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AdvocateLoop Docs

Referral Discounts & Coupons

This page explains how the referral discount actually behaves in your WooCommerce cart and checkout — when it applies, how much it discounts, what limits enforce, and how it interacts with your other coupons.

How the discount appears in the cart

When a referred customer’s cart meets the conditions you’ve configured, the discount appears automatically as a coupon line in the cart totals. You don’t need to create or manage any coupon in WooCommerce — the discount is applied for you.

The customer sees:

Subtotal$100.00
Discount (V2AVMRDJ)−$15.00
Shipping$5.00
Total$90.00

The exact label on the discount line (the part shown to the customer) is configurable in your dashboard under Configure → Widget.

When the discount applies

The discount applies when all of the following are true:

  • The customer has an active referral code (in their cookie, from a previous click)
  • The cart subtotal meets the minimum purchase amount you’ve configured
  • The customer is eligible (e.g., passes the first-purchase-only check if you have that enabled)
  • The discount hasn’t already been claimed for this customer

The plugin checks these conditions every time the cart updates — when items are added, removed, or quantities change. So if a customer adds one item and the cart is below the minimum, then adds a second item and crosses the threshold, the discount appears automatically at that moment.

Likewise, if the customer removes items and drops below the minimum, the discount is removed.

Discount types

The discount type and amount are configured in your dashboard under Configure → Rewards. The plugin supports:

  • Percentage off — e.g., 15% off the cart subtotal
  • Fixed amount off — e.g., $10 off the cart subtotal
  • Free shipping — waives shipping costs

Whatever you’ve configured is what the WooCommerce coupon engine applies. No additional setup required on the WooCommerce side.

Minimum purchase amount

If you’ve configured a minimum purchase amount (e.g., “discount applies only on orders of $50+”), the plugin enforces it:

  • The discount won’t apply if the cart is below the minimum
  • The customer sees the cart without a discount line
  • As soon as the cart crosses the threshold, the discount appears

The minimum is checked against the cart subtotal (line items before tax, shipping, and other discounts).

If a customer’s cart is sitting just below the minimum, you can prompt them with the share widget or your own messaging to add another item.

Maximum discount amount (cap)

The maximum discount setting acts as a ceiling on the discount value:

  • Configure “15% off, max $20” → a $100 cart gets $15 off, a $1,000 cart gets $20 off (not $150)
  • Configure “$10 off, max $10” → every cart gets exactly $10 off (the cap matches the discount)

This is most useful with percentage discounts. Without a cap, a percentage discount scales without limit; with one, you protect your margin on larger orders.

The customer always sees the capped value — never more than the maximum you’ve set, even on larger carts.

Stacking with other coupons

By default, referral discounts can be combined with other coupons in the customer’s cart. So a customer with a referral discount could also apply a separate promo code (e.g., “FREESHIP”) and get both.

If you want to prevent stacking — so the referral discount is the only one allowed — toggle the Individual use setting on the discount in your AdvocateLoop dashboard under Configure → Rewards. With individual use on:

  • Applying the referral discount removes any other coupons from the cart
  • Applying a different coupon removes the referral discount

The customer is informed by the standard WooCommerce coupon-conflict messaging.

First-purchase-only restriction

If your reward is configured as “first purchase only,” the discount applies only to customers who haven’t ordered from your store before.

A couple of notes on how this behaves:

  • The eligibility check covers both guest and logged-in checkouts.
  • The check happens at the moment the discount would apply, so if you change the setting in your dashboard, it takes effect immediately for new carts

Why a discount might “appear and then disappear”

A few legitimate reasons:

  • Cart subtotal crossed the minimum on add, then went back below on remove — the plugin removes the discount when the cart no longer qualifies
  • A second coupon was applied with “individual use” set — one or the other will be removed
  • The customer is on their second purchase with first-purchase-only enabled — the discount won’t reappear in subsequent visits

The customer doesn’t get a confusing error message in any of these cases — the discount just isn’t there. If you want to surface a message explaining why, you can configure that in your dashboard messaging.

Why a discount might not apply at all

If the discount never appears for a referred customer, the most common causes are:

  • The cart hasn’t met the minimum purchase amount yet
  • The customer’s referral cookie has expired (default 30-day attribution window)
  • The customer used a different browser or device than the one that received the click
  • The customer is on their second purchase with first-purchase-only enabled
  • The customer arrived without ?ref=CODE in the URL (so no cookie was set)

The Troubleshooting page covers each of these with diagnostic steps.

Customer-facing messaging

When the discount applies, the customer sees a confirmation message in the referral code section at checkout — something like:

Referral code V2AVMRDJ applied! You’re getting 15% off.

This message wording reflects your dashboard’s reward configuration. To customize it:

  1. In your dashboard, go to Configure → Widget
  2. Edit the Checkout applied message field
  3. Save — the change takes effect on the next page load (no caching to clear in WordPress)

The plugin intentionally shows this message in one place only — the referral code area in checkout — to avoid duplicate “applied” notices cluttering the page.

What you can change vs. what’s automatic

WhatWhere to change it
Discount type (%, $, free shipping)Dashboard → Configure → Rewards
Discount valueDashboard → Configure → Rewards
Minimum purchase amountDashboard → Configure → Rewards
Maximum discount capDashboard → Configure → Rewards
First-purchase-only restrictionDashboard → Configure → Rewards
Individual use (no stacking)Dashboard → Configure → Rewards
Customer-facing applied messageDashboard → Configure → Widget
Discount line label in cartDashboard → Configure → Widget
Whether discount auto-appliesAutomatic, can’t be disabled per-customer
Coupon code that’s usedHandled automatically