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

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 request or view 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.

C

Campaign — The set of rules behind a program. A referral campaign defines who can refer, the rewards, and the conditions; 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.

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.

D

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.

E

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.

F

Fraud center — The Bloop area that flags suspicious referral activity — self-referrals, abuse patterns, and risky orders — and holds them for review. See Detect referral fraud with the Fraud center.

M

Minimum requirements — Conditions a referral must meet before a referrer reward is issued: a minimum purchase amount, a minimum number of items, or a minimum number of referees. 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.

P

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 affiliates. See affiliate settings.

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.

R

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 link — A unique URL containing a referrer's share code, best for email, chat, and social sharing. See Choose a referral sharing method.

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.

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, or cash. 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.

S

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.

T

Target audience — The rule that decides who can become a referrer: any customer, logged-in customers, tagged segments, or customers with prior orders. 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

• 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.