Goals and Outcomes
Building a flexible tier-based program is a powerful way to nurture brand loyalty. With customizable tier structures, you can offer exclusive perks, rewards, and recognition that boost engagement, drive retention, and increase customer lifetime value. The new Loyalty Tiers program is a fully rebuilt version of Yotpo’s legacy VIP Tiers program with improved flows, capabilities, and analytics.
In this article, you’ll learn how Yotpo’s Loyalty Tiers work, how to create a tiered program, and how to manage your tiers over time.
Is this article for me?
If you joined Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals before August 11, 2025, please refer to this legacy VIP tiers guide.
Loyalty Tiers Program Overview
Note
Feature availability varies by eCommerce platform:
Free shipping tier benefits are supported only on Shopify and Shopify Plus.
Customer tag-based tiers are supported only on Shopify, Shopify Plus, and Custom platforms.
How It Works
Yotpo’s Loyalty Tiers program allows you to create customer tiers based on predefined entry criteria. Once customers meet these entry requirements, they unlock tier-specific benefits and move up in the program.
The main elements of the program include:
Tier term (e.g., 12 months, lifetime, etc.)
Tier entry thresholds (e.g., spend amount, points earned, etc.)
Tier-specific benefits (e.g., birthday reward, points multipliers, etc.)
Automatic or manual tier assignment
Tier Terms
Tier terms define how long a customer will keep their Loyalty tier status once they’re eligible to enter the program. You have three options:
12 months: Customers will retain their tier for 12 months from the date they entered the tier. For example, if a customer enters a tier on March 3, 2024, they will keep that tier status until March 3, 2025, unless they move up or down based on updated eligibility.
Lifetime: Once entered, customers will retain the tier permanently unless downgraded due to refunds.
Calendar year: Customers will retain the tier through the current calendar year and the following year. For example, if a customer enters a tier in November 2024, they will retain that tier until December 31, 2025.
Important
Tier terms do not apply to the base tier. Customers will stay in this tier until:
They qualify for a higher tier.
They opt out or are removed from the loyalty program.
Limitations
Maximum fifteen tiers per program: You can either create up to fourteen custom tiers plus one automatically generated base tier, or up to fifteen custom tiers per program.
Program availability: Available to Shopify and Shopify Plus merchants, as well as stores on Magento, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Custom platforms that either started onboarding after August 11, 2025, or successfully migrated from the legacy VIP program.
Handling Refunds
Refunds can affect tier eligibility based on the date of the refund, not when the purchase was made. When a refund occurs, the system evaluates eligibility depending on the tier term you selected for the program:
12 months: Looks back 12 months from the refund date.
Calendar year: Considers only the current calendar year.
Lifetime: Reviews the customer’s full purchase history.
If a refund causes a customer’s points or spend to fall below the configured threshold, they will be downgraded to a lower tier, and their tier expiration will reset.
Loyalty Tier Entry Criteria
Tier Threshold Types
When creating a Loyalty tier, you must first select how customers can enter, keep, or re-enter tiers. You have the following tier threshold options:
Base (no threshold): This is a pre-built tier that all eligible customers start from. It doesn’t grant entry rewards or benefits.
Default threshold: These are the two main thresholds. You can choose only one per program:
Amount spent: Tier entry is based on customers spending a certain amount in your store.
Points earned: Tier entry is based on customers earning a certain number of loyalty points.
Customer tags (advanced): Available to Shopify, Shopify Plus, and Custom platforms only. Customers qualify based on specific tags in your eCommerce platform (e.g., early access, employee, subscription, etc.). If a customer has multiple tags and your program has multiple tag-based tiers, the customer will be placed in the highest tier. Customer tags are case sensitive! Learn more about using customer tags in loyalty tiers.
Multi-store support based on tier thresholds
Tier qualification behaves differently depending on the threshold type selected for your program.
Amount Spent (Store-Specific)
Spend is tracked separately for each store. Purchases made in one store count only toward tier qualification in that store and do not carry over to tiers in other stores.
Points Earned (Multi-Store Supported)
Points can be shared across participating stores in a multi-store setup. Customers can earn points in one store and use those points toward tier qualification in another store that uses a Points Earned threshold.
For example, if a customer earns 100 points in Store A and Store B uses a Points Earned threshold, those points can contribute toward tier qualification in Store B. However, spend in Store A will not contribute toward an Amount Spent threshold in Store B.
While spend remains store-specific, points can be shared across participating stores.
Important
You can select only one default threshold type per program – Amount Spent or Points Earned.
Manual Tier Assignment
In addition to the automatic tier assignment, you can also manually assign customers to a specific tier via the Yotpo UI. The manual tier assignment will override any automatic tier placement, regardless of how the customer entered the tier.
How it works
Manual tier assignment can place a customer either in the same or higher tier.
You must define the tier duration. It can either be a specific date or indefinite.
If a customer who was manually assigned a tier later qualifies for a higher tier organically, they’ll be automatically upgraded, and the manual assignment will end.
Example: A customer is manually placed in Tier 2 for one year. After six months, the customer meets the spend threshold for Tier 3. The system automatically upgrades them to Tier 3, and the manual period ends early.
After the manual assignment period ends, the system will re-evaluate the customer’s eligibility and assign the appropriate tier.
Important
Manual tier assignment can only be done while the Loyalty Tiers program is active.
When the program is inactive, manual tier assignment is only available for test customers.
Manual tier assignment cannot be reverted and cannot be used to downgrade a customer’s tier.
How to manually assign a tier
From your Yotpo Loyalty admin, go to Customers.
Select a customer you want to edit.
On the customer profile page, click their current tier to open the reassignment modal.
Assign the new tier to the customer from the dropdown.
Choose how long the customer will stay in the new tier: either a custom date or Forever.
(Optional) Check the box to award the tier entry reward.
Click Save to apply the changes.
How to Create Loyalty Tiers
Creating Loyalty Tiers
To create Loyalty tiers, follow these steps:
Log into your Yotpo Loyalty admin.
Go to Manage Program > Loyalty Tiers.
Click to create a new program.
Select a tier type from the modal.
Choose a tier term and click Next.
Configure your program: The system will automatically generate a three-tier template program you can customize:
Edit the pre-existing tiers by clicking the pencil icon on hover.
Click the Plus button in the upper right corner to add a tier.
Click the Add benefit button to set up rewards for customers while in a tier.
When ready with the configuration, click Activate program in the upper right corner.
Tip
When creating tiers, you can customize each tier’s Rewards history text. This is the message customers will see in their Rewards History whenever their tier changes. Since the same text is used for tier upgrades and downgrades, make sure it’s suitable for both actions, e.g. Tier Changed: {tier name}.
Adding Tier Benefits
You can offer tier members various VIP benefits to incentivize them to reach and maintain their tier status.
Note
Because the base tier is meant to serve as an entry point into your program, there’s no entry threshold for it.
To create benefits:
Click the Add benefit button within the Benefits section.
Select a benefit type and click Next.
Fill in the reward configuration fields in the right-hand panel that appears.
When ready, click Save.
Repeat the process to create other benefits.
Configuring Benefits
There are several types of benefits you can add to your tiers:
Points multiplier
Free shipping
Birthday reward
Anniversary reward
Important
Birthday and anniversary rewards set within a loyalty tier will always override any existing birthday or anniversary reward earning rules.
For example, if you have a birthday earning rule that gives a $20 reward and a loyalty tier offers a $30 birthday reward, customers in that tier will receive the $30 reward instead. However, if a tier has No reward selected, customers in that tier will still receive the reward from the earning rule.
The same logic applies to anniversary rewards. Anniversary loyalty tier rewards take priority when defined.
If no general earning rule is configured, you’ll need to display the tier-specific reward as a tile on the Rewards Page to allow customers to submit their birthday or anniversary date.
Points multiplier
Offer tier members more points for purchases by adding a multiplier to selected eligible earning rules:
Add a positive number as the multiplier (e.g., 2, 1.5).
Select applicable Points for Purchase earning rules.
Free shipping (available for Shopify & Shopify Plus stores only)
Offer free shipping instead of customers paying pre-set shipping rates:
Click the respective rate you want to offer for free. Optionally, you can set a minimum spend amount that will only grant free shipping if the customer reaches that minimum order amount.
You can edit the list of shipping rates and zones in your Shopify admin (Settings > Shipping and delivery).
Important
Yotpo’s native free shipping tier benefit currently only supports:
Weight-based shipping rates
Carrier or app-calculated rates with specific shipping services selected
Order amount-based and flat rates are not supported, as well as carrier or app-calculated rates without selected shipping services.
In some cases, third-party shipping providers may change or remove shipping service names in Shopify, which can cause existing free shipping tier benefits to stop working.
Workaround for unsupported shipping rate types
If your store uses unsupported shipping rate configurations, you can use Shopify customer segments and automatic discounts to offer free shipping to tier members.
How it works:
Yotpo automatically adds tier-specific customer tags in Shopify when customers enter a loyalty tier.
swell_vip_{tier_name}for legacy or migrated VIP Tiersyotpo-tiers-{tier_name}for new Loyalty Tiers
You can use these tags to create customer segments in Shopify.
You can then create a Shopify automatic free shipping discount that applies only to those segments.
To configure the workaround:
In Shopify, go to Customers > Segments.
Create a customer segment using the relevant loyalty tier tag (e.g.,
yotpo-tiers-silver).Save the segment.
Go to Discounts and create a new Free shipping automatic discount.
Under Eligibility, elected the customer segment you created.
Save the discount.
Eligible tier members will now automatically receive the free shipping benefit at checkout.
Birthday reward
Reward customers on their birthday.
Select the reward type:
Points
Discount: Choose between a fixed amount or a percentage reward. Use the Discount settings menu to further customize the discount (e.g., applicability, expiration, etc.).
No reward
Customize the rewards history text:
Reward text (only editable for discount rewards): If you remove the dynamic {{reward}} placeholder, the system will not automatically display the reward value and you’ll have to enter it manually.
Action text: This is what customers will see as the name of the reward.
Enable/disable fraud prevention: Enabled by default. If a customer enters a birthday that is within the next 30 days of the tier entry date, the reward will be delayed to minimize abuse of the program.
To change when the birthday reward is triggered, use the universal birthday reward settings by clicking Edit at the bottom of the configuration window.
Anniversary reward
Offer a special reward for the anniversary of your customers’ account creation date.
Choose anniversary occasion:
Account creation anniversary: Reward customers based on the date they created their store account.
Personalized anniversary: Allow customers to enter their own anniversary/special occasion date.
Select the reward type: Points, discount (fixed amount or percentage), or no reward.
Customize the rewards history text:
Reward text (only editable for discount rewards): If you remove the dynamic {{reward}} placeholder, the system will not automatically display the reward value and you’ll have to enter it manually.
Action text: This is what customers will see as the name of the reward.
Add/remove fraud prevention: Enabled by default. If an anniversary date is within 30 days of the customer entering the tier, the reward will be delayed to minimize abuse.
Activating the Loyalty Tiers Program
After you’re done setting up your Loyalty Tiers program, it’s time to activate it. See how to activate it here.
How to Edit an Active Loyalty Tiers Program
Some changes, such as changing tiers, require you to deactivate the program, while others, such as updating tier benefits, can be done while the program is still active. Learn all about editing a Loyalty Tiers program here.