Point-based and cashback programs are the most popular and flexible loyalty strategies.

• Point-based loyalty programs allow customers to earn points through their actions, which they can later exchange for rewards. For instance, a coffee company might give customers 1 point per euro spent. After collecting sufficient points, customers can redeem them for free coffees or other gifts. This versatile model adapts well to different business needs.
• Cashback loyalty programs provide customers with partial refunds after reaching spending thresholds, which encourages larger purchases. For example, a hotel might offer customers €10 in cashback credit for each €100 spent. They can then apply this credit toward future stays at the hotel.

Before you start

• You can request a demo of Loyalty by filling out this form.
• You can use eCommerce or custom events (such as making a purchase) in your loyalty program to trigger actions (such as earning balance credit)
  • To learn more about e-commerce events, check our dedicated article FAQs - Which plugins generate eCommerce events?.
  • To learn more about custom events, check our dedicated article Create custom events in Brevo.
• To learn more about Loyalty, check our dedicated article What is Loyalty?

🏅 Step 1: Create your loyalty program

To create your loyalty program:

1. Go to Commerce > Loyalty.
2. Click Create a loyalty program.
3. Give a name to your loyalty program to easily find it in your list. This name is only visible to you.

You will now define your loyalty program.

👤 Step 2: Set up your membership strategy

For clients to start earning points and redeeming rewards, they first need to join the loyalty program by creating a membership. Each membership is assigned a unique ID, which is used to identify and track the client’s activity within the program.

To define the membership:

1. Go to the Membership tab.
2. Select how each membership ID is generated:
   • Automatic
     Brevo generates a unique membership ID.
   • Custom ID generation
     Customize your ID length, type, prefix, and postfix.
   • Upload code pool
     Upload a CSV with a list of codes that can be used as a membership ID.
3. In Join conditions, click Add event to define what triggers your clients to join the loyalty program.
   For example, you may want clients to join after their first purchase—whether online or in-store—once their account is created. To achieve this, you can ask clients to submit a form and add them to a pre-created My Loyalty program list. Then, use the trigger Contacts > Added to list > My Loyalty program to automatically enroll them.
4. In Leave conditions, click Add event to define what triggers your clients to leave the loyalty program. 
   For example, a client who shows no engagement over a significant period of time, has explicitly asked to unsubscribe, or generates repeated hard bounces, should exit the program.
   
5. (Optional) You can generate events before the member's birthdays and membership anniversaries by selecting the contact attribute corresponding to your contact's birthdays and activating the Membership anniversary option.
   Generating these events allows you to run automations, attribute rewards or credit balances before the date.

⚖️ Step 3: Set up your balance

You will now define how points or cash are earned through customer transactions or interactions with your brand:

Step 1: Balance information

1. Go to the Balances tab.
2. Click Create balance.
3. Let's define our balance information:
   
   PointsCash

   To create a point-based balance:

   1. Select the Points balance type.
   2. Give a name to your balance. For example, we are naming our balance "Coffee beans".
   3. (Optional) Select an image or drop a file in the dedicated zone to upload a logo for your balance.
      The image URLs are available in the public API responses and can therefore be displayed in your applications.

   To create a cash-based balance:

   1. Select the Cash balance type.
   2. Select a currency.
   3. Give a name to your balance. For example, we are naming our balance "Cashback".
   4. (Optional) Select an image or drop a file in the dedicated zone to upload a logo for your balance.
      The image URLs are available in the public API responses and can therefore be displayed in your applications.
4. Click Next to define the balance rules.

Step 2: Balance rules

Balance rules define when and how credits (points or cash) are added to a customer's balance.

To configure balance rules:

1. Click Add new rules to define how customers can earn points. The rule editor opens. You can define how much credit your clients receive when a condition is fulfilled.
   
2. In the When section:
   1. Click + Add condition.
   2. Select an event to trigger the rule.
      ➡️  For example

      You could use the following conditions or custom events to trigger the addition of credit to the balance:

      • Making a purchase: for each euro spent, your customers receive 1 point.
      • Membership anniversary: every year, your customers receive 50 points.
      • Leaving a review on a product: for each review posted, your customers receive 10 points.
3. In the Then section:
   1. Select how many points to attribute to the credit balance.
   2. (Optional) Add options to the action: expiration, credit schedule or metadata.
   3. (Optional) Add other actions to complete when the rule is triggered.
4. Click Save Rule.
5. If you've selected a cash balance, in the Redeem rules section, click Add new rules to define how customers can redeem their cash. The rule editor opens.
6. Click Next to define the limits and capping.

You can define more balance or other rules later from the Rules tab. To learn more, check our dedicated section.

Step 3: Limits and capping

Define the limits of your balance and credits:

1. Define the minimum balance an account must maintain and the maximum balance an account can accumulate.
2. Define the credit capping:
   • Maximum credit per operation: maximum amount of credits (points, euros, etc.) that can be awarded or earned in a single transaction or operation.
   • Credit amount limit: total amount of credits a user can earn over a given period (day, week, month, year) or for a specific type of activity.
   • Credit operations limit: maximum number of credit transactions (point-generating transactions) that an account can make in a given period.
3. Define the debit capping:
   • Maximum debit per operation: maximum amount of credits that can be spent or used in a single transaction ( a single redeem transaction).
   • Debit amount limit: total amount of credits a user can spend over a given period (day, week, month, year).
   • Debit operations limit: maximum number of debit transactions (transactions where points are used) that an account can make in a given period.
4. Click Next to configure the expiration and rounding rules.

Step 4: Expiration and rounding rules

Define the expiration and rounding rules of your balance to ensure accurate and consistent management of balances (loyalty points, credits, vouchers) and their validity period.

1. Define when the balance value will expire: never, after some time, or on a set date every year.
2. (Optional) Click + Add event to generate an event when the balance value is about to expire.
3. Define your credit and debit rounding strategy:
   1. No rounding.
   2. Round neutral.
   3. Round up.

   4. Round dow.

      

4. Click Save balance.

🪜 Step 4: Create tiers

You will now define tier scale, access conditions, and perks. For example, you can create three tiers—Bronze, Silver, and Gold— to value your customers based on their spending levels. Each tier can offer specific rewards or even tailored communications through customer segmentation.

1. Go to the Tiers tab and click Create tiers group.
2. Give a name to your tier group and click Continue.
3. Define your tier:
   1. Give a name to your tier. We'll name our first tier "Bronze".
   2. Click + Add condition to define the balance amount needed to reach this tier. For example, we'll define our balance amount at 100 points.
   3. (Optional) Click Add reward to define a reward given to users when they reach this tier. To learn more about rewards, check our dedicated section in this article.
      
   4. Click Save Tier.
   5. (Optional) Click Add another tier and repeat steps 1 to 4 as many times as you'd like tiers in your tier group.
      In our example, we'll create two other tiers, "Silver" and "Gold", with a balance amount needed of 300 and 500 points or euros, respectively.
4. Click Continue.
5. Define when the tiers are upgraded or downgraded: on the membership anniversary, the tier anniversary, or in real time.
6. Click Continue.
7. (Optional) Click + Add event and select a number of days, weeks, or months to generate events before the member's tier anniversary.
   You can then use these events to define rules or send specific communication to your clients.
8. Click Finish setup.

🎁 Define rewards

Whether you have a point or cash-based loyalty program, you can define rewards to attribute to your clients for multiple reasons: their balance reaches a certain amount, for their birthday, or even as soon as they join the loyalty program, for example. You can define rewards when setting up your tiers, or directly from the Rewards tab.

Step 1: Create a reward

1. To create a reward, you can either:
   • Go to the Rewards tab and click Create reward, or
   • Create a tier group and click Add reward at step 5 to define a reward given to users when they reach this tier.
2. Give an internal name to your reward.
3. (Optional) Activate customer-facing details. The customer-facing details URLs are available in the public API responses and can therefore be displayed in your applications.
   1. Give your reward a customer-facing reward name.
   2. Write a description.
   3. Upload an image.
4. Define what will trigger the reward attribution:
   • Manual attribution: manually via API or with a custom rule. To learn more, check our developer documentation.
   • Joins loyalty program: when a customer joins this program.
   • Balance: when a balance reaches a certain amount.
   • Tier level: when customers reach a specific tier level.
     By default, the reward will be attributed to all customers as long as they are part of the selected tier(s). You can allow customers to keep the reward when they exit the select tier(s).
   • Custom trigger: define any event as the attribution trigger.
5. Define the attribution period, limits, and eventual balance subtraction.
6. Click Next to configure the reward settings.

Step 2: Configure the reward settings

You can now configure the settings of your reward:

1. Select which type of reward you want to offer and define it:
   • Balance credit: add an amount of points or cash to a balance.
   • Discount: fixed cash amount or percentage off a purchase.
   • Free products: single product or list of products given away for free, selected from your eCommerce website. To learn more, check our dedicated article Discover our eCommerce Dashboard.
     ❗️ Important

     This feature is only accessible to users using API or one of our compatible plugins. You can connect only one online store per account to the eCommerce dashboard. 
   • Perk: describe any custom perk that customers can enjoy.
2. Click Next.
3. Define the rules around redeeming the reward: expiration, limits, and eventual balance subtraction.
4. Click Next.
5. Define how the code for rewards are generated:
   • Generate codes: generate a unique code for each member upon attribution.
   • Basic code: set the same code for all members.
   • Upload code pool: upload a CSV file with a list of code that can be used for this reward.
6. Click Next to create your reward.

🛠️ Define rules

Rules allow you to automate actions in your loyalty program based on specific conditions or customer behavior. You can define simple balance-related rules or more complex custom rules using the Rules tab.

Use the Rules tab to create more advanced, flexible rules that go beyond balance credits, such as attributing a voucher or adding clients to a tier.

1. Go to the Rules tab.
2. Click Create rule.
   The rule editor opens.
3. In the When section:
   1. Click + Add condition.
   2. Select an event to trigger the rule.
      For example, we selected Loyalty > 7 days before member's birthday, which can be created when setting up the membership.
4. In the Then section:
   1. Click + Add action.
   2. Select an action to complete when the rule is triggered.
      For example, we selected Attribute voucher > Birthday gift, which can be created in the Rewards tab.
5. Click Save Rule.

🚀 Publish your program

Once you have defined your loyalty program, click Publish program to activate it and start rewarding your customers.

After publishing, you can create segments based on your loyalty program and set up relevant automations. For example, you can create an automation to send an email to members who have a birthday soon, to provide them with the associated voucher code so they can redeem it.

➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated section Automation.

We also recommend advertising your loyalty program to encourage customers to sign up and enjoy its benefits. You could send an email campaign to your contacts, distribute flyers, or place signs in your store.

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo Agency partner.