How to Migrate from Refersion to AffRef in 2026 (Step-by-Step Guide)

The hardest part of switching affiliate platforms isn't the technical migration — it's the fear of breaking attribution. Your affiliates have shared links across blogs, Instagram bios, YouTube descriptions, email newsletters, and conversations you'll never see. If those links stop crediting the right person after you switch, you'll hear about it from your top earners within a week.

This guide is the actual switching playbook from Refersion to AffRef. Built around two principles: preserve tracking codes so existing links keep working, and run both platforms in parallel for two weeks before cutting over. Total time investment: about 2–4 hours of admin work spread over the parallel-run period.

Before you start: the three things to verify

Switching is only worth it if these three things are true for your store:

1. You don't depend on Refersion's marketplace for affiliate recruiting. If most of your affiliates came through Refersion's network — you submitted your offer and creators applied — switching means losing that pipeline. AffRef recruits from your customer list, not from a marketplace.
2. Your affiliate revenue is meaningful. If you're under $2k/mo in affiliate-driven sales, Refersion's transaction fee is small enough that switching costs more in time than it saves. Above $5k/mo, the math reverses fast (see below).
3. You're okay handling payouts yourself. AffRef doesn't touch the money — payouts go via Stripe Connect (auto, Pro+) or PayPal / Wise CSV exports. If you were relying on Refersion as a financial intermediary, that changes.

The math: what you save

Refersion's pricing structure has a base subscription plus 1.5% of every affiliate-driven sale. AffRef is flat-rate, no transaction fee. Here's the comparison at three monthly revenue points:

At $25k/mo, the annual saving is $6,300. The migration recoups itself in week one.

The 6-step migration playbook

Step 1: Export your Refersion affiliates as CSV

In your Refersion dashboard:

1. Go to Affiliates → All Affiliates
2. Click Export in the top-right
3. Choose CSV format. The export includes columns: First Name, Last Name, Email, Affiliate Code, Default Commission, Status, PayPal Email, Custom URL, Date Joined, Total Sales, Total Commission
4. Save the file locally. Don't edit it — AffRef's importer auto-detects Refersion's column format.

If you want to bring historical conversion data over too, run a separate Conversions export. AffRef's importer focuses on affiliates and tracking codes — historical commission data stays in Refersion as a record but doesn't transfer (commission history is essentially audit data once you've already paid out).

Step 2: Sign up for AffRef and install the Shopify App

Create an AffRef account on Pro (so the founder-led onboarding kicks in). Add your Shopify store and run the one-click app install — OAuth handles the tracker injection and webhook registration automatically. No theme.liquid editing.

Critical: don't uninstall Refersion's script yet. We're running both platforms in parallel for verification.

Step 3: Upload your CSV to AffRef's admin importer

In AffRef admin, go to Imports. Upload your Refersion CSV. The importer will:

• Auto-detect the Refersion column format
• Show a dry-run preview: how many affiliates will be created, how many would be skipped as duplicates, how many have invalid emails
• Preserve each affiliate's tracking code as their AffRef code — so existing affiliate links keep crediting the right person
• If a code collides with one already in AffRef, the importer suffixes it (SARAH → SARAH-2) and flags it for you to handle

Review the preview, then commit. For a 500-affiliate program the import takes about 30 seconds.

Step 4: Configure commission rules to match your Refersion setup

AffRef uses different commission-rule names than Refersion. Common mappings:

• Refersion “Default Commission” → AffRef per-affiliate commission_rate (set during CSV import, can override per-affiliate after)
• Refersion “Performance Bonuses” → AffRef tiered commissions (Scale tier)
• Refersion “Product-Specific Commissions” → AffRef per-product overrides (Pro+)
• Refersion “Refund Hold” → AffRef per-affiliate hold-period control (Pro+)

Pro+ subscribers: this is the step we handle for you. Forward us a description of your current Refersion commission structure and we'll configure AffRef to match.

Step 5: Run both platforms in parallel for 14 days

Don't uninstall Refersion. Both trackers will run side-by-side — AffRef writes first-party cookies on your storefront domain, Refersion uses whatever attribution method it already uses. Every order will be picked up by both platforms.

Each day during the parallel run, compare a sample of orders between the two dashboards:

• Same affiliate attributed in both? Good.
• Refersion attributed an order AffRef missed? Check whether the affiliate code is in the Shopify order's cart_attributes or discount_codes. Most discrepancies trace to this.
• AffRef attributed an order Refersion missed? Likely first-party tracking caught a Safari ITP conversion Refersion's third-party fallback lost. Lucky you.

Pro+ subscribers: send us a representative sample after week one and we'll do this QA for you, plus dig into any specific orders that look off.

Step 6: Cut over

After 14 days of clean parallel data:

1. Email your affiliates a heads-up. Template: "We're switching affiliate platforms to improve tracking accuracy and pay you faster. Your existing links keep working — no action needed on your end. Your new portal is at affiliates.yourbrand.com — log in to set your password and review your stats."
2. Disable Refersion's tracking script in your Shopify theme (or uninstall the app entirely).
3. Make a final pending-commission export from Refersion and pay out anything outstanding. AffRef takes over from cut-over date.
4. Cancel your Refersion subscription.
5. Wait 30 days before deleting your Refersion data — in case of weird edge-case attribution disputes.

Common migration questions

Do my affiliates need to update their links?

No. AffRef preserves the tracking code from the Refersion export, so a link like yourstore.com?ref=SARAH keeps crediting Sarah whether AffRef or Refersion is tracking. The /r/ legacy-redirector also catches any refersion.com/c/... URLs your affiliates may have shared.

What about historical conversion data?

Stays in Refersion as a record. AffRef starts fresh from cut-over date. Most merchants don't actually need historical data in the new platform — commission was already paid out, the historical records are just an audit trail. Keep the Refersion exports.

Will I lose pending commissions?

No. Pay out anything pending in Refersion before cut-over (standard end-of-month flow). AffRef tracks new conversions from cut-over forward.

How long does the full migration take?

2–4 hours of admin work spread over the 14-day parallel run. Pro+ subscribers: most of that 2–4 hours becomes us doing it for you. You forward the export, we run the import + commission-rule setup + QA, you confirm.

Why the founder-led onboarding clause exists

We make money when you stay subscribed. Botched migrations are the #1 reason merchants churn off new affiliate platforms in the first 30 days. So we have direct economic incentive to make sure your migration goes cleanly — which means doing it ourselves rather than handing you a documentation page and hoping for the best.

The offer is async only (we don't do calls), bounded to your first 30 days on Pro+, and limited to migration work and commission-rule setup. No marketing consulting, no campaign strategy, no ongoing implementation services beyond the migration. Honest scope; honest delivery.