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Program participation settings allow you to control which customers can participate in your loyalty program. Allowing guest customers - those without a store account - to participate can help expand the reach of your program. They can also receive loyalty emails tied to these program activities, depending on which program features and earning rules are live.
Note: Program participation settings only apply to your online loyalty program, these settings do not apply to Shopify POS. To learn about Shopify POS you can review our article on understanding in store settings.
Feature availability: Program participation settings are available for merchants on Shopify only.

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Edit program participation settings

By default, all customers can participate in your loyalty program. Customers with accounts, and those who are guests, can earn points, refer friends and participate in your VIP incentives. This setting can be adjusted to limit participation to only those with a store account. To view or change your program participation setting:
  1. In Smile Admin, navigate to Settings > Program Participants.
  2. Select All customers or Only customers who have a store account.
  3. Click Save.
Warning: When switching from All customers to Only customers who have a store account, customers without accounts will no longer earn points on orders, their referral links will show as expired, and they will lose their VIP placement. Any previously earned rewards or points will remain in their account.

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How program participation works for customers without accounts

When All customers can participate in your program, guests who have not created a store account will be able to engage with points, referral links and VIP incentives. Customers will need to create or activate a customer account to redeem their points and earn additional points that are only available through the Smile panel when logged in. Here is what you can expect for each component of your program when All customers can participate:
  • Points - All customers on your store will earn points on orders. Customers will need to create a store account to be able to redeem their points and earn other points that are only available through the Smile panel. Points earned by guests are associated with their purchases and will be available after they activate their store account. Guest customers can also receive points earned emails for orders and points expiry emails, as long as those emails are enabled and the related earning rules are live.
  • Referrals - All customers on your store will have a unique referral link they can share with their friends. If a customer does not have an account at your store to log in and view their referral link, they will receive an on-site message on the order ‘thank you’ page with their referral link to share. Guest customers can also receive referral emails for completed referrals, as long as those emails are enabled and the referral program is live.
  • VIP (💳 available on Growth and Plus plans) - Guest customers will be placed into tiers along with customers who have accounts. As all customers move up tiers they will earn entry rewards and receive any enabled VIP emails.
  • Integrations - All third-party integrations with earning rules will apply to guest customers. For example, if your store has an integration with a review platform like Judge.me, guests will be able to earn points for leaving reviews.
Note: To learn more about how Smile defines members and guest customers, review our guide to customer types.