Setting up Points Expiration

Goals and Outcomes

Point-based loyalty programs are a proven way to engage and retain customers by motivating and rewarding them throughout their journey.

Adding a validity period to loyalty points creates new opportunities to re-engage customers who may have forgotten about their balance. A simple reminder can encourage them to return to your store and use their points, a win for both you and your customers.

Point expiration also helps you manage point liability by clearing out balances from inactive customers while maximizing customer value from those who return to redeem their rewards.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• How customers earn points

• Which expiration methods are available

• How and when points expire

How It Works

Important

Currently, it is not possible to set an expiration date based on “date earned” for points in stores that have been merged as part of the Multi-store feature.

When setting up your loyalty program, you can choose to set an expiration date for the points your customers earn when shopping and engaging with your store. This means that every point the customer earns will be invalidated after the selected time frame, and the customer will no longer be able to redeem them for rewards and discounts.

Your settings determine:

• The expiration method (when the countdown to expiration begins)

• The validity period (how long the points remain active)

No matter which method you choose, the system always counts expiration in days. Jump to How do points expire? to learn more.

How do customers earn points?

Customers can earn points in various ways:

• Complete an earning rule

• Earn a VIP tier

• Manual adjustment: if you manually reward a customer with extra points, the date the adjustment was made will count as the date the points were earned

• Import: the date the import was made will count as the date the points were earned

Important

The expiration date cannot be adjusted or changed.

How do points expire?

A daily process runs at 00:00 a.m. PST to expire all points reaching their expiration date. This process may take a few hours to complete.

Expiration is always calculated in days. For example:

• If points expire 1 year after being earned, the system counts 365 days and expires them on day 366.

• Example: If a customer earns 100 points on January 1, 2025, with a one-year expiration, the points will expire at 00:00 a.m. PST on January 1, 2026. Therefore, the last chance for the customer to use the points is 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2025.

Note

Because the expiration process runs in batches, points may not expire exactly at 00:00 a.m. PST. For example, points scheduled to expire on January 1 may not actually disappear until 3:00 a.m. PST that day.

Expired points are displayed in the Earning History section of the customer’s profile.

How will my customers know their points are about to expire?

After choosing the points expiration method, customers will receive email notifications 30, 14, and 7 days before the points expire, prompting them to use the points and make a purchase.

This reminder is sent only for points with the nearest expiration date.

To send these reminder emails, you can use Klaviyo or a webhook event.

Which points are used when customers redeem points

When points are redeemed, they follow the ‘first in, first out’ rule - the first points earned will also be the first to get redeemed.

What happens when a refund is issued?

• If a customer receives a refund, the points they have earned when making the purchase will be deducted according to the refunded amount.

• If a customer used points for a discount when making the refunded purchase, the redeemed points will be reimbursed and will retain their original earning date. This means that their expiration date will be the same as it was before they were used.

• If the expiration date on the reimbursed points has already passed, the points will immediately expire on the day of the refund.

What happens when I manually adjust a customer’s points to reimburse them?

If you manually reimburse points, the adjustment date counts as the earned date. These points will expire after the chosen validity period, starting from the adjustment date.

Choosing the Points Expiration Method

There are three options to choose from:

Date Earned

Set the points to expire X amount of time after they were earned.

We recommend setting this option because it reduces points liability and allows you to predict the maximum lifetime of each point.

Additionally, it allows you to engage active customers who have forgotten to use their points and drive them to make a purchase.

Last Activity Date

Set the point to expire according to customer activity. An active user is a user who has opted-in to your loyalty program and performed one or more of the following actions within the selected time frame:

• Making a purchase

• Receiving a perk/reward - This includes all perks except for earning points via the Birthday campaign and Anniversary campaign. For example, if a customer is inactive and only received points as part of the Birthday campaign, they will be considered inactive.

• Referral completion

• Referral share

• Redeeming points/coupons

• Creating an account with your store

• Importing and adjusting points. To learn more about importing and adjusting points, go to Importing or Adjusting Your Customers’ Points.

If you choose this trigger, customers who exceed the selected time frame without completing one of the actions mentioned above will lose their accrued point balance.

Never

Customers will always be able to use any points they earn at any given time. This means that points will never expire.

Setting up Points Expiration

Applying an expiration time frame to point balances can be easily set up through your Loyalty & Referrals settings:

1. In the Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals main menu, go to Settings > General Settings.

2. Scroll down to the Points expiration period section.

3. Select the relevant time frame and points expiration method.

Changing the Expiration Settings

Before You Change Your Settings

There are several things you should take into account before changing the expiration settings:

• Which setting do you need to switch to?

• What is the right time frame for your business based on purchase frequency?

• Have you updated your customers beforehand about upcoming changes in their points balance?

You can change your points expiration settings at any point. These changes will affect all customers who have earned points prior to the change; however, the points countdown will be reset to begin from the date the points expiration setting was modified.

Once you’ve updated and saved your point expiration settings, you will not be able to make any additional changes to the settings while the update process is running.

To change your settings:

1. In the Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals main menu, go to General Settings.

2. Scroll down to the Customer’s points expire field.

3. Select the relevant time frame and points expiration method

Viewing Expired Point Balances

Point expiration events can be viewed in the customer profile or by generating an Actions Report (.csv).

Customer Profile

1. In the Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals main menu, go to Customers.

2. Click on or search for the desired customer profile.

Expired points will appear in the Earning History section of the customer’s profile.

The sum of all points that expire on the same date is listed under one row with the title "Points Expired".

Data Export

1. In the Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals main menu, go to Analytics > Reports.

2. Under Actions report, set the date range of the relevant report and enter your email address.

3. Customers whose points balance has expired will show Points Expired as an action in the Earning History section of the customer's profile.

4. Filter your actions export file for Points Expired to aggregate expired points within a specific date range.