[intro]When you’ve completed this Guide, you will have installed and configured the Loyalty Points feature which will enable your customers to earn points when they shop with you - a fantastic way of encouraging customer loyalty and repeat sales![/intro]

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[caution]This feature is unavailable if your EKM online shop is on the Lite Tier. You will need to upgrade by following the steps in this Guide. [/caution]

[remember] Loyalty Points are incompatible with the Klarna payment gateway. If you use Klarna on your EKM online shop, we recommend that you do not use the Loyalty Points feature. [/remember]

Installing the Feature

1. From the Dashboard, click Features on the left-hand menu:

2. Click the Feature Library tab:

3. Scroll down to the Customer Service features and click the View More button on the right-hand side:

4. Click the Loyalty Points icon:

5. Click the green Install Feature button:

6. Click the Launch button:

Configuring your Loyalty Points

7. This will then display the settings for the Loyalty Points feature:

8. Choose from this drop-down menu which method you wish to use to reward your Loyalty Points:

  • Earn & Spend (default) = This is automated and customers can earn and spend their points when they choose;
  • Spend Only = This means that you - as the shop owner - need to manually assign the Loyalty Points to a customer’s account on your shop before they can spend the points.

[tips] The configuration of this feature is something unique to you and your EKM online shop. If you’re not sure how much you’d like a Loyalty Point to be worth, or whether to include points for delivery charges, have a look at the Loyalty Point schemes offered by your favourite retailers and compare the differences. ASOS, Tesco, Boots and Superdrug all run very successful loyalty point schemes which reward repeat customers with points that can be redeemed against future purchases, often when a specific number has been reached. [/tips]

How much is a Loyalty Point Worth?

This depends on how much you want to offer your customers. If you’re not sure, keep it set to the default 0.01 to begin with and review this amount after you have had your Loyalty Point scheme running for an adequate amount of time.

Award Points for Delivery Costs?

Again, this depends on your shop’s delivery methods and exactly how much you want to offer your customers. If you’re not sure what to include, use the default ‘Total Excluding Delivery’.

How many points should a customer have before they can redeem them?

This is where researching other retailers’ loyalty point schemes is useful. Some schemes make the customers save up 500 points before they can cash them in for a £5 voucher, whilst others make the customers save one thousand. Again, this depends on what kind of products you are selling and exactly what you want to offer customers with your own Loyalty Points scheme.

How long should the points be valid for?

Depending on what products you sell, you may want to use the default setting of ‘Never Expire’ which gives the customers an infinite amount of time to save up their points. However, if you retail Products which are single use for example - which gives customers a reason to keep returning to your shop - you may want to consider limiting the validity of any saved points to encourage the customers to earn and spend points within a given period.

These tick boxes allow you to choose when Loyalty Points are awarded and when they are to be removed from the customer. It’s a good idea to set the points to be awarded when an order has a ‘Complete’ status and set Loyalty Points to be removed when orders have a ‘Cancelled’, ‘Failed’, ‘Declined’ or ‘Refunded’ status.

9. When you have finished configuring your settings, click the green Update button:

[tips] When you have configured the Loyalty Points feature, don’t forget to create a Webpage on your EKM online shop all about your Loyalty Points scheme so customers can easily find out the details of the promotion. You could further promote this by creating Design Images using the Image Builder and your Carousel (if you’ve installed one) all about your Loyalty Points scheme and link it to the dedicated Webpage. [/tips]

What your customers see

10. Once a customer has logged into their account on your EKM online shop, the customer will see notifications on the Product Pages indicating how many Loyalty Points they could earn if they purchase this Product:

11. When the customer has reached the minimum limit for spending their Loyalty Points, this will be signified on the Order Summary page of the Checkout:

Accessing your Customers' Loyalty Points

12. You can find out how many Loyalty Points a customer has earned, or adjust the number of Loyalty Points a customer has. To do this, click Orders on the left-hand menu:


13. Then click Customers on the drop-down options:

14. This will display a list of the customers that have created accounts on your shop:

15. Using the search bar at the top of the page, you can search for customers using their first name, last name and email address. When you see the customer you are looking for, click their name to open their details. Here you can see their contact details, order history, and Loyalty Points balance. If you want to amend the customer’s Loyalty Point balance, click the green Edit button on the top right-hand corner of the screen:

16. You can now edit the customer's number of Loyalty Points by amending the figure in the Loyalty Points field. When you have finished making changes, click the green Save button on the top right-hand side:

Loyalty Points Display Options

17. There are some more advanced settings within the Loyalty Points feature which allow you to edit what text is displayed where Loyalty Points are referenced on your shop. Return to the Loyalty Points feature and click the Loyalty Points Display Options header at the bottom of the page:

18. This will reveal four fields where you can amend the text that is displayed on different parts of the platform. On the left-hand side, you’ll see which EKM Tags can be used in each field:

[tips]If you wish to rewrite the text in these fields to fit the narrative voice of your brand, it’s a good idea to use a Notepad (.txt.) file (or TextEditor if you’re a Mac user); copy each field onto your file, amend the text and then paste it back into the relevant field.[/tips] 

[warning] When editing the text, do not remove the EKM Tags - the commands within [square brackets]- as these will prevent the Loyalty Points feature from working properly. [/warning]

19. When you have finished making your changes, click the green Update button in the bottom right-hand corner:

Language Elements

20. Below the Loyalty Points Display Options, you’ll see the Language Elements:

21. You can amend the text in the fields provided if you wish to name your Loyalty Points something else entirely, or simply wish to change the wording of the fields that reference Loyalty Points throughout your EKM online shop by amending the fields provided:

[warning] When editing the text, do not remove the EKM Tags - the commands within [square brackets]- as these will prevent the Loyalty Points feature from working properly. [/warning]

22. When you have finished editing, click the green Update button in the bottom right-hand corner:

[tips]If you amend any of the fields within the Langage Elements or the Loyalty Points Display Options, it’s a really good idea to create an account on your EKM online shop as if you were a customer to double-check that these amended fields display as you would like at various points within the customer journey. [/tips]

Why has my customer not been rewarded their Loyalty Points?

This is a common issue that occurs when a customer has unwittingly created more than one account on your EKM online shop. If a customer complains that they were not able to redeem their Loyalty Points:

  1. Check that they logged into their account on your shop in the first place. If they did not, you need to explain to them that to use Loyalty Points, they need to log in to their account on your shop.
  2. If they logged in to their account when the order was made, return to the View Customers page (step 14 listed above) and run a search for their name.

If there is more than one instance of their name, they may have opened more than one account on your EKM online shop - check the details on each instance of their name to confirm it’s the same individual each time. Ask your customer which email address they would like to use before amending the total of Loyalty Points on the account to add any points earned on the account created in error. Confirm with your customers which email address they should use when logging into your EKM online shop in the future.

Where will customers see their Loyalty Points?

The customers will see their Loyalty Points balance when they log into their account on your EKM online shop:

And their Loyalty Points balance is also visible on the Checkout Flow too:

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]