Referral links in Sharetribe
Referral links allow operators to track how new users arrive at the marketplace. When a user follows a referral link, the referral parameters in the URL are validated against the referral sources configured for each user type in Console. If the user then signs up before the expiry window, the referral data is saved to their private data.
Configuring referrals in Console
Referral sources are configured per user type in Console, so a referral link is only valid for users who match the expected user type on sign-up. For more information on setting up referrals, refer to the Help Center article.
How referral links work
Referral data is captured from the URL on any page load, meaning any page on the marketplace can serve as an entry point for a referral link. In pages where the URL directly impacts API query parameters - for example the search page - the referral link is filtered out of the params before the query is made.
If your custom search code passes URL parameters directly to API
queries - for example, by spreading location.search params into a
listings query - referral link parameters may be unintentionally
included. Filter them out before making API calls. See
SearchPage.duck.js
for an example of how the template handles this.
Persisting referral data
When referral parameters are found in the URL, they are saved to local storage as referral data. The referral data persists for 90 days, so a user can follow a referral link and sign up at a later point within that window and still have the referral captured.
Validation and sign-up
When a user signs up, the referral data stored in local storage is validated against the referral sources defined for each user type in Console. If the referral data is valid and the user matches the expected user type, the referral data is saved to the user’s private data.
If the referral data is invalid, or the user’s type does not match the referral source, sign-up proceeds normally and no referral data is saved.