reward revocation.
Sale — An order Bloop records and attributes to an affiliate, from which it calculates the commission. Sales are reviewed and approved before payout. See Affiliate sales tracking.
Share code — The unique 8-character code assigned to each referrer, carried inside their referral link and used to attribute referred orders. See Choose a referral sharing method.
Store credit — A referrer reward applied directly to the customer’s Shopify account, useful for pulling repeat buyers back for another order. See referrer rewards.
Target audience — The rule that decides who can join a referral campaign: everyone, logged-in customers, or one or more Shopify customer segments — with segments you can explicitly exclude. See Set your referral target audience.
Two-sided reward — The structure of every Bloop referral: one reward for the referee and one for the referrer, with the referrer paid only after a qualifying purchase. See How Bloop works.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- New here? Start with How Bloop works.
- Follow a term through the customer experience in The referral journey or The affiliate journey.
- Find where each setting lives in Platform navigation.