Referral marketing
Your existing customers, members or employees bring people they know. Rewards are small and the trust is high. The mechanics: a link per person, a counted result, a reward — sometimes to both sides.
Affiliate marketing
Publishers, deal sites, comparison blogs and creators bring strangers for a commission per result. Volume is higher, trust is lower, and the program needs rules (no bought traffic, honest claims) and reversals for returns.
Influencer marketing
Creators with an audience recommend the product. Historically paid per post; increasingly paid per result, which aligns both sides and turns influencer marketing into affiliate marketing with better creative. The same link per creator does the counting.
Why one mechanism covers all three
Each is a person with a link, a result you define, and a reward you pay when the result is counted. Shopmycode treats them as links with different terms on one campaign: a customer on ₹100 per sign-up, a creator on a fixed fee, a staff member with no reward. Pick the terms per link; the counting is identical.
Which to start with
Start where trust already exists: your customers and partners. Add creators when you know what a result is worth. Add affiliates when you have rules and reversals in place. All three can run on one platform, on one budget, with one record.