Loyalty programs and gift cards on Shopify

Native gift cards

Shopify lets you sell gift cards like any other product, with different amounts as variants. When someone buys one, the customer receives a code by email and can use it at checkout in the online store and in Shopify POS. You can also issue gift cards manually from the admin, which is useful to make up for an issue or to reward a customer.

Many themes, like Dawn, can show a form on the gift card product page to send it directly to someone else with a message. If you sell in a physical store, Shopify also offers POS-compatible physical gift cards in the countries where they are available.

In the gift card settings you can define whether they expire. Before setting an expiration date, check with your advisor what the applicable consumer law allows.

• Gift card product with amounts as variants
• Code sent by email to the buyer or a recipient
• Manual issuing from the admin
• Redeemable online and in POS

Store credit

Store credit is a balance assigned to a customer's account and applied at checkout. According to Shopify's help center, you can issue it manually from the customer's profile, when processing a refund or a return, or through the API, which is what many loyalty apps use to deliver rewards.

To use it, the customer has to be logged in with the new customer accounts or pay with Shop Pay. It doesn't work with legacy customer accounts. You can set an expiration on each issue or leave it with no expiration.

It's especially useful for returns: offering a refund as store credit instead of money keeps the sale in your store. And for loyalty it's cleaner than a discount code, because it's tied to one person and doesn't get shared on coupon sites.

To issue it, staff need the corresponding store credit permissions, and you can send the customer an email notification when you do. Also check whether any transaction fee applies to orders paid with credit, depending on when your store was created and your payment provider.

Points and tier programs with apps

Shopify doesn't have a native points program. For that you use specialized apps, which add a points panel to the store, rules for earning points (per purchase, for signing up, for leaving a review, on birthdays) and ways to redeem them, usually as a discount or as store credit.

When choosing an app, look at how it delivers rewards. Apps that generate unique discount codes work with any setup but can clash with other discounts. Apps that use native store credit give a cleaner experience at checkout. Also confirm the app works with the new customer accounts and that its widget doesn't slow down the store.

How to design a program people use

The most common mistake is copying a complex points program the customer doesn't understand. A simple rule that can be explained in one sentence works better, with a first reward reachable by the second or third purchase. If the first reward is too far away, nobody remembers the program.

Also think about rewards that aren't just money: early access to launches, free shipping, exclusive products or event invitations. With customer metafields and segments you can flag your best customers and show them different content in the store or in emails.

• A points rule that's easy to explain
• A first reward that's reachable early
• Rewards that aren't always discounts
• Balance shown in emails and in the account

Automating with Flow and segments

Shopify Flow, free on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, lets you automate a good part of your loyalty program without extra apps: tag customers when they pass a spend threshold, alert the team when a regular customer places a large order or add them to a VIP segment. Those segments can then be used in Shopify Messaging or Klaviyo to send campaigns only to them.

Combine these automations with your marketing ones: a thank-you email after the second purchase, a reminder when a points or credit balance is about to expire, and a win-back message for anyone who hasn't bought in months.

Referrals are another piece that often gets forgotten. Many loyalty apps include a program where the customer shares a link and both they and their friend get a reward. It works best for products people recommend naturally, and it's wise to limit the reward to paid, non-returned orders to prevent abuse.

Common mistakes

Installing a points app, a gift card app, a reviews app and a referral app that don't talk to each other and load four scripts on every page. Launching the program without announcing it on the product page, the cart and in emails, so nobody knows it exists. And not measuring: compare the purchase frequency of program members with everyone else in Shopify reports before deciding whether it's worth keeping.