Why aren't referred orders showing up?

Most missing link-based 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 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 attribute. Unique discount codes typed at checkout, and Pro connected-customer attribution after a first referred purchase, can still create a referral without that storefront click.

Check these in order

1. Open Simple Affiliate and confirm Turn on the Simple Affiliate tracker is complete on the Complete your setup checklist.
2. In the Shopify theme editor, confirm Simple Affiliate Tracker is on under App embeds, then click Save.
3. Open a real affiliate referral link in a private browser window and complete a test order.
4. Confirm the customer granted cookie consent if your store requires it under Shopify's customer privacy settings.
5. If the affiliate used a discount code, confirm the code was applied on the order. Codes typed at checkout can attribute even when the tracker was off.

Other reasons an order has no referral

• The customer clicked the link on one device or browser and ordered on another, cleared their cookies, or used a private window. The tracking cookie exists only where the customer clicked.
• A link shortener, chatbot, or other tool removed or rewrote the sacode parameter. Ask the affiliate to share the original link from the affiliate dashboard.
• The affiliate is not active, for example pending or suspended.
• The order total 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 Self-referral is off in Settings > Referral.
• The order was cancelled or refunded.
• The order is in a currency other than your store currency.

To credit a missed order, go to Referrals, click Add referral, enter the order number, choose the affiliate, and click Save. The steps are in How to manually assign a referral.

The tracker how-to is at https://simple-affiliate.com/blogs/how-to-guides/how-to-enable-the-simple-affiliate-track-app-embed

Nothing is estimated from a click alone. The completed Shopify order, plus the tracking method that actually fired, determines whether a referral appears.