Finance usually meets the referral program after the reward has already left. A customer shared a code. Someone checked out. Store credit is sitting on an account. Then the order comes back, or the two emails turn out to be from the same household. That is the mess a referral software RFP is supposed to prevent.
A referral software RFP should make bidders prove that path on your checkout, not on a generic ârefer a friendâ widget. The product in scope is referral software for ecommerce, subscriptions, fintech or SaaS. A paid creator roster is a different document. A B2B partner portal can wait for its own packet if that is a separate budget.
What you are buying
A system that issues a unique share, attributes a first purchase, holds the reward until that purchase is real, and stops the obvious cheats. A share button with no hold on the payout is a marketing toy.
Start with the click that becomes an order
Ask how a unique link or code is created for each advocate, and how a sale is tied back to that person after the friend checks out. Email, SMS, WhatsApp and a widget on the site are distribution. They are not attribution. Attribution is the order object in Shopify, the subscription invoice, or the first paid plan in your billing system.
If the bidder cannot name that object, you will argue about âreferred sessionsâ instead of referred revenue. Growth will look busy. Finance will not book it.
Then ask when the reward is allowed to leave
Store credit, cash, a gift card or a free month are all acceptable rewards. The RFP question is when they release. Paying in the same hour as the click is how self-referrals and returned orders get funded. NextBeeâs referral page describes automatic fulfillment and a choice of cash, store credit and gift cards, including more than one currency. Still make the bidder name the hold: after the first paid invoice, after the return window, or after the subscription survives day 30. Pick the rule that matches your margin.
If you also run points for repeat purchases, keep that next to this buy-in loyalty. Do not let a points catalog replace the referral hold. A subscriber revenue team cares whether the new account is still billed next month. That is the hold, not a badge.
Fraud is not a slide titled âAIâ
Write down the cheats you already know. Same person, two emails. Same card. Same IP burst. A discount code pasted on a public coupon page. Ask what the software does on each one. NextBee describes pattern checks and the ability to pause payouts when traffic spikes look wrong. You want the rule and who can override it, with a name on the override.
Regulated categories (fintech, some health offers) also need a line on what you are allowed to pay for a referred account. Do not leave that to the vendorâs template reward.
The share has to look like you
Advocates ignore a page that does not look like the brand they already bought. Ask how the landing page, the email and the widget pick up your colors, logo and tone. Ask whether you can run more than one campaign: one country, one product line, one holiday window. Multi-country and multi-currency are on NextBeeâs referral page. They still have to work on your catalog, not on a demo store.
Retail teams who live on seasonal drops can keep a retail marketing plan beside this. The RFP is still the referral engine, not the whole seasonal calendar.
Finance needs a CAC they can audit
Ask for referred orders, reward cost, and the CAC of that cohort versus your paid channels, in an export. âROI dashboardâ is not an export. If the number cannot land in the same sheet as your other acquisition channels, the program will stay a side project.
Ask how the event reaches your CRM and your store. NextBee lists ecommerce, CRM, loyalty, and warehouse connections, plus SSO and SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA. Name Shopify, your billing tool or your CRM in the packet so the answer cannot stay generic.
What to attach
One page: where the first purchase lives, what you want to pay (credit, cash, gift card, free period), when you consider that purchase safe, and the two fraud cases that already hurt you. Attach it to the referral software RFP.
If you want a plain explainer of the category before vendors reply, use our guide to what referral program software is. That post teaches the idea. This packet tests the payout.
Send the checkout and the reward hold
We will show a unique share, a first purchase, a blocked self-referral and a reward that waits. Pricing is tied to revenue milestones. Security follows SOC 2 Type II, with GDPR and CCPA controls.
