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How to import points, VIP tiers, and birthdays to Growave’s Rewards program

Use a CSV file to migrate customer points, VIP tiers or birthday data from another app

Written by Simon Akhrameev

Overview

CSV imports let you add or update Rewards data in bulk — customer points, VIP tier statuses, and birthdays. Use them when you're migrating loyalty data from another app, or for ongoing bulk operations inside Growave, for example, granting a points bonus to many customers, placing a group of customers into a VIP tier, or filling in missing birthdays so those customers receive their Birthday reward.

This guide walks you through:

  • Preparing your data

  • Uploading and validating your file

  • Selecting the right import type

  • Tracking or reverting past imports


Key benefits and use cases

  • Migrate from another loyalty app: Bring over existing point balances, VIP tiers, and birthdays when you switch to Growave.

  • Adjust point balances in bulk: Grant a promotional bonus (for example, 500 points to every customer) or correct balances at scale.

  • Assign VIP tiers in bulk: Place a group of customers into a tier at once (for example, early VIPs).

  • Fill in birthday data: Add missing birthdays so those customers receive their Birthday reward on the correct date.


Before you begin

You need a CSV listing the customers whose Rewards data you want to import, identified by Email (or Shopify Customer ID). How you build that list depends on your case:

  • Migrating from another loyalty app: Export your customer list with emails from your previous loyalty app, then paste the emails into the Rewards import template and add the data you want to import.

  • Updating existing Growave rewards (a bulk points bonus, VIP tiers, or birthdays):

    1. Export your customer list from Growave admin → Import/ExportExport tab → click Start export.

    2. In the Export modal, select date range, enter your email to received a CSV file, tick Email and/or Customer ID, and click Export.

    3. Copy the emails/IDs from exported file into the Rewards import template, add the data you want to import.

Alternatively, export data from AnalyticsRewards. 📖 Learn how to export Rewards data.

⚠️ Important

  • CSV file size for importing points, VIP tiers, and birthdays must not exceed 10 MB.

  • You can provide either Email or Shopify Customer ID (Email is required unless you provide Customer ID).

  • Customers must already exist in your Shopify customer list. Add them first if needed.


Step 1 – Download the CSV template

  • Go to your Growave admin → Import/Export → Import tab.

  • Growave - Import-Export - Import - Download Rewards CSV Template
  • Open the file in Excel or Google Sheets.

  • Fill in the relevant fields for Customer ID or Email, Points, VIP tiers, or Birthdays.

⚠️ Important

You can include all data types (points, VIP tiers, and birthdays) in your CSV file, but only one type can be imported at a time. To import another data type, use the same file and select the corresponding import type for each operation.


Step 2 – Understand CSV field requirements

Points import

Column

Required

Description

Email

Customer’s email address

Customer ID

Optional

Shopify Customer ID

Points

Points to add or set for the customer

⚠️ Important

You can either:

  • Add points to the customer’s current balance.

  • Set their balance to a specific value. If you select this option, points will be either deducted from or added to each customer's current balance to reach the specified amount.

The Balance adjusted notifications are not sent for bulk imports to avoid triggering spam filters.

VIP Tiers import

Column

Required

Description

Email

Customer’s email address

Customer ID

Optional

Shopify Customer ID

VIP Tier

Name of the VIP tier (case-sensitive; must already exist in Growave)

Tip

You can choose whether to issue Entry reward for customers during VIP tier import by selecting the relevant checkbox after setting up the VIP Tiers import type.

⚠️ Important

If your store has the Require customer consent to join the Rewards program setting enabled, any customers imported into a VIP tier who have not yet provided their consent will be "frozen" in that assigned tier. While they can still perform actions on your store, their activity will not count towards further tier achievement. Additionally, they will not be affected by any VIP tier recalculations (meaning no upgrades, downgrades, or new Entry rewards) until they explicitly provide their consent.

Birthdays import

Column

Required

Description

Email

Customer’s email address

Customer ID

Optional

Shopify Customer ID

Birthday

Customer birthday in YYYY-MM-DD format

How to find a customer ID and email

  1. Go to Shopify admin → Customers.

  2. Open a customer profile.

  3. Copy the number at the end of the URL — this is the Customer ID:
    (e.g., https://yourstore.myshopify.com/admin/customers/12345678).

  4. Click Copy button next to the customer email in the right sidebar.


Step 3 – Upload your file and choose import type

  1. Go to your Growave admin → Import/Export → Import tab.

  2. Click Start import → in the Rewards tab of the importing modal, click Upload file and select your CSV.

  3. Select one of the import type:

    • Add points to customers' current balances.

    • Set customers' point balances to the exact values indicated in the file.

    • Update your customers' VIP Tier statuses. When selected, you can also choose to Reward customers for reaching their VIP tier. If not selected, imported VIP members will not receive the tier Entry reward.

    • Import customers' birth dates.

  4. Click Next.

    Growave - Import-Export - Rewards

Use the same file again if you want to import another data type.


Step 4 – Validate your file

Once uploaded, Growave will check your file for errors:

  • If everything is correct, you’ll see a success message: "All records are valid and ready to be imported. Note: Some records might be skipped during import." Click Start import to proceed.

    Growave - Import/Export - Rewards - File validation completed successfully
  • If some records are invalid, Growave can still import the valid entries. You will see a message: "X records have errors and will be skipped. Note: Some records might be skipped during import." You can click Start import or Download error report to identify and fix the issues.

    Growave - Import/Export - Rewards - File validation completed with errors
  • If there are no valid records, you’ll be prompted to Download error report and fix the errors. Click Close after downloading the report.

    Growave - Import/Export - Rewards - File validation completed with no valid records

📘 Validation tip

The error report includes a column explaining why each record failed.

Add a note to imported points or VIP tiers (shown to customers)

When you import points or VIP tiers, before clicking Start import, you can add an optional Note explaining why the points or VIP tier were granted (for example, "Spring campaign bonus").

The note is stored with the import and shown to the customer in their History in the Rewards pop-up widget and on the Rewards page.

Import record in the History section of the Rewards popup widget

This is useful for bulk point grants during promotions, so customers can see the reason for the adjustment directly in their account.


Step 5 – Start and complete the import

  • Click Start import after successful validation.

  • The modal window will close and you will see the import history table with data on each import operation.

  • Depending on the number of lines in the file, importing may take some time.

  • After successful importing, you will see the Completed status and details about imported entries.

Growave - Import/Export - Import history table - Completed

Step 6 – View import history or revert an import

After you have completed validation or imported at least one file, you will see the Import history table under Growave adminImport/Export Import tab.

The Import history table includes the following columns:

  • Date: Date and time of the importing operation.

  • Type: The type of import operation corresponding to the selected option:

    • Points - Add

    • Points - Set

    • Birth dates

    • VIP tiers

    • VIP tiers with rewards

  • Status: Shows import operation status, may display the following status:

    • Validating — validation is in progress.

    • Errors found — no valid records found, import cannot be continued.

    • Ready to import — validation is completed, import can be started.

    • Importing — importing is in progress.

    • Completed — import successfully completed.

    • Reverting — reverting data import is in progress.

    • Reverted — imported data has been deleted from the database.

  • Total: Total records found in the file.

  • Invalid: Invalid records that could not be imported.

  • Imported: Successfully imported records.

  • Skipped: Records that are valid but skipped during importing, e.g., because the same data already exists in the database, for instance, the customer already has the same VIP tier. The Skipped records report will be available via Download icon.

  • Actions: Includes clickable links to perform certain actions:

    • Import: Appears when validation has been completed but importing is not started yet. Clicking it opens a modal displaying validation results. You can click Start import to proceed.

    • View: Appears when errors have been found. Clicking it opens a modal displaying validation results and a link to download error report.

    • Revert: Appears when import has been completed. Clicking it opens a confirmation modal with the following message: "All records imported from [filename].csv will be removed. This action cannot be undone." Click Revert import to delete the imported Points or VIP Tiers data. Birthday data import cannot be reverted. Records on reverted import operations will also be displayed under Analytics → Rewards → Activity log, Customers → Customer profile → Activity, and History section of the Rewards pop-up widget and Rewards page.


If you need help formatting your CSV or troubleshooting import errors, contact us at [email protected] or use the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the Growave admin panel. We’re happy to help! 🤗

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