How Loyalty points module works? Can I assign them manually?

This feature lets customer earn loyalty points via purchases to apply as credit towards future purchases.  Loyalty points are earned automatically as customer makes purchases through your AE webstore, based on their loyalty points level. Speak with AE Sales to purchase the loyalty points module.

Once loyalty points module is installed, you can begin managing your loyalty points program under Customers>>Loyalty Programs in AE Admin.

Create a Loyalty Points Program

To add your first points program, click “Create New Loyalty Program”.  In the form that loads, enter the name of your new program (e.g. “Loyal Customers” or “Best Customers”) and set it’s status by checking/unchecking the Active checkbox (only active programs will generate points).  Click “Create Now” to create the new program, which will refresh the window to show your new program and allow you manage it.

When first created, a default reward level is built which is set to earn 1 point per dollar spent, each point being worth $0.01 (i.e. earn a penny for every dollar spent on the site).  To make this reward level the active level of this program, select it for the Active Reward Level field and click Save Changes. Now, any customer using this loyalty program would earn points based on the active reward level.

You can create multiple reward levels on for a loyalty program, but only one reward level can be active at a time.  This means you can setup special reward levels and activate them at certain times.  For example, to entice loyal customers into ordering during the Christmas rush, you might setup a new reward level that offers 5 points earned per dollar spent.  You can then set that reward level as the active level during the Christmas season so any purchases during that time for customers using this program would be calculated based on this premium reward level.

Now that you have a loyalty program setup you can assign it to the appropriate customers.  There are two ways to assign a customer to a particular loyalty program:

1. Via Account Type: the easiest and most common way is to assign a loyalty program to an account type, this way any customer using account of that type will use that loyalty program.  This means you could setup a loyalty program for standard accounts, but if you had another account types for premium customers, you could setup separate loyalty programs (which better rewards) for those account types to use.  To do this, go to Customers>>Accounts>>Types>>select an Account Type>>set Loyalty Program field to the program I want those types of accounts to use.
2. Via Account: each account by default will use whatever loyalty program is assigned to the account type their account is set to.  However, you can override this for specific accounts if you want to.  For example, if I want to setup a very special loyalty program for only a few of my best customers that earns them higher rewards, I can do so and then apply it only to their accounts.  To do this, I go to Customers>>Accounts, select the account I want to assign the loyalty program to>>go to Loyalty tab and set Loyalty Program field to the specific program I want that account to use.

Managing Customer’s Loyalty Points

Once I have a loyalty program assigned to accounts, any purchases made by those accounts when the loyalty program is active will accumulate loyalty reward points for that customer’s account.

To manage a specific customer’s loyalty points, simply go to Customers>>Accounts>>select the account>>go to Loyalty tab.  Here you can adjust the loyalty program being used for the account (as instructed above) and credit or debit the account’s current loyalty points balance.  This tab specifically will show any recent credits or debits to the loyalty points of this customer’s account.  To manage credits, click “Manage All Credits”; to manage debits, click “Manage All Debits”.

Managing Loyalty Point Credits

Loyalty point credits are points earned from purchases placed via the customer’s account.  Orders placed through your AE webstores will automatically generate new loyalty point credits based on order total and the loyalty point program the customer account is using at the time of purchase.  You can also manually add point credits to a customer’s account.

To add loyalty points to the account, when editing a customer account, click the Loyalty tab then click Manage All Credits button.  The page that loads, you’ll see a list of past point credits.  Click “Create New Loyalty Points Credit” to assign more points to this account.  In the form that loads, you need to fill in the following:

• Reward Level: allows you to select the reward level to use for the points you’re about to credit.  The select menu here will display any reward levels available for the loyalty program currently being used by the account.  If no reward levels are shown, this means no loyalty program is currently being used by the account, so go back to the account edit form, go to the loyalty tab and assign the appropriate loyalty program to the account).   The reward level you select will determine the monetary value of the points you’re about to credit (i.e. if the reward level you select values each point at $0.05, that’s the value that will be used for each point you credit here).
• Points to Award: enter the number of points to credit to this account (value of each point determined by the reward level you select in the Reward Level field)
• Assign to Shipment ID: if you want to assign these points to a particular order/shipment, enter the Order Shipment ID (Note: NOT the Order ID).  To get the Order Shipment ID, go to Orders>>find and click on the order you want>>in the list of shipments, each shipment has a unique numerical ID displayed like “Shipment #5” (5 being the Order Shipment ID).  This field is optional, but is good to use if you want the points to be related to a particular order.

Once you’ve completed the fields, click “Create Now” to generate the points credit.  When you close out the Create Credit form you’ll see the list behind it refresh to show the new credit you’ve created.

You can not edit a credit after it’s been created, but you can delete a previous credit if you wish.  To delete a past credit, find it in the credits list and check the checkbox under the “Delete” column of the credit’s row, then click Save Changes. This will remove the credit/points from the customer’s account.

Managing Loyalty Point Debits

A loyalty point debit is a deduction of previously earned loyalty points from a customer’s account loyalty points balance.  Loyalty points credits are earned and saved to a customer’s account, after which the customer can use those points as payment/discount on future purchases, and when those points are used that is called a loyalty point debit.

Customers placing orders through your AE webstores will have access to their account’s loyalty points in checkout and can use them to as they like, but you as admin can also manually debit points from a customer’s account.  Many AE client chose to use this feature for customer that want to use their loyalty points outside an AE webstore purchase (i.e. if they’re purchasing something in your brick-and-mortar store, you can generate a debit transaction here).

To debit loyalty points from an account, when editing a customer account, click the Loyalty tab then click Manage All Debits button.  The page that loads, you’ll see a list of past point debits.  Click “Create New Loyalty Points Debit” to debit points from this account.  In the form that loads, you need to fill in the following:

• Reward Level: allows you to select the reward level to use for the points you’re about to debit.  The select menu here will display any reward levels available based on previously earned loyalty point credits.  If no reward levels are shown, this means no credits are available to debit (i.e. you can’t debit points if the account has no points to debit).  The reward level you select will determine the monetary value of the points you’re about to debit (i.e. if the reward level you select values each point at $0.05, that’s the value that will be used for each point you debit here).
• Points Used: enter the number of points to debit from this account (value of each point determined by the reward level you select in the Reward Level field)
• Assign to Order ID: if you want to assign these points to a particular order, enter the Order ID (Note: NOT the Order Shipment ID, credits are assigned to Order Shipment ID, debits are assigned to Order ID).  To get the Order ID, go to Orders>>find the order you want to use and copy the order ID from the ID column.  This field is optional, but is good to use if you want the points debited to be related to a particular order.

Once you’ve completed the fields, click “Create Now” to generate the points debit.  When you close out the Create Debit form you’ll see the list behind it refresh to show the new debit you’ve created. 

You can not edit a debit after it’s been created, but you can delete a previous debit if you wish.  To delete a past debit, find it in the debits list and check the checkbox under the “Delete” column of the credit’s row, then click Save Changes. This will remove the debit from the customer’s account and make those points available again.

Where can AE Loyalty Points be used?

Customers can use AE loyalty points they’ve earned by logging into their account directly in your AE webstore.  Any available loyalty points will be displayed for use in the checkout process.  Step 3 of checkout displays a small widget in which customers can choose to use any loyalty points assigned to their account.  If the customer uses any loyalty points in AE checkout, the monetary value of those points discounts/pays for the purchase they are making and when checkout is completed, the loyalty points used are debited from their account’s loyalty points balance.

If you’d like to allow customers to use AE loyalty points outside of the AE webstore, you can do so, but you have to manage the transactions manually.  For example, if a customer comes into your brick-and-mortar store and want’s to use some points they’ve earned in your webstore, they would provide you their customer account information, which you’d search for in AE admin under Customers>>Accounts and create a new loyalty point debit transaction to remove the appropriate points from their account (and you would of course discount the order they’re making in store for the amount being debited from their loyalty points).  See Manage Loyalty Point Debits (above) for more information.  If you so wished, you can also credit (add points) to their account’s loyalty points balance by manually creating loyalty point credits for any purchases made outside of the AE webstore.  See Managing Loyalty Point Credits (above) for more information.