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 the Rewards program availability
Define when to issue rewards for your customers
Define how to cancel rewards for refunded orders
Define how the rewardable amount is calculated
Reward customers for past actions
Define the Rewards program availability
- Before setting up your Rewards program, decide whether it will apply to all customers or specific groups. Go to Rewards → Settings → General → Rewards availability settings, where you can include or exclude users based on tags:
NOTE: If you select the "Specify 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.
- Choose who can earn points in your Rewards program:
- All customers, including guests (registration is still required to redeem rewards).
- Only customers with store accounts.
Learn more about the logic of excluding and including customers and products in the Rewards program.
Define when to issue rewards for your customers
Typically, rewards are issued when an order status is set to "paid". This ensures that rewards are only given for completed transactions. Go to Rewards → Settings → General → Rewards management by order status and select rewarding options depending on the order status.
📖 Learn more about issuing rewards based on order status
Define how to cancel rewards for refunded orders
Configure to cancel rewards if an order is refunded, partially refunded, or voided, to ensure fair reward distribution for your customers. Go to Rewards → Settings → General → Rewards management by order status
📖 Learn more about cancelling rewards based on order status
Define how the rewardable amount is calculated
Configure how points are awarded based on the order value by adjusting the "Reward amount calculation" 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 → Reward amount calculation:
📖 Learn more about rewardable amount settings with practical examples
Reward customers for 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 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 how to reward for past actions
Import existing rewards data into Growave
You can import existing reward data from other apps into Growave. For detailed instructions, refer to the following articles:
Set up Ways to earn
There are multiple ways customers can earn rewards within the Growave Points program (depending on the plan you choose). The primary goals for setting up these actions include increasing sales, gaining new contacts and leads, enhancing customer engagement, and boosting brand awareness. In the Growave admin panel, go to Rewards → Points → Ways to earn and click the "Add ways to earn" button.
You can learn how to set up earning actions in this detailed guide.
NOTE: Click action titles below to navigate to create relevant actions in the Growave admin panel 😉
In this Best practices guide, let's briefly go through these actions:
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.
GUIDE: Learn how to choose the right discount or point value for your loyalty program
How to choose the right discount or point value for your loyalty program
Place XX orders - Punch card
Award points based on the number of orders placed. If you prefer not to reward points per dollar spent as in the Place order action, using the 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 action 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 actions to tailor promotions to different scenarios.
Buy X to get Y
This action 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 their 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 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.
Leave 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.
Subscribe to newsletter
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: The Follow on... actions reward customers for visiting your social media pages, but Growave cannot track whether they actually follow your accounts. This is because platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X do not allow third-party apps to pull such data. We recommend setting a delay for point distribution to prevent misuse.
Share on X
Reward customers with points for sharing your content on X. This can increase your brand’s visibility and reach.
Follow on X
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.
Follow on Facebook
Reward points to customers for following 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 website
This action provides multiple social channel options. Select those you would like to use for sharing by checking the box next to the social media name.
Custom actions
If you want to add more ways to reward your customers, you can create custom actions (available starting from the Plus plan).
Choose a reward type
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 "Place XX orders - Punch card" actions can only offer points as rewards. All other reward actions can be configured to offer points, discounts, gift cards, or free products.
If you choose a discount as the reward type for your earning actions, customers will receive coupon codes that can be applied directly at checkout. If you provide points, you shall create rewards redeemable for points.
For discounts, you can adjust further settings by clicking "More options". Additional settings are not available for other rewards.
Set up Ways to redeem
These reward types are needed for customers to redeem their points earned by completing the Ways to earn actions. The objective of these reward types is to boost sales, enhance customer satisfaction, and encourage repeat purchases.
Before setting up Ways to redeem, consider 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 Rewards → Points → Ways to redeem and click the "Add ways to redeem" button:
📖 See detailed instructions for setting up Ways to redeem points
In this guide, let's briefly go through 5 types of Ways to redeem available in the Growave Rewards program:
Amount discount
Apply a fixed or variable discount amount on orders.
Percentage discount
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 reward is available starting from the Entry plan.
📖 Learn how to set up and customize Free shipping
Gift card
Allow points to be redeemed for a gift card. Gift card reward is available starting from the Growth plan.
📖 Learn more about setting up and using Gift cards
Free product
Enable customers to exchange points for a free product. Free product reward is available starting from the Entry plan.
📖 Learn how to use Free product as rewards
NOTE: If a discount code has been redeemed, it will remain active even if the associated reward type is deleted.
Useful tips for setting up the Rewards Program
- Enhance your Rewards program with VIP Tiers and Referrals
Here are the best practices guides for setting up VIP Tiers and Referral programs.
- 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.
📖 Learn more about Growave Rewards program analytics to get insights about your customers
- Balance and feasibility
Ensure that your earning actions and redeemable rewards 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.
📖 Read this Best practices guide on Points program strategy
- Engaging program name
Choose a unique and catchy name for your rewards program to attract and engage customers.
- Write clear descriptions
Provide clear and concise descriptions for each earning action and redeemable reward to simplify the customer experience. Note that customers will need to click the action or reward 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.
📖 Learn more about Growave notifications from this guide
- Utilize the Rewards widget and Rewards page
Ensure the Rewards widget is visible on your site. Widget customization and visibility settings are available in the Rewards Branding section.
Rewards page (available starting from the Growth plan) can serve as a hub for your Rewards program offering even more visibility and engagement for your customers.
📖 Learn how to set up the Rewards page
- Promote your program
Once your Ways to earn and Ways to redeem are configured, promote your Rewards program through email campaigns, social media, and on your website using posts, banners, and instructional content.
📖 Read our detailed guide on promoting Loyalty & Rewards program
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.