Short version. One link per partner or placement, a reward per counted site-visit booking, a budget you lock, and a live view both sides read.
Why referral is how projects actually sell
Most site visits in an Indian launch do not come from the hoarding or the portal listing. They come from a channel partner's WhatsApp group, a broker's call, a colleague who bought in phase one and told the office group. That network is the real sales engine, and it is almost never measured. The developer sees a total of walk-ins and a stack of invoices from partners, and has to take each partner's word for which visit was theirs.
A referral platform does not change the network; it gives every person in it a link of their own. The link goes into the same groups and the same calls, but now the developer sees which link brought the family who booked, how many people opened the floor plans from each partner, and which city they opened from. Payment follows what was counted, not what was claimed.
Setting up a launch on Shopmycode
Register the brand, add the project page (the microsite, or a page on your own website) as the landing page, and decide what a result is. For most launches that is a site-visit booking or an 'I'm interested' form. Put the one-line snippet on the thank-you page, or tell your CRM to report the booking; either way the booking is counted against the link that brought the visitor.
Then add your partners. Each channel partner, broker, referrer or society champion gets a link with their name on it. They accept the invitation by signing in with a code on email or WhatsApp, which also means the link stays theirs and nobody else can claim their bookings. You can add a link for a hoarding QR, a newspaper insert or a bank tie-up in the same list, so the whole launch is read from one screen.
Choosing the reward and the budget
The reward is what you pay per counted result. For a site visit that leads to a serious conversation, developers typically think in hundreds of rupees; for a confirmed booking, much more. The platform adds 15% on top of the reward as its fee, and both are taken from a budget you lock to the campaign, so you never spend beyond what you set aside. Link tracking on its own is free; the funded campaign costs ₹4,999 + GST a year.
A useful way to size the first budget: decide how many site visits you would be delighted to get in the launch weekend, multiply by the reward plus 15%, and lock that. At 25% left, you are warned. At zero, the campaign pauses itself and the partners are told, so nobody is promised a reward that cannot be paid. Top up, or turn on automatic top-up from the wallet, and it resumes.
What to watch during the launch weekend
The Live tab is where launch teams end up living for two days. Each open arrives with the channel it came from (WhatsApp, Instagram, a direct tap on the QR) and the city, and you can see who is on the floor-plan page right now. If a partner's link is bringing opens but no bookings, the page they are landing on is usually the problem, not the partner. If a hoarding QR is bringing opens from a city you did not expect, the hoarding is being photographed and forwarded.
Partners see the same numbers for their own link. That single fact removes most of the friction of a launch: nobody has to call to ask 'did my client's visit get counted?', and month-end reconciliation becomes a list both sides already agree on.
Common mistakes, and what to do instead
Sending one link to everyone. If all partners share the same URL, nothing can be attributed. One link per partner, per placement, costs nothing and is the whole point.
Counting the click instead of the visit. Rewarding opens invites forwarding for its own sake. Reward the booking or the visit, and let opens be the diagnostic they should be.
Paying partners off-platform for on-platform results. The reward is credited to the partner's wallet the moment the booking is counted, and the ledger both of you see is the record. Paying twice, or paying late, undoes the trust the numbers created.