FAQ: Do affiliates earn commission when using their own referral links and codes?
Whether or not you allow affiliates to earn commissions on their own orders is a key policy decision for your program. By default, Self-Referrals are enabled, but you can easily restrict this to ensure commissions are only paid on external customer acquisitions.
How to Manage Self-Referral Settings
If you want to prevent affiliates from receiving "cash back" on their personal shopping through their own referral links, follow these steps:
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Access App Settings. From your main merchant dashboard, navigate to Settings in the side menu.
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Go to the Referrals Section. Select the "Referrals" tab within the settings menu.
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Adjust the Toggle. Locate the setting labeled "Self-referrals."
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Enabled: Affiliates will earn commissions if they use their own link or code to make a purchase.
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Disabled: The system checks if the order belongs to the affiliate's own Shopify customer account and will not generate a referral for that transaction.
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Important Rules to Remember
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Customer Matching: The "Self-Referral" check compares the Shopify customer of the order with the affiliate's own customer account. If the order belongs to the affiliate's customer account, the referral is blocked.
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Existing Referrals: Changing this setting is not retroactive. If you disable self-referrals today, any self-referrals that were already recorded in your system will remain there; only future attempts will be blocked.
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Complementary Strategy: For the most robust protection, we recommend combining this setting with the "Non-Affiliate Customer Segment" restriction in Shopify to prevent affiliate codes from even being applied at checkout.
What Happens When Disabled?
When an affiliate attempts a self-referral while the setting is disabled:
The sale will process normally in Shopify.
Simple Affiliate will detect that the order belongs to the affiliate's own customer account.
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No referral record will be created in the app, and no commission will be added to the affiliate's "Owed" balance.
What Happens Next?
Once you’ve updated your preference, it's a good idea to update your Affiliate Program Terms & Conditions to clearly state whether self-referrals are permitted. This prevents confusion if an affiliate notices a personal purchase didn't trigger a commission.