Why aren't referred orders showing up?

Most missing link referrals happen because the Simple Affiliate tracker is off. Turn on Simple Affiliate Tracker in your theme's App embeds, click Save, then test a referral link again. The steps are in How to enable the Simple Affiliate tracker.

The tracker is required to capture incoming referral traffic on the storefront. Without it, a customer can still buy, but Simple Affiliate has no link visit to credit. Discount codes typed at checkout, and connected-customer attribution on Pro and Premium after a first referred purchase, can still create a referral without that storefront click.

Check these in order

1. Open Simple Affiliate and check that the Simple Affiliate tracker row on the home page shows On.
2. In the Shopify theme editor, check that Simple Affiliate Tracker is on under App embeds, then click Save.
3. Open a real affiliate referral link in a private browser window and place a test order.
4. If the affiliate used a discount code, check that the code is on the order, and that the group doesn't have Restrict codes to only assign commission when they've been auto-applied by a referral link on.

Other reasons an order has no referral

• A link shortener, chatbot, or other tool removed or changed the link. Ask the affiliate to share the original link from the affiliate dashboard.
• The customer opened the link on one device or browser and ordered on another.
• The affiliate is not active, for example pending or suspended, or is in no group.
• The order subtotal after discounts is below the group's Minimum order amount.
• The order is a Shopify draft order. Draft orders do not create link referrals.
• The order has products that are assigned to different affiliates with product attribution, so product attribution does not apply to it.
• The affiliate ordered through their own link or code and Enable self-referral is off in Settings > Referral.
• The order was cancelled or refunded.
• The order is in a currency other than your store currency.

Missing cookie consent alone doesn't stop a link referral: the affiliate code on the Shopify cart still credits the order. Consent only decides the cookie and the click count.

Credit a missed order

1. Open Referrals.
2. Click Add referral.
3. Enter the Order name, for example #1001.
4. Choose the Affiliate.
5. Click Save.

If the order already has a referral, reverse it first. The steps are in How to manually assign a referral.