🚀 Feature availability
VIP Tiers are available starting from the Growth plan.
Overview
VIP programs are powerful customer retention tools that emphasize exclusivity to encourage shoppers to spend more. When customers reach a specific milestone, they are automatically assigned a VIP Tier and can receive exclusive rewards and benefits.
How VIP Tiers work
Milestone achievement: Customers perform actions (like making purchases, earning points, or referring friends) to reach a milestone.
Tier assignment: Once the milestone is met, the customer is assigned to the corresponding tier and may receive an email notification.
Benefits: Customers receive rewards (like points or discounts) and perks associated with that tier.
Visibility: Customers can view their status, benefits, and next-tier goals in the Rewards pop-up widget, Loyalty info widget or extension, and the Rewards page on your storefront.
Configuring VIP Tiers enrollment
Before setting up the VIP Tiers, configure how customers are enrolled in the program based on their activity and dates.
Accessing enrollment settings
In Growave admin, go to Rewards → Settings tab.
Scroll to the VIP Tiers program status → VIP Tier enrollment section.
Choosing the enrollment option
Choose one of the following methods to track progress:
Look up activity from the first order
Tracks all orders and rewardable activities from the customer's very first order.
⚠️ Important
Only activity after the first order is counted toward tier progress. If you select Earn points as a tier enrollment milestone, any points earned before the first order, including for referrals, reviews, or other non-order actions, will not be included in tier progress but will still appear in the customer's points balance.
To include earlier earned points in tier progress, set a Specific date for tier enrollment in your VIP Tiers settings (for example, the date you installed Growave or enabled tiers) and then run a tier recalculation.
Current year
Tracks activity starting from January 1st of the current calendar year.
Update tier progress based on recent activity
This option uses a rolling activity window to evaluate VIP progress dynamically. Growave tracks each customer’s qualifying actions within the last X-days (e.g., 365 days). The window shifts forward every day, adding new actions and removing older ones, so VIP status always reflects recent engagement.
How it works
When the setting is first activated, Growave looks back over the chosen period (e.g., last 365 days) and counts all qualifying actions that meet your selected VIP tier milestone, such as Purchases made, Spent amount, Earned points, or Referrals completed:
If the milestone is met, the customer joins the appropriate tier.
If the milestone is not met, the customer stays in the default tier (no tier).
Each following day, the system:
Slides the activity window forward by one day.
Removes any qualifying actions older than X days (they “fall out” of the window).
Adds any new actions completed today.
Re-evaluates whether the customer still meets the milestone:
Tier behavior
Customers remain in their tier as long as the qualifying actions inside the current window still meet the milestone threshold, even if no new activity occurs.
If older actions expire and the total remaining inside the window drops below the milestone, the customer is automatically downgraded to a lower or default tier.
When a customer performs new qualifying actions within the window, they can regain their previous tier or move up to a higher one instantly.
Specific date
Tracks customers' activity to calculate their VIP tier status starting from a specific date you select.
VIP Tier rewarding frequency
You can customize how often customers receive rewards when they enter a tier.
In Growave admin, go to Rewards → Settings tab.
Scroll to the VIP Tiers program status → VIP Tier rewarding.
Select one of the following:
Reward only once: The reward is issued the first time a user reaches the tier. They will not receive it again if they drop out and re-enter.
Reward on every tier update: The reward is issued every time the user achieves the tier, regardless of previous history.
Setting up VIP Tiers
Creating a new tier
Go to Growave admin → Rewards → VIP Tiers.
Click Add Tier.
Enter a Tier Name (e.g., Bronze, Silver, Gold).
Add a description and upload a custom image (optional).
Selecting a milestone
The milestone is the main condition a customer must meet to join a tier. You shall select this when creating your first tier.
⚠️ Important
The milestone type is locked after the first tier is created. You will not be able to select another milestone for subsequent tiers you create. To change it later, you must delete all existing tiers and create new ones, which will result in the loss of customers' earned and multiplied points.
VIP Tier milestones include the following options:
Earn points
Tiers are based on the total points accumulated through shop activity (e.g., earn 6,000 points to reach Bronze).
⚠️ Important
Points are excluded from tier calculation when:
The customer's Points balance is manually changed.
Points are imported.
Points are spent on a discount.
The discount is refunded.
If points are awarded for an order that is then refunded, the points will be deducted, affecting the VIP Tier status.
Purchases made
Tiers are based on the total count of orders placed (e.g., make 10 purchases to reach Bronze).
Spent amount
Tiers are based on the total money spent in the store (e.g., spend $150 to reach Bronze).
Customer tag
Tiers are assigned based on Shopify customer tags. If a customer has tags for multiple tiers (e.g., "Silver" and "Gold"), they are assigned the tier that was created first in the Growave admin.
⚠️ Important
Tags used in the Rewards availability settings to either allow or forbid participation in the Rewards program, cannot be used for the Customer tag milestone.
Referrals completed
Tiers are based on the number of successful referrals made.
⚠️ Important
If you've been using Growave's Rewards program without VIP Tiers and then enabled this feature, customers who meet all criteria (milestone achievement and enrollment settings) will be assigned to the respective tier and receive only one reward for that tier. They won't receive rewards for lower tiers, if any.
Setting a default tier
You can configure the Default tier for customers who have not yet met any milestone criteria. This ensures all customers start with basic benefits immediately upon joining the program.
Adding points multiplier
You can set a multiplier to help VIP members earn points faster (e.g., a 2x multiplier doubles the points earned for actions).
📗 Multiplier priority
You can set up the points multiplier in every tier. If a Boost campaign and/or Birthday point multiplier is active at the same time, only one multiplier applies with the following order:
Birthday point multiplier
Boost campaign multiplier
VIP Tier multiplier
Automated tagging
You can configure Growave to automatically add a Shopify tag to a customer's profile when they reach a specific tier (available for all milestones except for the Customer tag milestone). This is useful for audience segmentation and automation in tools like Shopify Flow, Klaviyo, or Gorgias.
Selecting entry reward
You can assign one reward per tier, which customers receive upon entering that tier. Options include:
Points
Discounts (Fixed amount, Percentage, Free shipping)
Gift cards
Free products
No reward
⚠️ Important
If you update the reward option, previously assigned but unused rewards will be removed (except for points).
📖 Learn more about rewarding customers for reaching VIP tiers
Perks for VIP Tiers
🚀 Feature availability
Perks are available for Growave 2.0 users starting from the Growth plan.
Perks allow you to display up to 5 custom benefits (e.g., "Priority support" or "Early access") in the Rewards pup-up widget and Rewards page. Perks are text-based, managed manually, and have multilingual support.
Tracking VIP Tiers activity
You can monitor VIP Tier program activity under Analytics → Rewards tab → VIP Tiers.
🚀 Feature availability
Extended VIP Tiers statistics are available for Growave 2.0 users.
Changing VIP Tiers settings
When you update your VIP Tier settings, Growave requires you to manually launch a recalculation to apply changes across your customer base.
Here’s what to expect:
A recalculation prompt will appear: Click Start recalculation. This triggers a full recalculation of VIP tier eligibility for your customers.
Customers will be reassigned based on the new tier rules:
Customers who no longer meet the updated tier criteria will be downgraded or removed from the VIP Tiers program.
Customers who now qualify will be assigned to the appropriate tier, either higher or lower.
This includes customers who were not previously in any tier but now meet the new rules.
Tier Unlocked emails will not be resent: To prevent mass email sends and avoid deliverability issues, Growave does not resend the “Tier Unlocked” notification after recalculation, even if customers are upgraded or newly assigned a tier.
⚠️ Important
Recalculation is a resource-intensive process and can only be launched once per hour.
Processing time may vary depending on the size of your customer base.
Avoid changing tier settings after launching recalculation, as those changes won’t apply until the next run.
Attempting to start a new recalculation within 60 minutes will result in an error message.
FAQ
How can I make VIP customers earn their VIP tier multiplier instead of the Boost multiplier?
How can I make VIP customers earn their VIP tier multiplier instead of the Boost multiplier?
You can override Boost priority using customer eligibility settings:
Go to Rewards → Points → Boost Campaigns
Click Edit on your Boost campaign
In the Customer eligibility section, choose Forbid for customers with listed tags
Add the Shopify tags used for your VIP tiers
VIP customers will then earn points based on their VIP multiplier, while non-VIP customers will earn the promotional Boost multiplier.
For any questions or requests regarding the VIP Tiers program, please contact us at [email protected] or use the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the Growave admin panel. We're here to help! 🤗