Loyalty Points are a fantastic way to reward your Customers and to encourage them to purchase more. Let's get started!
In this article:
- Getting Started - Activating and Configuring the Loyalty Extension
- Setting up Loyalty Tiers
- Viewing Point Balances via Admin
- Viewing Point Balances via Website (as the Customer)
- Redeeming Points for Orders via Admin
- Redeeming Points for Orders via POS
- Redeeming Points for Orders via Website (as the Customer)
- Adding or Subtracting Point Balances Manually
- Reports
- Queries & Tags
- Frequently Asked Questions
As the legality for loyalty reward programs varies based on location, please consult your legal team before enabling the Loyalty tools.
Front-end Loyalty features are available on our V2 front-end only. Loyalty tools can still be used on the V1 backend (Admin/POS), however your customers are not able to view or redeem points on the V1 front-end. Please reach out to support@commerce7.com with questions about this.
Activating and Configuring the Loyalty Extension
The first step in creating your Loyalty Points program is to Activate the Loyalty Extension.
- From the Dashboard, go to the Apps and Extensions tab.
- Choose Extensions > Commerce7 Extensions.
- Click the blue Add Extension button to open up the configuration screen.
- Define your points and redemption rules to configure your loyalty program. (You can change these later if you need to.)
- Redemption Rate: This defines the number of points your customers can redeem for every $x.xx off. Examples: If you'd like your customers to be able to redeem 100 points for every $1.00 spent, enter 0.01. If you'd like them to be able to redeem 250 points for $5.00 off, then enter 0.02.
- Redemption Limit: Percentage of each order that can be redeemed with points. Example: If you want to only allow for 50% of any one order to be paid for with points, then enter 50. Likewise, if you want customers to be able to pay for an entire order with points, then enter 100.
- Points Awarded on Customer Creation: Pre-load points to a Customer's profile as an incentive for signing up on your list or placing their first order. Example: Every new customer receives 500 free points to use however they'd like.
- Define whether points are earned on Shipping and/or Taxes. If you leave these boxes unchecked, then points will only be earned on Product
- Click Set up Loyalty to save and add the extension. (This adds the extension, but it won't be active or viewable for customers yet.)
Note: Once the extension is added, you will be initially be "Planning" mode. Your program will not be viewable or live for customers until you make the program live under Settings > Loyalty Points. Do not set your program live until you have gone through all of the steps below. While you can make changes after the fact, it's not a good practice and can cause confusion for your staff and your customers.
Setting Up Loyalty Tiers and Making Your Program Live
Once you've added the Loyalty extension, you need to finish configuring your program and Loyalty Tiers before making it active.
Loyalty Tiers are used to segment groups of customers. Create different Loyalty Tiers to encourage customers to spend more with your brand, which will incentivize them to move up in the tier structure.
- Click on Settings > Loyalty Points to manage all of the settings for your Loyalty program.
- Your Loyalty program will initially be in "Planning" mode. It will not be viewable or live for customers yet. You'll see a button to "Make Loyalty Program Active". Do not click this button until you've completed all of the configuration steps below. This action cannot be undone.
- Edit the redemption and earning rules that you entered when you first added the extension if you need to.
These settings are global and what you enter here will be global and apply to all customers. Click here to see setting definitions. - To get started with creating your customer tiers, click Add Loyalty Tier button
- Configure your tier settings and decide how you want to run your loyalty program. Each tier you create can earn a different number of points per dollar spent.
Group customers to encourage them to spend more and therefore earn more points on their purchases. For example, you might want to award customers more points if they're the member of a specific club or you might want to award based on the dollar amount each customer has spent with your brand (either their lifetime value or how much they spend in a year to encourage them to hit a dollar amount per year to maintain their tier status).
- Title: Customer-facing. Examples: Gold, Silver, Bronze
- Qualification Type:
- Club - Must be in Specific Club membership to qualify. Note: If multiple clubs are added, the customer only needs a membership to one of them to qualify, not all.
- Lifetime Value (LTV) - Must have a total spend of this amount to qualify
- Yearly Value - Must spend at least this amount in the current or last calendar year to qualify.
- Examples: Customer needs $1000 Yearly Value to qualify for the Gold Tier.
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- Customer A: In 2021 the Customer spent $900. In 2022 the Customer spent $800. This Customer does NOT qualify. (Reason: Customer did not hit the $1000 threshold in either the current year or last calendar year).
- Customer B In 2021 the Customer spent $1100. In 2022 the Customer spent $800. Your Customer qualifies in 2022 (Reason: Customer hit the $1000 threshold in last calendar year), but does NOT qualify in 2023 (Reason: Customer did not hit the $1000 in the current year or last calendar year).
- Customer C: In 2021 the Customer spent $500. In 2022 the Customer spent $1100. On the day in 2022 that the Customer spent over $1000, the Customer qualifies. The Customer also qualifies in 2023. (Reason: Customer hit $1000 threshold in last calendar year).
- Examples: Customer needs $1000 Yearly Value to qualify for the Gold Tier.
- Points: Points Earned per $1.00 Spent. Example: Customer will earn 10 Points for every $1.00 spent.
- Click Save Loyalty Tier
- Repeat for as many tiers as you want.
- Click and drag your tiers on the list view to determine the hierarchy. If a customer qualifies for multiple tiers, the tier that is listed highest will prevail.
Example: If a customer is eligible for both the "Gold Tier" and another club-based tier that is lower in the list, then the customer will receive only the Gold Tier's points. - From the list view, click into the Base Tier. This tier will contain all customers that aren't eligible for another tier. You can change the name and decide if you want them to earn any points. (You could decide that customers don't earn any points unless they are a part of one of your other tiers OR they could earn a lower amount of points.)
- Once all of your tiers are set up and you're ready to launch your loyalty program, you can click the Make Loyalty Program Active button.
This will make it viewable for customers online. Customers will not be notified, but they will start earning points and see it in their account online. This action cannot be undone. You can always remove the extension to stop offering the Loyalty program, but once it is live you won't be able to toggle it on and off from your customers.
Viewing Point Balances via Admin
- From the Customer Profile, click on the Loyalty Tab.
2. From there, you'll be able to view the current balance and all Point transactions.
Redeeming Points for Admin Orders
Redeem Loyalty Points to use in Admin Orders.
- Add Product(s) to the Admin Order as you normally would.
- When it's time to process the order, you'll see a blue Loyalty Points flag. Click the Redeem Points link.
- You will have the opportunity to adjust the points to be redeemed. (Perhaps the Customer would only like to use a portion of their Points for this Order). Click Add Tender button.
- Click Charge button to complete the Order.
Redeeming Points Via POS
Redeem Loyalty Points for use with POS Orders.
- Add Product(s) as you would with any other Order.
- Click the Pay button.
- You'll see how many Points are available for redemption.
- Click the Pay with Loyalty button.
- Split Tender for difference if-needed and complete the Order as normal. If the Customer has enough Points to pay for the entire Order (and your Settings allow for 100% of Orders to be paid by Points), then you will be able to do so.
- Once the order is processed, here is how it'll look in Payment tab.
Viewing Point Balances via the Website (as the Customer)
Only available for websites using Front-end V2.
When a customer logs in on your website, on the Dashboard they will see the Loyalty Points block telling them what tier they're in, how many points they have and the equivalent dollar value.
- Clicking "Learn more" will give them more information on their current tier and details on how to move up a tier.
- If they click "View history", they'll see a history of their points balance, including how many points they've earned on their transactions and if they're spent points on a purchase.
Redeeming Points via the Website (as a Customer)
Customers can use their Loyalty Point balance to purchase on your website.
- Add item(s) to Cart as usual.
- On the Payment page, click the Redeem button.
- Enter Credit Card information for the remaining balance (if applicable) and click the Place Order button.
Adding and Subtracting Points Manually to a Customer Record
There may be scenarios where you want to add or subtract Points to a Customer manually. An example might be if a new Customer had a large first-time purchase. Perhaps you'd like to reward them with extra Loyalty Points.
- In the Customer Record, click on the Loyalty tab > Adjust Loyalty Points button.
- If you are ADDING Points, enter the value (no plus-sign needed). If you are SUBTRACTING Points, enter a negative value (example: -100).
- Enter a Note indicating why the change was made. (This note is not customer-facing).
- Click Save Loyalty Points button.
- The change takes effect immediately both in Admin and on the front-end website by the Customer.
Queries & Tags
If Loyalty is enabled, you'll see some additional options for tagging and queries customers including Loyalty Tier and Loyalty Points.
Querying
To export a list of customers or orders that cross reference your Loyalty program and other data types, you'll want to use Queries.
- In Admin, go to Marketing > Queries
- Depending on the type of data you want, you'll use either Order or Customer queries. If you want to pull a list of customers, go to the Customer queries section, for a list of orders belonging to loyalty customers, go to the Order queries section.
- Click Add Query
- After adding a Title, you'll see that you can query based on if the order or customer "is found/is not found in the following _______ conditions". Regardless of if you are adding an Order or Customer query, you need to select Customer conditions to filter based on customers in the loyalty.
- In the list, you'll see options for:
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- Loyalty Points: The balance of loyalty points that a customer has
- Loyalty Tier: Customers in a specific loyalty tier
6. If your tiers are based on Lifetime Value or Yearly Value, you can also use the Lifetime Value, Current Year Value, and/or Last Year Value options to filter further.
7. Use these settings in combination with any of the other available options, then, when you're ready, click Add and then Execute and Execute Query to pull a list.
Learn more about how to use queries here.
Query Example: View Customers Per Tier
- In Admin, go to Marketing > Queries. Under the Customer section, click Add Customer Query
- Add a Title
- Select Loyalty Tier and search for the name of one of your tiers
- If you want to see more than one tier in your export, click the OR button on the right
- When you're done, click Add Customer Query, then click Execute to pull a list of customers.
Query Example: View a List of Orders From Customers in a Tier
- In Admin, go to Marketing > Queries
- Under the Order section, click Add Order Query
- Add a Title
- Where is says "Order is found in", select Customer with the following conditions.
- Select Loyalty Tier and search for the name of one of your tiers
- When you're done, click Add Order Query
- If you want to drill down to only view specific orders, such as those within a specific timeframe, etc, now click Add Another Set of Conditions. Now, specify, "Order is found in the following Order conditions".
- When you're ready to get your list, make sure any/all of your conditions are saved, then click Execute at the top, and then Execute Query to pull a list of orders.
Tagging
To tag customers throughout the system by Loyalty and then use the tag for filtering customers, emailing, discounts, etc, learn more here.
- Go to Settings > Tags > Customer Tags
- Click Add Customer Tag
- Under Type select Dynamic
- You'll can dynamically tag customers by:
- Loyalty Points
- Tag by tier by using Lifetime Value, 2022 Yearly Spend, 2021 Yearly Spend, and/or Club Membership. (Tagging by Loyalty Tier is coming soon, but you can use configure these fields to match your tier settings and therefore tag customers by tier)
- Click Add Customer Tag
Learn more about how to use tags here.
Tagging Example: Email Customers in a Tier
You might want to tag customers for a variety of reasons, but one of these reasons could be emailing customers within a tier.
Basic
- First, you want to set up a tag for one of all of your tiers under Settings > Tags > Customers. (Follow the steps above)
- Now you can go to Marketing > Campaigns and create an email. Under Tag, select the tag that you just created that contains the customers in the specific tier.
Advanced
Follow the advanced steps to be able to filter down a list of customers in a tier even further, combining both Tags and Queries.
- First, query to find all of the customers in a tier. Go to Marketing > Queries > Customer > Add Customer Query
- After adding a Title, you'll see that you can query based on if the order or customer "is found/is not found in the following _______ conditions". Select Customer conditions.
- In the list, select the Loyalty Tier that you want to target.
- Now is when you can get fancy with your targeting and combine your query with additional more customer or order filters.
- To add another customer condition click Add Another Condition
- To cross reference order data, click Add Customer Query then click Add Another Set of Conditions
- Example usage: Maybe your loyalty program is run on "Yearly Value". In your query, you can add an order condition to find customers that haven't spent enough to qualify for that tier next year, to send them a prompt to spend more to stay in the tier.
- If your Bronze tier requires members to spend $300, first add a condition for "Loyalty Tier" of "Bronze", then click "Add Another Set of Conditions"
- Then select "Current Year Value", "is less than", "$300".
- This will make a list of customers in the Bronze tier who haven't spent enough to stay in the tier next year.
- Once your query is set up, make sure it's saved, then under the Execute step, on the top left, click Create Tag from List
- Enter a name for your tag, and click Create Tag from Query
- Now you can go to Marketing > Campaigns and create an email. Under Tag, select the tag that you just created that contains the customers in the specific tier.
Reports
There are four reports specific to the Loyalty tool. See points adjusted, redeemed and earned.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is the Loyalty feature available in Frontend V1?
No. It's only available for Frontend V2. Learn more here. - Do Points ever expire?
No. If a customer no longer qualifies for a tier, they'll be removed from it and no longer earn those points, but they'll be able to use any existing points. - If I edit the Loyalty extension configuration (example: change the Redemption rate), will that change Point totals in Customer profiles?
No. Point totals will remain the same even if the Customer is no longer eligible for future Points due to the change in Tier structure. - Can POS Orders pay Tips with Loyalty Points?
No...but soon! (And only if the Order was fully paid with Loyalty Points). - Can Loyalty Points be used with POS Quick Pay feature?
Yes. - Are there Reports for Loyalty transactions?
If loyalty points were redeemed on an order, you'll see "Loyalty Points" as the tender type in any of your order/financial reports. To gain access to customer information about loyalty, see the "Reporting" section above. - Are Loyalty Points refunded when a transaction is refunded?
Yes. - Can Loyalty Points be used to pay for Club Shipments?
No. (The one exception is if you are using the 'Mark Current Order as First Shipment' in the POS. But subsequent Shipments cannot be paid via Points). - Can Loyalty Points be redeemed for Allocation Orders?
Yes. - Can the number of Points (to be redeemed) be edited by the Customer when placing an online Order? (Example: Customer would only like to use only 1000 of her 5000 points).
No. While this is a feature for Admin and POS Orders, it is not possible with online Orders. For online Orders, the maximum points (allowed by your Loyalty settings) will be applied by default.