What are single-use discount codes?

Single-use discount codes give each referred customer a unique one-time code, so an affiliate's discount doesn't leak to coupon sites. Instead of one reusable Shopify code that anyone can share, each customer claims a unique code after opening an affiliate's referral link. They need the Pro or Premium plan, and they're not available for country or variant discounts.

Why they stop leakage

A standard discount code is reusable. Anyone who types it at checkout gets the discount and the affiliate earns commission, including shoppers who found it on a coupon site. That is leakage: the discount is no longer limited to people the affiliate actually sent.

A single-use code is created when the customer claims it from the referral-link visit. The affiliate's reserved name is not a working Shopify code, so a leaked name does nothing. A claimed code works once for one customer, and it expires after the conversion window of the group, counted from the claim.

Set them up

1. Turn on discount codes for the group. If the discount code rule is not already Active, follow How to enable discount codes and set discount rules.
2. Open the group and go to the Discounts tab.
3. Under Discount code type, choose Single-use discount codes.
4. Save. If the group already used standard codes, confirm the switch: Simple Affiliate deactivates those Shopify codes, and the names stay reserved if you switch back.
5. Check that Simple Affiliate Tracker is on and saved in your theme's App embeds. The claim popup runs in the tracker. The steps are in How to enable the Simple Affiliate tracker.

Test it

1. Open a referral link of an affiliate in this group.
2. Accept cookies if your store shows a consent banner. The claim popup needs the customer's consent.
3. Click Claim on the popup, or Reject to close it.
4. Go to checkout. The unique code, which starts with the affiliate's code name, is already applied.

The steps with screenshots are in How to set up single-use discount codes.

When to keep standard codes

Keep Standard discount codes when affiliates are supposed to publish a reusable code on purpose: print, packaging, or a public offer. Choose single-use when you want the discount only for customers who opened the affiliate's referral link.