Creating an effective Rewards Program: best practices guide
This guide is for merchants new to setting up a points-based rewards program. We’ll walk you through the essentials of configuring and optimizing your rewards program to boost sales, attract new leads, and enhance customer retention. From point allocation to rewarding past actions, you’ll find practical tips to help you get started and succeed.
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Define customer and product eligibility
Define when to award points to your customers
Define how to handle points for refunded orders
Define how points are calculated
Define how to reward past actions
Define customer and product eligibility
- Before setting up your Rewards Program, decide whether it will apply to all customers or specific groups. Go to Rewards → Settings → General → Eligibility Configuration, where you can include or exclude users based on tags.
NOTE: If you select the "Customers eligibility" checkbox, the rewards program will be visible only to authorized customers. Guest users will not see the rewards program until they log in.
- Specify whether the rewards program applies to all products or only selected ones. When you include or exclude specific items, customers will earn points or rewards only on the items you’ve chosen.
NOTE: This setting does not apply to coupon codes; coupons can still be used on excluded items.
Learn more about the logic of excluding and including customers and products in the Rewards Program.
Define when to award points to your customers
Typically, points are awarded when an order status is set to "paid". This ensures that points are only given for completed transactions. Go to Rewards → Settings → General → Rewards Management and select customer rewarding options depending on the order status.
NOTE: It is recommended to choose "paid" to ensure points are justified. For more details, view this guide on reward setting.
Define how to handle points for refunded orders
Configure the system to subtract points if an order is refunded, partially refunded, or voided. To set this up, go to Rewards → Settings → General → Refund Management. You can apply this setting to some or all refund scenarios.
Learn more about settings to subtract rewards for refunded orders.
Define how points are calculated
Configure how points are awarded based on the order value by adjusting the "Rewardable amount" settings. You can specify whether points calculation should include shipping costs and taxes or exclude discount and gift card amounts.
To do this, go to Rewards → Settings → General → Rewardable Amount.
NOTE: Enabling the “Exclude discount” and/or "Exclude gift cards" features will adjust the points awarded based on the final order value after discounts. For example, if an order costs $100 and a 10% discount is applied, resulting in a payment of $90, you would typically award 100 points ($1 = 1P). However, with these options enabled, only 90 points will be awarded to reflect the discount.
Define how to reward past actions
You can reward customers for actions completed before installing Growave or while the Rewards program was switched off. Go to Rewards → Settings → Rewards for Past Actions tab in your admin panel to reward actions such as signing up, posting a product review, placing an order (including other order-related actions), and subscribing to a newsletter.
For detailed instructions, refer to the guide on setting up rewards for past actions.
Migrate existing reward data into Growave
You can migrate existing reward data into Growave. For detailed instructions, refer to the following articles:
Set up points-earning rules
There are 16 ways customers can earn points. The primary goals for setting up these rules include increasing sales, gaining new contacts and leads, enhancing customer engagement, and boosting brand awareness. In the Growave admin panel, go to Points → Earn Points and click the "Add Ways to Earn" button.
You can learn how to set up points-earning rules in this detailed guide.
NOTE: Click rule titles below to navigate to create relevant rules in the Growave admin panel 😉
In this Best Practices document, let's briefly go through these rules:
Place Order
Award X points for every $1 spent at checkout. Rewarding customers for their purchases makes them feel appreciated.
NOTE: If your currency's value is low and you want to limit the points awarded per unit spent, we can adjust the points to a fraction, such as 0.1 per dollar. Please request this adjustment through tech support, as it cannot be done in the admin panel.
Punch card
Award X points based on the number of orders placed. If you prefer not to reward points per dollar spent as in the Place Order rule, using a punch card can be a suitable alternative. It allows you to award points based on order count and minimum purchase amount. The Punch card feature is available starting from the Growth plan.
NOTE: To set appropriate thresholds for order count and minimum purchase amount, consider your average order value and average order count per customer.
Spend X to get Y
Ideal for selling out specific collections or running promotions, this rule encourages customers to spend more by offering points or discounts when they reach a certain spending threshold. Customers must spend X amount to receive Y points or a Y% discount.
NOTE: You can create multiple Spend X to Get Y rules to tailor promotions to different scenarios.
Buy X to get Y
This rule is great for clearing inventory or encouraging additional purchases. For instance, buy a phone and get headphones at 100% off.
NOTE: You can choose to reward customers for purchasing a certain product or an item from the specified collection. Once the purchase is completed, the customer will receive one reward.
Sign up
Reward users with points or discounts for signing up with your store. Having more customer data allows you to build a personalized approach and provide better service.
Celebrate a birthday
Celebrate your customers' birthdays by offering points, discounts, gift cards, or free products. This gesture strengthens your relationship with them.
Customers can provide their birthday details in the Rewards widget or on the Rewards page (available starting from the Growth plan and on Shopify Online Store 2.0).
NOTE: You can set to multiply points for orders placed on a customer’s birthday.
Post a product review
Users can earn points, discounts, gift cards, or free products by leaving a review. Reviews help you improve your service and product offerings.
Customers can leave reviews on product pages, the Reviews widget, the Reviews page, or through review request emails.
Newsletter subscription
Reward customers for subscribing to your newsletter with points, discounts, gift cards, or even free products. This helps you gain your audience's attention and professionally remind them about your business.
NOTE: For the Social Follow rules listed below, Growave rewards customers for visiting your social media pages, but it does not track whether they actually followed your accounts.
Share to X (formerly Twitter)
Reward customers with points for sharing your content on X. This can increase your brand’s visibility and reach.
Follow on X (formerly Twitter)
Award points to customers who follow your business on X, helping to grow your social media presence.
Share on Facebook
Give points to customers for sharing your content on Facebook, which can help to spread your brand’s message to a wider audience.
Facebook visit
Reward points to customers for visiting your Facebook page, encouraging more engagement and interaction with your brand.
Follow on Instagram
Award points to customers who follow your business on Instagram, boosting your follower count and brand engagement.
Follow on YouTube
Give points to customers who subscribe to your YouTube channel, increasing your video content’s reach and visibility.
Follow on TikTok
Reward points to customers who follow your business on TikTok, helping to expand your audience on this popular platform.
Share your website
This rule provides multiple social channel options. Select those you would like to use for sharing by checking the box next to the social media name.
Choose reward types
You can offer the following reward types:
- Points: Customers earn points that can be redeemed for various rewards.
- Gift Card: Customers receive a gift card code that can be used for future purchases (available from the Growth plan).
- Discount: Customers receive a discount code for their purchases. There are three types of discounts:
- Percentage: Apply a percentage-based discount.
- Fixed Amount: Provide a fixed monetary discount.
- Free Shipping: Offer free shipping with geographic location eligibility options.
- Free Product: Customers receive a free product (available starting from the Entry plan).
NOTE: The "Place order" and "Punch Card — Place XX orders" rules can only offer points as rewards. All other reward rules can be configured to offer points, discounts, gift cards, or free products.
If you choose a discount as the reward type for your earning rules, customers will receive coupon codes that can be applied directly at checkout. If you provide redeemable points, you must create corresponding spending points.
For discounts, you can adjust further settings by clicking "More options". Additional settings are not available for other rewards.
NOTE: If a discount code has been redeemed, it will remain active even if the spending rule associated with it is deleted.
Set up points-spending rules
These rules are needed for customers to redeem their points earned by completing points-earning actions. The objective of these rules is to boost sales, enhance customer satisfaction, and encourage repeat purchases.
Before setting up these rules, consider factors such as your target audience, geographic locations, and customer needs. It’s also important to calculate the profitability of each reward option.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes, aim to exceed their expectations, offer choices, and leverage emotional appeal to maximize the effectiveness of your rewards program.
In the Growave admin panel, go to Points → Redeem Points and click the "Add Ways to Spend" button:
See detailed instructions for setting up points-spending rules.
In this guide, let's go through 5 types of points-spending rules available in the Growave Rewards Program:
Amount discount
Apply a fixed or variable discount amount on orders.
Percentage off
Offer a percentage-based discount on the total order.
Free shipping
Provide free shipping for orders. You can restrict this offer by geographic location, minimum purchase amount, and maximum shipping rate. Free shipping rule is available starting from the Entry plan.
Gift card
Allow points to be redeemed for a gift card. Gift card rule is available starting from the Growth plan.
Free product
Enable customers to exchange points for a free product. Free product rule is available starting from the Entry plan.
Useful tips for setting up the Rewards Program
Know your customers
Leverage your understanding of your customers to create valuable and well-organized rewards. Design rewards that resonate with their preferences and needs, and approach this task with creativity and empathy.
Balance and feasibility
Ensure that your earning and spending rules are balanced, practical, and financially viable. Avoid making rewards or coupon codes too easy or too difficult to obtain, and keep budget implications in mind.
Engaging program name
Choose a unique and catchy name for your rewards program to attract and engage customers.
Customize the term "Points"
Align the term "Points" with your brand’s voice. Customize this setting here to better reflect your brand identity:
- Write clear descriptions
Provide clear and concise descriptions for each earning rule to simplify the customer experience. Note that customers will need to click the rule title in the Rewards widget to view these descriptions.
- Enable notification emails
Activate email notifications to inform customers about their earned points or rewards. Customize these notifications as needed.
- Utilize the Rewards widget
Ensure the Rewards widget is visible on your site. Widget customization and visibility settings are available in the Rewards' Branding section.
- Promote your program
Once your earning and spending rules are configured, promote your rewards program through email campaigns, social media, and on your website using posts, banners, and instructional content. If you need assistance with this, contact our tech support.
We hope this information helps you set up an effective rewards program! 🤗 If you have any questions or need further assistance, reach out to us at support@growave.io or use the chat icon in the bottom-right corner.