Sometimes customers may reach out because they didn’t earn points. This guide will help you troubleshoot why points weren’t awarded.
Common reasons customers don’t earn points
Program participation
If a customer didn’t earn points on an order, you can check your Program Participants setting to confirm which customer types are eligible to earn points. Check Settings > Program Participants to review:
If Only customers who have a store account is selected, only members with a store account can earn points for orders. Guest customers cannot earn points until they join your loyalty program by creating a store account.
If All customers is selected, all customers—including guests without accounts—can earn points on orders, refer friends, and enjoy VIP perks.
🛒 Program participation settings are available on Shopify only.
Order status
Customers only earn points when their order status matches the settings you have configured. To review your order statuses, check:
Settings > Platform > Order Settings to confirm which order statuses you have selected. Compare the customer’s order status with these settings.
In most cases for Shopify you’ll want to mark the order status to Paid and for BigCommerce you’ll want to set order status to Shipped or Completed.
Sign-up points
Sign-up points now work for both Shopify’s legacy and new customer accounts.
Sign-up points welcome new customers to your store. If a customer didn’t earn sign-up points, check:
You have a Sign up earning rule enabled in your Earning actions.
Whether the customer is brand-new or had an existing account.
Smile awards sign-up points differently depending on the type of Shopify customer account your store uses.
Legacy (password-based) Shopify customer accounts
Sign-up points are awarded only when a customer creates a new account.
Customers who already had accounts before your loyalty program launch will not receive sign-up points.
Sign-up points are not awarded retroactively if the rule is enabled later.
New Shopify customer accounts
Sign-up points are awarded the first time a customer signs in with their login code.
If you enable the sign-up rule later, customers will automatically receive their sign-up points the next time they sign in with their login code.
This means existing customers in Shopify’s new customer account system will earn sign-up points retroactively the next time they sign in after the rule is active.
POS purchases
If a customer didn’t earn points for a POS purchase, check:
Settings > Platform > Order Settings to confirm your program allows points for both online and POS orders. If you want to award points for POS orders, make sure this option is enabled.
Confirm the customer provided an email address with the POS order. An email must be attached to a POS order for a customer to earn points.
Customer still didn’t earn points
If the above reasons don’t solve the issue:
Review your earning and spending rules to make sure they are enabled. Disabled rules prevent customers from earning points.
Check if there are any earning conditions set up that may unintentionally block customers. This feature is only available on our paid plans.
ℹ️ Note: If the steps above don’t solve the issue, our team is here to help. Just message us in the in-app chat or email help@smile.io.