
What the Sharetribe integration can and can’t do
Which setup do you have?
Every marketplace captures referrals the same way — through Sharetribe’s Referral sources feature in Step 4. The only difference is an optional extra:No-code marketplace
Custom-code template
Before you start
You’ll need:- Admin access to Sharetribe Console, so you can create an Integration API application and edit your user types.
- A developer, only if you want the optional tracking-script extras on a custom-code template. The core setup needs no code at all.
- Your Referly program open. Go to your program, then Settings, then Integrations, and choose Sharetribe.
Step 1: Create an Integration API application in Sharetribe
This is what lets Referly read your marketplace.Open your applications
Create an Integration API application
Copy both credentials
Step 2: Connect Sharetribe in Referly
Back in Referly, open the Sharetribe dialog under Settings, then Integrations.- Paste your Client ID.
- Paste your Client Secret.
- If you’re connecting a Dev or Test marketplace, turn on Test environment (Dev or Test marketplace).
- Click Connect.
Step 3: Choose what commission is based on
Marketplaces are unusual in that the money passing through them isn’t all yours. Sharetribe collects the full amount from the buyer, pays out the provider, and keeps a marketplace fee. So Referly asks which of those numbers your affiliates get paid on:- Order total — commission is worked out on the whole amount the customer paid. Use this when you want affiliates paid on the size of the sale they brought in. Most programs use this.
- Marketplace fee — commission is worked out on your take alone: the customer payment minus the provider payout. Use this when you’re paying affiliates out of your own margin and want the rate to mean the same thing on every listing.
Step 4: Turn on Referral sources
This is the step that connects an affiliate to a signup, and it’s a one-time Console setting. Sharetribe’s Referral sources feature watches for a URL parameter on the links people arrive through — and every Referly affiliate link already carries one,?ref= followed by the affiliate’s link name. Once you switch it on, a visitor who lands anywhere on your marketplace through an affiliate link is remembered for 90 days, and if they sign up in that window — even weeks later — Sharetribe saves who referred them.
Open your user types
Add a referral source
Name it and set the parameter
ref — this part matters, because it has to match the parameter on your affiliates’ links.Repeat for your other user types
That’s the whole capture. Your affiliates don’t need to do anything new — the links in their affiliate portal already carry ?ref= and work as-is. Attribution is first-touch: the first affiliate link a person arrives through is the one that gets the credit.
ref), set the URL parameter name to match yours instead.Optional: click analytics on a custom-code template
If you run the Sharetribe Web Template on your own hosting, you can additionally run the Referly tracking script. Referral sources already handles attribution on its own — the script adds click-level data on top: every click counted, landing pages, countries and devices. There are two changes, and one optional third. 1. Add the tracking script where your template injects scripts, alongside the analytics scripts it already loads:https://www.referly.so to both the script source and the connect source, or the script is blocked with no visible error.
2. Send the tracked referral with the signup. Where your template submits the signup, merge the referral into the new user’s protected data under the key referly_ref:
Do clicks get tracked?
Not on their own, and this is worth understanding before you promise affiliates click reports. Clicks are not tracked unless you either turn on Referly short links or run a custom-coded site. A Sharetribe-hosted marketplace can’t run the Referly tracking script, and an affiliate link points straight at your marketplace — so the visit goes from the affiliate’s audience to Sharetribe without ever passing through Referly. Nothing on our side sees it. Signups and sales are still tracked in full, because those come from your marketplace’s own data; it’s only the click itself that goes uncounted, which means click-through and conversion rates stay empty. There are two ways to get them.Turn on automated short links
This is the option for a Sharetribe-hosted marketplace, and it takes about a minute. With short links on, an affiliate’s link points at Referly first: we record the click, then forward the visitor to your marketplace carrying the same?ref= parameter.
Open the setting in Referly
Turn it on and choose a domain
refurl.link, or a custom domain of your own once it’s verified.Save
?ref= parameter the redirect passes through. They only add the click record in front of it.Or run the tracking script
Only possible on a custom-coded (self-hosted) template, where the script records every click along with the landing page, country and device. See the tracking-script steps on the Custom-code template tab of the Sharetribe guide in your Referly dashboard.How Referly decides who gets credit
When a transaction comes through, Referly looks for the affiliate in this order:- The referral on the transaction itself — the most accurate, and only present if you did the optional third change above.
- The customer’s existing referral — if that person was already recorded as referred by an affiliate when they signed up, the sale goes to that affiliate.
- The referral stored on the customer — the value captured at signup, whether saved by Sharetribe’s Referral sources or carried in by the tracking script.
Step 5: Set your commission and test it end to end
Set your rate first — a percentage or a fixed amount — and remember it applies to whichever base you picked in Step 3. You can add rules for individual listings once Sharetribe is connected. Then run the whole thing once before you go live:Connect your Test marketplace
Sign up as a test customer
?ref= plus the affiliate’s link name — browse around if you like, then sign up as normal. Nothing to type; the referrer travels with you.Wait about a minute
Make a test purchase or booking
Cancel it
Switch to Live
What gets tracked automatically
Once you’re connected, all of this happens on its own, within about a minute:Custom transaction processes
If your marketplace uses a custom transaction process with its own transition names, Referly won’t recognise them out of the box — it knows the default purchase and booking transitions. You can teach it yours. Open the Sharetribe dialog in Referly and select Advanced settings. There are two fields, both comma-separated:- Extra sale transitions — transitions that should record a sale. Referly already records one when a payment is confirmed, and when a booking is accepted by the provider or by an operator. Anything you list here is added on top.
- Extra refund transitions — transitions that should reverse a commission. Cancellations, declines and expiries are already handled; anything you list here reverses too.
transition/ prefix off — Referly accepts the names either way.
Cancellations and refunds
When a transaction is cancelled, declined, or its payment expires, Referly finds the matching sale and reverses the commission, so you don’t pay out on an order that never completed. Two things to know:- Reversals are always the full commission. Sharetribe’s Stripe integration only issues full refunds, so there’s no partial reversal to work out.
- This applies while the commission is still on hold. Once your payout hold period has passed and the affiliate has been cleared for payout, the sale is left alone — adjust it by hand if you want it reversed. See Refunds and Reward holds.
Disconnecting
Open the Sharetribe dialog in Referly and select Disconnect. Referly stops checking your marketplace immediately. For a clean break, also delete the Integration API application in Sharetribe Console under Build, then Advanced, then Applications — that revokes the credentials entirely. Nothing already tracked is deleted. Signups and transactions that happen while you’re disconnected are not recorded and can’t be picked up later, so add them by hand with Add a sale if you need to.Troubleshooting
Nothing is appearing in Referly at all
Nothing is appearing in Referly at all
Signups appear but no affiliate is credited
Signups appear but no affiliate is credited
ref (or your program’s custom link parameter) — a mismatch here looks fine in Console and captures nothing. Then check it’s added to the user type the person actually signed up with, since each user type has its own referral sources. And remember capture is per browser and first-touch: signing up in a different browser than the one that opened the link won’t carry the referral.The tracking script isn't working on my template
The tracking script isn't working on my template
https://www.referly.so. After that, confirm the signup actually sends the referral in the new user’s protected data.Referrals are tracked but sales aren't
Referrals are tracked but sales aren't
Cancelled transactions still show a commission
Cancelled transactions still show a commission
Commission amounts look wrong
Commission amounts look wrong
Connecting fails or the credentials are rejected
Connecting fails or the credentials are rejected