All Collections
Launching a Referral Program
Launching a referral program for my Shopify store
How can I prevent Boosters from referring themselves? (Shopify)
How can I prevent Boosters from referring themselves? (Shopify)

Learn how to manage self-referrals when running a referral program for your eCommerce store

Kickbooster Team avatar
Written by Kickbooster Team
Updated over a week ago

Although the thought of Affiliates earning rewards for "referring" themselves can sound concerning to some, it's actually very common that we see Merchants encouraging this. For this reason, Kickbooster allow Merchants to decide how they want to handle self-referrals.

In this article, you will learn how Kickbooster can help you take steps to prevent these types of referrals.


How can Kickbooster detect a self referral?

Kickbooster will look for the following information to detect self referrals:

  • Affiliate and Customer share the same email address

  • Affiliate registered through Post-Purchase Pop-Up and their address matches their "referred" customer's address

  • Affiliate's IP address matches the Customer's IP address

If any of these statements are true, Kickbooster assumes the Affiliate and Customer are the same person.


How can I manage self-referrals?

1.) Head to your Reward settings and scroll down to "Handle Self-Referrals

2.) Choose whether you want Kickbooster to automatically reject all detected self-referrals, or if you want to review them within the referral review period you have set.


Reviewing self-referrals vs. Auto-rejecting self-referrals

If you choose to review self-referrals, Kickbooster will display the detected orders in your 'Actions' table, and you will have the ability to approve or deny them within the referral review period.  

Note: If you do not approve/deny the referral within this period, Kickbooster will automatically approve it.

If you choose to auto-reject self-referrals, Kickbooster will automatically void commissions for any orders that we detect as being self-referred. You still have the ability to review and approve them if you wish. 

Note: Affiliates that register to your referral program through Kickbooster's Marketplace are considered new customers, therefore self-referrals from these Affiliates will always be accepted. 


Why would I want to allow Affiliates to earn rewards for their own purchases?

How you want to handle self-referrals is completely up to you.

In our experience, Merchants who encourage it are generally leveraging their referral program to motivate more sales (e.g. "purchase through your Kickbooster link, get 10% cash-back!). 

Another example is when a Merchant wants their influencer marketers to purchase more product to write about and share on their social media, and are therefore happy for them to get a kick-back on their purchases.



A word of advice

Regardless of how you choose to handle self-referrals, we recommend ensuring that your referral reward and discounts are set in a way that your business still benefits from every purchase made. 

Did this answer your question?