Use this page if you sell with WooCommerce Subscriptions and referral rewards aren’t being used on renewals, or advocates aren’t rewarded the way you expect.
Before you start: renewal discounts work only with payment gateways that let the store change the recurring amount, such as WooPayments or Stripe. Gateways where the customer’s provider controls the amount, such as PayPal Standard subscriptions, can’t receive renewal discounts.
How renewal discounts work
When WooCommerce Subscriptions creates a renewal order, the plugin looks for the subscriber’s unused reward coupons. These are coupons with a RAF- code that are restricted to the subscriber’s email. It then takes their value off the renewal as a negative fee line called Referral applied. The coupon isn’t shown as a coupon on the renewal order, and its usage count goes up by one.
| Setting in General Settings → WooCommerce Subscription | Effect |
|---|---|
| Enable Integration | Turns renewal discounts on. Nothing is applied to renewals while it’s off. |
| Apply All Coupons | Uses all of the subscriber’s unused reward coupons on one renewal, up to the renewal price. When it’s off, one coupon is used per renewal. |
| Exclude Shipping | Doesn’t discount shipping on renewals. |
| Enable partial coupon usage | If a coupon is worth more than the renewal, the remaining value stays on the coupon for the next renewal. When it’s off, the whole coupon is used up. |
The renewal wasn’t discounted
Check each of these:
- Enable Integration is on in Settings → General Settings.
- The subscriber has an unused
RAF-coupon in Marketing → Coupons, with their email under Usage restriction → Allowed emails. The friend’s first-purchase coupon is a shared coupon, so it’s never applied to renewals. - The coupon hasn’t expired, and its product or category restrictions allow the subscription product.
- The subscription’s email matches the coupon’s allowed email. If the customer changed their account email after the coupon was created, edit the coupon’s Allowed emails.
- The payment gateway supports changing recurring amounts. See the note above.
Test a renewal
- Find a subscription for a customer who has an unused
RAF-coupon. - Open the subscription in WooCommerce → Subscriptions.
- In the actions box on the right, choose Create pending renewal order and click Update.
- Open the new renewal order. It should have a Referral applied fee line with a negative amount.
Delete the test renewal order afterwards if you don’t want the customer charged for it.
Which orders earn the advocate a reward
Only the friend’s first subscription order earns the advocate a reward. Referral data isn’t copied to renewal orders, so renewals never create new reward coupons.
Subscription sign-up orders often stay in Processing. If advocates aren’t rewarded for subscription referrals, set General Settings → Generate Referral Reward On to Processing.
For a reward on every renewal, see Recurring rewards with WooCommerce Subscriptions.
Discount the friend’s subscription
The friend’s first-purchase discount is the WooCommerce coupon you set in Friend Reward → Coupon Code. To discount the friend’s subscription, give that coupon a subscription discount type, such as Recurring product % discount or Sign up fee discount. WooCommerce Subscriptions then applies it according to its own rules.