How to set up the VIP Tier

How to set up the VIP Tier program

Understand the mechanism behind this feature and learn how to set up an effective VIP Tier program

Introduction

VIP Tier program – an essential tool in incentivizing repeat purchases by rewarding loyal customers. By offering exclusive benefits, discounts, or early access to new products, stores can encourage customers to return and continue shopping.

Overview

VIP Tier entry methods & duration settings
VIP Tier setup: level, name, icon, entry requirements
VIP Tier tags
VIP Tier entry rewards
VIP Tier emails
How customers see the VIP Tier Program

VIP Tier entry methods & duration settings

To begin setting up your VIP program, let’s start with the general settings with two main functions: Entry method and Duration.

A. Entry method

Points Earned:

Customers use accumulated points earned to participate in the VIP Tier program. Points accumulated must be equal to or greater than the Entry Requirement to reach a tier.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Points earned from the Happy Birthday action are not counted toward a customer’s Tier evaluation. Since these points are received passively each year, they don’t accurately reflect the customer’s actual engagement. This approach helps ensure fairness for both merchants and customers.

Money Spent:

Customers use the accumulated spending to participate in the VIP Tier program. The amount spent accumulated must be equal to or greater than the entry requirement to reach a tier.
The currency is automatically detected according to the default currency of the merchant.
Customers’ spending will be counted in their tier progress once the order is fulfilled.

BON NOTE: If a customer reaches a Tier but later cancels or returns an order, they will be moved to the closest Tier that matches their updated points or spending. This ensures their Tier status accurately reflects their current progress.

B. Duration

Merchants can choose between:

Lifetime: Customers keep their tier status permanently.
Rolling year: Customers’ tier status lasts 365 days from their latest Tier upgrade. Each Tier upgrade renews the 365-day period. If they don’t upgrade within that period, they are downgraded to the lowest tier.

Example:

Single-tier upgrade: A customer uprgades to Silver Tier on Jan 1, 2024. If they don’t upgrade within 365 days, they are downgraded to the lowest tier on Dec 31, 2024.
Multiple tier upgrades: A customer upgrades to Silver Tier on Jan 1, 2024, then upgrades to Gold Tier on June 1, 2024. Their Gold Tier status is extended until June 1, 2025.

BON NOTE: Upon resetting the tier after 365 days, all customers will be placed into the lowest Tier. If this lowest Tier has an entry requirement above 0 and the customer hasn’t met the required points or spending threshold, their Tier will be marked as ‘None’.

VIP Tier setup: level, name, icon, entry requirements

To start your VIP program, you need to set up the tier and its requirements. With BON Loyalty, there will be three default Tier levels: Entry, Silver, Gold. You can always edit the Tier’s name, icon, and entry requirements by clicking on the Tier in the table.

You can also delete a Tier from the Tier list if needed.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Entry Tier cannot be deleted.

By deleting a Tier, all members belonging to that Tier will:

The system will automatically detect which new Tier is most suitable for the customers, place them in that Tier.
While waiting in the queue, if merchants add a new Tier that is more suitable for the customers, the customers need to sign in and perform an action for the system to update them into a new Tier.

For entry requirements, depending on the type of entry method that you choose (points earned or money spent), you can set a suitable benchmark for each Tier, even the Entry one.

VIP Tier tags

Set ‘Add tag for this tier’ to Active so that customers in the corresponding Tier will automatically receive a Shopify customer tag in the format BON_[tier name] (e.g., BON_silver). This allows you to easily segment customers by Tier in Shopify and tailor your strategies and campaigns accordingly.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To ensure proper tagging for all customers from the start, we advise activating this feature when you first enable your Tier program. Customers will only receive this tag after the VIP Tier tag feature is activated. Customers who were already assigned to a Tier before activation will not have the tag applied.

If you’ve already launched your program without it, feel free to activate it and contact us – our Dev team can help re-sync the tags for all existing customers.

VIP Tier entry rewards

The entry rewards for a Tier include 4 different types:

Amount discount
Percentage discount
Free product
Shipping discount

There’s no limit to the number of entry rewards you can set up. Each reward can be configured as either Unlimited use – available to customers as long as they remain in the corresponding Tier – or Limited use, where you define the number of times it can be used. For both types, you can specify a minimum order value, expiration date, and whether the reward can be combined with other types of discounts.

The benefit for “Complete an Order” rule is a noticeable perk you can consider offering your members. This benefit allows customers to multiply the points earned whenever they place successfully fulfilled orders.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The extra points earned from the VIP benefits are not counted towards the total points for Tier evaluation. The reason for this is to ensure fairness and the shop owner’s rights. A customer’s upgrade depends on the actual amount they’ve spent rather than any extra rewards given by the merchant.