Earning Rules Overview for Shopify

This article will give you an overview of the different ways your customers can earn points and other rewards as part of your rewards program. For other eCommerce platforms, refer to this article 

Earning rules are the foundation of the earning side of your loyalty program. 

You can view your earning rules by going to Set Up Program > Rewards Program> Manage Earning Rules.

To create a new earning rule:

1. Click Create earning rule.
2. Select the earning rule you want.
3. Click Next.

You also have the option to create earning rules directly from the Rewards Program page.

Types of earning rules

Each type of earning rule will focus on promoting different aspects of your brand whether it's turning one-time buyers into repeat customers, strengthening your brand's social media presence, or increasing brand awareness through educational content.

Purchase based earning rules

With purchase-based earning rules, you can reward customers for every qualifying purchase they make in your store. These help retain loyal customers and increase the frequency of their purchases.

• Points for purchases -  Customers earn points for making purchases in your store.
• Goal spend - Set a goal amount customers must spend to earn a reward. This earning rule helps increase average cart size and purchase frequency. Goal spend is available for Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans.
• Punch card - Reward customers once they've reached a set number of purchases. Use this earning rule to increase purchase frequency. Punch card is available for Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans.

Account based earning rules

Account based earning rules help you gain new loyalty members, and reward them even further for staying with you over time.

• Create account - Reward customers for creating an account in your store.
• Birthday reward- Reward customers annually on their birthday. Birthday reward is available for Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans.
• Anniversary reward - Reward customers on the anniversary of creating their loyalty account with your store. Anniversary reward is available for Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans.
• Sign up for SMS - Customers sign up to receive marketing text messages with Yotpo SMSBump. Sign up for SMS is available for Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans.

Social based earning rules

Use social based earning rules to strengthen your brand's social media presence.

• Facebook share - Reward customers for sharing your brand’s website on Facebook.
• Page visit - Drive traffic to your brand's Facebook, TikTok, or any other web page.
• Instagram follow - Reward customers for following your business on Instagram
• Twitter follow - Reward customers for following your brand on Twitter.
• Tweet about us - Reward customers for tweeting about your brand.
• Retweet - Increase social engagement with your brand on Twitter, and extend the reach of your tweets.

Earning rules for Yotpo Reviews

Earning rules for Yotpo Reviews are available for Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals merchants on Pro, Premium, and Enterprise plans. If you're a merchant using Yotpo Reviews, you can create earning rules that encourage your customers to write more reviews by offering them a reward.

• Yotpo product review - Drive more product reviews with Yotpo Reviews.
• Yotpo photo review - Reward customers for uploading a photo with their product review for increased impact.
• Yotpo video review - Reward customers for uploading a video with their product review for increased impact.

Advanced earning rules

Optimize your program with advanced earning rules that support donation opportunities, in-store omnichannel solutions, and other custom earning opportunities, etc.

• Custom action - Create unique and brand-specific earning opportunities.
• Points for donations - Reward customers by donating on their behalf, and giving them points for the donation.
• Paid membership - Reward customers for joining a paid membership program.
• Read content - Drive brand awareness and engagement from customers learning more about your brand.
• Code entry - Promote marketing events and offline purchases by offering a reward for entering a code.
• Receipt upload - Extend your loyalty program to in-store and third-party retailer purchases.

Managing earning rules

From the Earning Rules page, you can manage different aspects of your existing earning rules, and view the most important information about each one without having to access them separately. 

Each column summarizes key points you should know about a particular earning rule:

Earning Rule - This shows the name of the earning rule as you decided to name it internally. Click edit on the earning rule if you want to change this.

Reward - This is the reward you chose to offer customers for completing this earning rule. It can be a points or discount reward based on the options available for that earning rule.

Times Completed - This is a count of the total number of rewards that customers have earned from fulfilling this earning rule since it was activated for the first time. 

Status - This column shows whether the earning rule is active or inactive. If Active, this means that the customers are earning points or other rewards from this earning rule. 

If the status is Inactive with a clock icon, this means that this earning rule is scheduled to start on a set date.

To change the status of an earning rule between active and inactive from the table:

1. Hover over the earning rule.
2. Click the ellipses icon.
3. Click Activate rule or Deactivate rule.

Target Audience - This column shows you if this earning rule targets specific segments of customers, or maybe excludes other segments. Hover over this column to view the exact segments this earning rule is targeting.

Starts on/Ends on - For merchants who use our scheduling feature, this shows the date the earning rule is set to start on and end on.

Rule Type - This shows what type of earning rule this is, whether it's Points for Purchases or Goal Spend. If you chose to change the internal Earning Rule Name, this column keeps the original type of earning rule for your reference.

Created on - The date this earning rule was first created.

Last updated - The last date you made changes to this earning rule.

Deleting an earning rule

To delete an earning rule:

1. Hover over the earning rule.
2. Click the ellipses icon.
3. Click Delete rule.