If your store is using—or switching to—Shopify’s new customer accounts, your Smile loyalty program will continue working as expected. The customer login experience changes, but your Smile loyalty program continues to work the same way.
How membership works with the new login experience
With Shopify legacy customer accounts, a customer became a program member in Smile when they created a store account using an email address and password.
With Shopify’s new customer accounts, customers now log into your store using a 6-digit code sent to their email address instead of creating a password.
When does a customer become a member?
A customer becomes a member when both of the following happen:
They log in using Shopify’s 6-digit login code.
They interact with Smile content while logged in.
Smile content includes any active surface you’ve configured, such as:
The Smile panel
Embedded content (for example, a points balance in the customer account area)
Loyalty Hub
Checkout surfaces or deep links
Once this happens, Smile recognizes the authenticated Shopify profile and converts the customer from a candidate into a member.
💡 Important: Logging in alone does not automatically convert a customer into a member. The customer must interact with Smile content at least once while logged in.
All existing customers, points balances, and VIP tiers remain unchanged when you switch to Shopify’s new customer accounts. Existing program members remain members after the switch.
Displaying loyalty content inside customer accounts
Most Smile functionality works the same after you switch to Shopify’s new customer accounts.
However, if you display loyalty content inside your customer account pages, you may need to update how that content is added.
Embed points balance on the customer account page
If you display a customer’s points balance inside the account area, the setup may need to be updated after switching to new customer accounts.
Legacy embed method no longer supported
If you previously embedded the points balance using a code snippet in your theme file, as described here: Embed points balance (legacy method)
This method does not work with Shopify’s new customer accounts and will no longer display.
To continue showing a customer’s points balance inside the account area, you must use the updated method described here: Embed customer points balance on the customer account page
If you were already using the updated account page method, you may only need to adjust placement using Shopify’s customer account customization tools.
Feature availability:
✅ Embed points balance on the customer account page is available on Growth, Plus, and Enterprise plans.
Loyalty Hub
With Shopify’s new customer accounts, you can add Loyalty Hub directly inside the customer account page. Customers can view their points, rewards, and VIP tier within their account area.
On legacy customer accounts, Loyalty Hub was still available. However, merchants needed to manually surface or link to it (for example, by adding a navigation link or custom button).
If you were already using Loyalty Hub, you can now place it directly within Shopify’s new customer account editor. To learn more, read our guide: Adding Loyalty Hub.
Feature availability:
✅ Loyalty Hub is available on Growth, Plus, and Enterprise plans.