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Understand points expiry
Understand points expiry

Learn how points expiry works, when customers are considered inactive, and how customers are notified about expiring points.

Sarah Facini avatar
Written by Sarah Facini
Updated over a week ago

πŸ›’ Supported on all platforms

πŸ’³ Available on Growth and Plus plans
πŸ‘€ Accessible to all roles

By default, points earned or issued through your reward program do not expire and remain in the customer's account forever. When points expiry is enabled, customers' points balances are reset to zero after a specified period of inactivity. Before a customer's points balance is reset to zero, they are sent warning emails to give them an opportunity to prevent their points from expiring.

Customer activity & inactivity


Anything that changes a customer's points balance is considered "activity" and will prevent their points from expiring. This includes earning more points (whether from placing orders, social sharing, celebrating a birthday, etc), redeeming points (for discounts), or manually being issued points.

For the purposes of points expiry, the customer is considered inactive if during the specified points expiry period, the customer has not had any activity.

When points expire


A customer's entire points balance expires all-at-once, and each individual point earned does not have it's own specific expiry date. The date that a customer's points balance expires is based on whichever is the later of:

  • The date of the customer's last activity, OR

  • The date points expiry was enabled

The points expiry period is then added to this date to determine when the customer's points balance will be reset to zero if no further activity occurs. If additional activity occurs before the expiry date, then the expiry date is recomputed and no points are removed in the meantime.

Scenario

Expiration

  • Customer earns 500 points on Jan 1, 2024

  • Points expiry enabled on Feb 1, 2024 with 1 year expiry period

  • No additional customer activity

Points balance reset to zero on Feb 1, 2025

  • Customer earns 500 points on Jan 1, 2024

  • Points expiry enabled on Feb 1, 2024 with 1 year expiry period

  • Customer redeems 200 points for a discount on Mar 1, 2024

  • No additional customer activity

Points balance reset to zero on Mar 1, 2025

  • Points expiry enabled on Feb 1, 2024 with 1 year expiry period

  • Customer earns 500 points on May 1, 2024

  • No additional customer activity

Points balance reset to zero on May 1, 2025

βœ… Tip: The simplest way to describe expiry to your customers is:
​
​"All of your points will expire if you have not earned or redeemed points for a continuous period of 1 year. We will always warn you before your points expire."

Points expiry emails


When points expiry is first enabled, no emails or messaging will be sent to customers.

When a customer's points are nearing expiry, customers will receive two warning emails, based on the notification thresholds you have configured. These emails are designed to give the customer an opportunity to perform additional qualifying activity and prevent their points from expiring. These emails can be customized.

Customer email name

Default notification threshold

Points Expiry - Warning

30 days before points expire

Points Expiry - Last Chance

3 days before points expire

When a customer's points balance expires and is reset to zero, no emails or messaging will be sent to the customer.

πŸ’‘ Important: To prevent spam complaints and maintain email deliverability, points expiry emails are not sent to customers who:

  • Have unsubscribed from "promotional" emails, or,

  • Have never placed an order/earned points from an explicit action

Notable, this means that customers whose points were awarded via a points import and have not otherwise participated in the program will not receive any kind of email before their points expire.

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