Creating a Birthday Reward Earning Rule on Shopify
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Creating a Birthday Reward Earning Rule on Shopify
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Goals and Outcomes
The birthday reward is an account-based earning rule that gifts customers points or discounts on their birthday. This earning rule helps boost customer lifetime value and builds a stronger personal connection with your brand.
In this article, you’ll learn how to create and configure birthday reward earning rules that best fit your loyalty program’s goals.
Is this article for me?
If you’re using a different eCommerce platform, please refer to this birthday reward setup guide.
Birthday Reward Overview
How It Works
Customers visit the earning points section of your Rewards Page.
They click the Birthday Reward tile and submit their birthdate.
On their birthday, they'll automatically receive either points or a discount, depending on the reward type you've configured.
Note
By default, if a customer enters a birthdate within the next 30 days, their reward will be delayed by 30 days to prevent abuse. This setting can be turned off. Learn more about fraud prevention.
Individual vs. Universal Birthday Reward Settings
There are two types of birthday reward settings you can configure:
Individual Birthday Reward Settings:
Set within each Birthday Reward earning rule (inside the Rewards Program) or birthday reward benefit (inside the VIP Program).
Allow customization for a specific customer segment or VIP tier.
Universal Birthday Reward Settings:
Located inside the settings card of any Birthday Reward rule.
Apply to all birthday reward rules, including rewards for VIP tiers.
Control when birthday rewards are triggered (e.g., on the birthday or X days before).
Jump to: Individual Birthday Reward Settings | Universal Birthday Reward Settings | Reward Trigger Options
Creating a Birthday Reward Earning Rule
To create a birthday reward earning rule:
From your Loyalty & Referrals admin, go to Manage Program > Rewards Program.
Under Ways to earn, click Create earning rule.
Select Birthday Reward and click Next.
Configure your earning rule and click Save.
Learn more about the available settings in the sections below.
Choosing a Reward Type
You can choose to reward customers either with points or a discount. Points can be collected and later redeemed for redeemable rewards, while a discount reward can be used on their next purchase.
Points reward
To set up a points reward:
Select Points as the reward type.
Enter the number of points to be awarded.
Discount reward
To set up a discount reward:
Select Discount as the reward type.
Choose either Fixed amount or Percentage.
Enter the discount amount. Use a whole, positive number between 1-100 for percentage rewards.
Add a Code prefix to help identify birthday reward codes (e.g., BDAY_2025).
Discount settings (optional)
Different discount settings are available if you want to promote specific products or collections, as well as specify who can use this discount and when. To view and edit these settings, click Discount settings under the Discount reward option.
Apply discount to
Choose to apply the discount to any product, specific products, or specific collections:
Any product: Apply discount to all of your products.
Specific products: Limit which products this discount can apply to. For example, if you want to promote specific products.
In the Product IDs field, enter your product IDs separated by a comma. Learn more about finding product IDs in Shopify.
In the Variant IDs field, enter your variant IDs. Learn more about finding variant IDs in Shopify.
Specific collections: Limit which collections this discount can apply to if you want to promote specific collections, groups or categories of products.
In the Collection IDs field, enter your collection IDs separated by a comma. Learn more about collections in Shopify.
Minimum spend
Set a minimum amount customers must spend on their purchase to be eligible to receive this discount.
Note that if you selected a specific product or specific collection to apply your reward to, the minimum spend amount is the amount customers need to spend on that specific product or collection.
Discount only applies to these Shopify segment IDs
Use this if you want to make this discount available only to specific segments using Shopify Customer Segments.
To find your Shopify segment:
Go to the Customers page in your Shopify admin.
From the Customer segment dropdown, choose the customer segment you want to use.
Your segment ID is the set of numbers found at the end of this page URL.
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Discount code expiration
Select a reward expiration if you want the discount to only be valid for a certain amount of time. Use this to increase redemption rate and purchase frequency.
Who can use this discount code?
Use this option if you want to limit the use of this discount only to the customer that originally received it.
Anyone: Use this if you don’t want to set a limit.
Only the customer who originally received the reward and is logged in to their account: Require the customer to log in to their account to verify their identity and use the reward.
Rewards History Text
Customers will see the reward they earned in their Rewards History when they receive it on their birthday. You can customize:
Action text: Set to Birthday reward by default. To change it, click in the field and type in the text you want customers to see in their Rewards History.
Reward text: Set to automatically display the reward value you’ve configured. For discounts, you can customize it by entering the {{reward}} off dynamic variable.
Important
The Reward text can only be changed for Discount rewards.
For Points rewards, customers will see the number of points they earned in the same line as the Action text.
Make sure not to leave this field blank.
Fraud Prevention
Enabled by default. When Fraud Prevention is on, you can restrict customers from abusing the system by delaying rewards when they enter a birthday that’s within the next 30 days.
For example, if a customer enters their birthday as tomorrow (e.g., July 10) on July 9, their reward will be delayed and they’ll receive it on September 16.
Tip
Once submitted, customers can’t edit their birthdate. Only site admins can manually change it from the Customer Management page.
To remove this limitation, turn off the Fraud prevention toggle.
Note
When fraud prevention is disabled, all customers whose birthdays have passed but were in the 30-day delay period will immediately receive their reward.
Advanced Settings
Additional advanced settings are available to add target audiences and VIP tiers.
Available for
Advanced settings including Yotpo Lists & Segments and VIP Tiers are available for Premium and Enterprise plans.
Target Audience
Add Lists & Segments to target this birthday rule at specific audiences. For example, those who have not made a purchase in over 90 days.
Apply this rule to: Use the dropdown menu to include the relevant lists and/or segments you’d like to target.
Do not apply this rule to: Use the dropdown to exclude lists and/or segments.
For example, if you want to create a birthday reward for all customers except those who consistently spend a lot of money in your store, you would select Apply this rule to > All customers, and Do not apply this rule to > Top spenders.
VIP Tiers
Use the dropdown menu to select which VIP tiers this birthday earning rule will apply to. You can create multiple birthday reward earning rules with different values for each tier.
Renaming Your Earning Rule
To help you differentiate between birthday rewards, you can change the name of this earning rule by clicking the edit icon next to it.
Note
The rule name is for internal management only. Your customers will not see this. To change how rewards appear to customers, use the Rewards Page Builder and Earning Points module.
Finding Your Rule ID
Use the Copy rule ID option if you need to share it with 3rd party partners that Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals doesn't directly integrate with. To find the earning rule ID, click the ellipsis icon next to the Save button.
Managing the Rule Status
The rule status that is located next to the rule name tells you whether the rule is active on your site or not.
If active, this means that the rule is running and customers are earning rewards.
If deactivated, the rule will no longer be visible to customers, and they won’t earn rewards from it.
Universal Birthday Reward Settings
Overview
Universal birthday reward settings define when birthday rewards are sent to customers. These settings apply to all current and future birthday rewards, including birthday earning rules and birthday benefits for VIP tiers.
To access the universal birthday reward settings:
Open any birthday reward rule.
Scroll to the bottom and click Edit in the settings card.
This will open a reward trigger configuration modal, where you can customize when birthday rewards are sent.
Important
When the program is active, you can edit these settings only once every 24 hours. After changes are made, the Edit button will be disabled for the next 24 hours.
Reward Trigger Options
On their birthday (default): If selected, the system will send the reward on the customer’s birthday at 10 a.m. local time, based on the timezone configured in your admin settings.
Custom timing: If selected, the system will send the reward before the customer’s birthday. The pre-selected default is 1 Week, but you can choose any of the following:
Days (up to 100 days before).
Weeks (up to 12 weeks before)
Months (up to 3 months before)
This flexibility allows you to align your birthday rewards with other related promotional campaigns and communication flows.
Disclaimer Checkbox
If your rewards program is active at the time you’re changing the rewards trigger, you will see a disclaimer checkbox in the universal settings modal.
The checkbox acknowledges that:
Some birthdays may be skipped as a result of the change, and
Affected customers will immediately receive their reward.
Checking the box is mandatory for saving the universal settings.
Important
The checkbox will appear only if your rewards program is live.
Backfill Scenarios
Overview
When you change the universal settings while your rewards program is active, Yotpo may automatically backfill rewards to ensure all eligible customers get their birthday reward, according to the settings you updated.
Important
Backfills only occur if the rewards program is active and the new trigger settings are successfully saved.
If fraud prevention is enabled and a shopper’s birthday falls in the backfilled timeframe, they will receive their birthday after the fraud prevention period ends.
What to Expect
Depending on what trigger changes you make, the system will behave differently. Let’s look at a few common scenarios and what to expect in each:
Scenario 1: From “On their birthday” → Custom timing
Switching from sending rewards "On their birthday" to before the birthday (e.g., 1 week before) will cause immediate rewards to be sent to customers whose birthdays fall within the skipped window.
Example: Change made on July 9, switching from “On their birthday” to “1 week before.” Customers with birthdays between July 10 and July 16 will receive their reward immediately since their birthdays fall within the newly created gap.
Scenario 2: From custom timing → “On their birthday”
In the opposite scenario, switching from a custom trigger (e.g., 1 week before) to sending the reward on the birthday will delay the next reward until after the custom timeframe has passed.
Example: Change made on July 9, switching from "1 week before" to "On their birthday." Customers with birthdays from July 9–16 have already received their rewards under the old trigger settings. The system will resume sending rewards starting July 17, which is the first birthday that hasn’t already received one.
Scenario 3: From one custom period to another
If you change from one custom timeframe to another, there are two main scenarios:
Option A: Longer to shorter custom period
Changing from a longer period (e.g., 2 weeks) to a shorter one (e.g., 1 week) will not send additional rewards for birthdays that fall within the new window, as those customers have already received a reward under the previous settings.
Example: Change made on July 9. A customer with a July 17 birthday received their reward on July 3 (2 weeks before). They will not receive another reward on July 10 (1 week before).
Option B: Shorter to longer custom period
Changing from a shorter period (e.g., 1 week) to a longer one (e.g., 2 weeks) will trigger immediate rewards for any birthdays that fall within the extended window.
Example: Change made on July 9. A customer with a July 17 birthday now qualifies for a reward on July 3 (2 weeks before). Because that date has already passed, the system sends the reward immediately.
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