Setting up Points Expiration

Point-based loyalty programs are a tried-and-true way to effectively engage and retain customers by motivating and incentivizing actions along the buyer journey.

Applying a validity time frame to loyalty points creates a new opportunity to engage customers who may have forgotten about their accumulated point balance and simply need a reminder to revisit your store and take advantage of their accumulated points - a win for you and your customers.

Implementing expiration time frames for loyalty points also helps you manage point liability. You can maximize customer value by re-engaging customers and clearing out balances of inactive customers.

How it works

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.

The settings include a points expiration method that determines when the countdown to expiration begins and the points' validity time frame.

No matter which time frame you choose, the system always counts this period in days. For example, if you set points to expire 1 year after they were earned, the system will count 365 and then expire the points on day 366 after they were earned.

How can 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

How do points expire?

A daily process starts running at 00:00 a.m. PST and expires all points with today’s expiration date and can take a few hours. The expired points will also appear 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 will expire to prompt 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 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, 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 point will immediately expire on the day of the refund

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

If you manually reimburse points, their adjustment date will count as the date when the points were earned. This means that these points will expire on the day the adjustment was made + the time frame you chose in the expiration settings.

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 above-mentioned actions will lose their accrued point balance.

Never

Customers will always be able to use any point 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 General Settings.
2. Scroll down to the Customer’s points expire field.
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.