How to Set Up a Shopify Loyalty Program From Scratch (2026)

Setting up a loyalty program on Shopify sounds complicated until you have the right tool in front of you. If you want to know how to set up a loyalty program on Shopify, this guide walks you through every step inside Yuko – from installing the app to running your first live test.

Most stores lose repeat customers not because their products are bad, but because there is nothing pulling customers back. A well-structured loyalty program fixes that by giving customers a concrete reason to return. And with Yuko, you can have one running today – even if you have never configured a customer loyalty program before.

How to set up a loyalty program on Shopify with Yuko (quick answer): Install Yuko from the Shopify App Store, configure your points label and conversion ratio in Loyalty > Settings, add earning rules (purchase, signup, birthday), create at least one reward, enable widgets on your storefront, and run a test order to confirm points are credited correctly. The whole setup takes under 30 minutes.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have:

• A live Shopify store (any paid plan)
• Store owner role or “Apps and channels” permission
• Yuko installed from the Shopify App Store
• An Online Store 2.0 theme (Dawn or any modern Shopify theme)
• About 30 minutes

What a Shopify loyalty program actually does

A loyalty program gives customers a reason to choose your store again instead of a competitor. It works by rewarding specific actions from placing an order, signing up, writing a review, referring a friend with points or perks that customers can redeem for discounts, free products, or store credit.

Shopify does not have a built-in loyalty program, so you need a third-party app to run one. The good news is that modern loyalty apps handle the entire loop, from earning and redeeming to VIP tiers, referrals, and email notifications, all without requiring any theme code edits

Why it matters: According to research from Bain & Company , increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25–95%. A loyalty program is one of the most direct levers for retention a Shopify store has. Additionally, research by Accenture found that members of loyalty programs generate 12–18% more revenue per year than non-members.

How to Set Up a Shopify Loyalty Program From Scratch

Step 1: Install Yuko on your Shopify store

Go to Shopify app store and click Install.

Shopify will show you the permission scopes Yuko needs:

• Orders, customers, products, discounts, themes

Click Install app and approve all scopes. Skipping any scope silently breaks specific features – for example, declining the refund scope means points won’t reverse when a customer returns an order.

Once installed, Yuko’s onboarding screen opens .Yuko has a permanent free plan (up to 50 orders/month) – no trial timer, no card required. Paid plans start at $12/month.

Expected result: You land inside the Yuko dashboard at Apps > Yuko Loyalty.

Pro Tip: Do not uninstall Yuko to “reset” your program. If you need to wipe test data, go to Loyalty > Settings > Reset Activities instead. Uninstalling starts a data-retention timer.

Step 2: Configure your program settings in Yuko

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Loyalty > Settings.

This is the most important page in Yuko. Every earning rule and Configure your program settings in Yukoreward inherits from these settings. Get this right before you touch anything else.

Here’s what to configure:

Setting	What to do	Notes
Points Label	Name your currency – Stars, Coins, Credits	Pick early and don’t change it. Customers anchor on this name.
Conversion Ratio	Set how many points equal $1 (e.g., 100 pts = $1)	Use a clean ratio. 100:1 is easiest for customers to understand.
Customer Eligibility	Choose: All customers, Registered only, or Tagged customers	Default to “All customers” unless you have a specific reason.
Exclusions	Block specific products, collections, or customer tags from earning	Reserve this for promo-only SKUs. Wide exclusions train customers to ignore the program.
Shopify Customer Tagging	Toggle on	This pushes tier status back to Shopify customer records – enabling yuko-tier-gold style tags for email and ad segmentation.

Click Save when done.

Expected result: Your points label and conversion ratio appear in all widgets and emails going forward.

For a deeper look at how loyalty programs are structured, see our loyalty programs guide .

Step 3: Set up your earning rules (Ways to Earn)

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Loyalty > Ways to Earn.

Earning rules are the triggers that award points. Each one maps to a specific customer action. You can run multiple campaigns at once.

Start with these four. They cover 90% of what most Shopify stores need:

1. Place an Order (required)

Click Add Campaign > Place an Order.

Choose your earning method:

• Fixed points per order – same amount every time, regardless of order value. Good for stores with consistent basket sizes.
• Points per spend – proportional to order value (e.g., 1 point per $1 spent). Better for stores with wide price ranges.

Set a 7-day delay before points are credited. This silently absorbs refunds – if a customer returns the order, the points never post.

Click Save and Activate.

2. Sign Up

Click Add Campaign > Sign Up.

Set a fixed points value (e.g., 100 points). This fires once per customer when they create a Shopify account. It’s a low-cost way to kickstart engagement for new customers.

3. Birthday

Click Add Campaign > Birthday.

Set a yearly points bonus. Yuko awards this automatically on the customer’s birthday. Enable the Birthday Reminder email so customers know to log in. High perceived value, very low cost.

4. Write a Review

Click Add Campaign > Write a Review.

This requires the Yuko Reviews module to be active. It awards points when a customer submits a Shopify product review – and it significantly lifts review submission rates. If you’re running a loyalty program alongside a reviews strategy, this campaign does double duty.

Expected result: Your active campaigns appear in the Ways to Earn list with green “Active” badges.

Pro Tip: Don’t add more than 4 campaigns at launch. Customers don’t discover campaigns they can’t find. Start lean, then add more once you see engagement.

Step 4: Configure your rewards (Ways to Redeem)

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Loyalty > Ways to Redeem.

Rewards are what customers spend their points on. Yuko supports five reward types:

Reward Type	How it works	Best for
Amount Discount	Fixed $ off (e.g., $5 off). Issues a Shopify discount code.	Simple, clear value. Most popular.
Percentage Discount	% off order total (e.g., 10% off).	Higher-AOV stores.
Free Product	Adds a specific product to cart at no cost.	Moving inventory, surprising top customers.
Free Shipping	Removes shipping cost at checkout.	Stores where shipping cost drives cart abandonment.
Store Credit	Converts points into a flexible wallet balance.	Flexibility without the coupon-code feeling.

For most stores starting out, create two rewards:

1. A small, easy-to-reach reward (e.g., $5 off for 500 points) – attainable in 2–3 orders
2. A bigger reward (e.g., $15 off for 1,500 points) – gives customers something to work toward

Click Add Reward, choose your type, set the points cost and discount value, then click Save and Activate.

Expected result: Rewards appear in the Ways to Redeem list. Customers will see them in the Cart Redeem widget and Customer Account Hub once widgets are live.

Warning: Test redemption end-to-end as a real customer before you launch. A broken redemption flow damages trust faster than a missing reward.

Also Read:

1. Shopify Bundles for Customer Retention and Loyalty
2. Customer Loyalty Programs – What Works and What Doesn’t
3. Create a Referral Program for Your Shopify Store

Step 5: Set up VIP tiers

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Loyalty > VIP Tiers and toggle the feature on.

VIP tiers give your best customers preferential treatment – and give everyone else a reason to spend more. Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is the clearest example of this working at scale: three tiers by annual spend, with top-tier Rouge members showing measurably higher average order values.

Based on Yuko merchant data, stores that activate both earning rules and VIP tiers within the first 30 days see a 34% higher redemption rate in month 3 compared to stores using earning rules alone. Tiers create the aspiration that drives repeat purchases.

Here’s how to configure tiers in Yuko:

1. Choose your calculation method

• Total spend – best if your goal is revenue growth
• Total points earned – best if your goal is engagement
• Order count – best if your goal is purchase frequency

2. Choose your calculation period

• Lifetime – customers never lose their tier. Good for long-term loyalty.
• Rolling year – customers must maintain activity. Good for keeping the program fresh.
• Calendar year – resets annually. Good for seasonal businesses.

3. Configure each tier

Yuko starts you with a default Silver tier (base tier, cannot be deleted). Click Add Tier to create Gold and Diamond.

For each tier, set:

• Name and description
• Threshold (e.g., Gold = $400 lifetime spend)
• Points multiplier (e.g., Gold = 1.5x, Diamond = 2x)
• Benefits (free shipping, % discount, exclusive products)
• Shopify tag identifier (e.g., yuko-tier-gold) – this enables segmentation in email and ads

Keep it to 3 tiers maximum at launch. More tiers dilute meaning. A 1.1x multiplier won’t change behavior – a 2x multiplier will.

Expected result: Customers are automatically assigned tiers as soon as they hit thresholds. Consequently, their tier appears in the Cart Redeem widget, Customer Account Hub, and Floating Launcher.

Step 6: Enable the referral program

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Referral > Program Setup.

The referral program turns existing customers into your acquisition channel. Best of all, both sides get rewarded: the referrer for sharing, and the friend for completing their first order.

Dropbox’s referral program drove a 3,900% growth in signups over 15 months by giving both sides extra storage. The same dual-reward logic applies to your Shopify store.

Configure these settings:

Referrer reward – what your existing customer gets when their friend orders. Options: points credit, fixed discount, percentage discount, free shipping, or store credit. Use a generous reward if you have high customer lifetime value – you make it back on the friend’s lifetime purchases.

Friend reward – what the new customer gets. Stick to a concrete dollar discount (e.g., $10 off first order). Vague “points” rewards perform poorly for new customers who don’t yet understand your program.

Fraud prevention – enable all three options:

• Block self-referral (email, IP, and device)
• Block disposable email domains
• Cap referrals per customer

Enable fraud prevention from day one. It’s much easier than untangling fraudulent rewards after the fact. Yuko’s fraud prevention settings handle this automatically once toggled on.

Auto-enrollment: set this to “Auto-enroll all customers.” That way, every customer gets a referral link without needing to opt in manually

Click Save.

Expected result: Every customer now has a unique referral link, visible across the Floating Launcher, Customer Account Hub, and Rewards Landing Page.

For more on building a referral strategy alongside your loyalty program, see our guide on Shopify referral marketing .

Step 7: Place onsite widgets on your storefront

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Loyalty > Widgets.

Widgets are the customer-facing surfaces of your program. Without them, customers can’t see their balance, claim rewards, or find their referral link.

Enable the Theme App Embed first. Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize > App Embeds, find “Yuko Loyalty,” toggle it on, and save. This is required before any widget can render on your storefront.

Then enable these widgets in order:

1. Floating Rewards Launcher (start here)

Go to Widgets > Floating Rewards Launcher and toggle it on. This places a persistent button on every page of your store, so customers can click it anytime to see their balance, available rewards, VIP tier, and referral link. Best of all, no manual placement is needed, since it installs automatically via the Theme App Embed

2. Cart Earn Widget

Go to Widgets > Cart Earn and enable it. Then add it as an app block in your Shopify Theme Editor, inside the cart page or cart drawer. Once active, it shows customers exactly how many points they’ll earn on their current cart, right before checkout. Customers tend to spend more when they can see points accumulating in real time.

3. Cart Redeem Widget

Go to Widgets > Cart Redeem and enable it. Place it in the cart page or drawer. This is where customers apply rewards before checkout. The reward issues as a Shopify discount code automatically.

4. Customer Account Page (Loyalty Hub)

Go to Widgets > Customer Account Page and enable it. Note that this requires Shopify’s new customer accounts to be active (Shopify Admin > Settings > Customer Accounts). Once it’s live, customers see their full loyalty hub, including balance, rewards, VIP progress, activity history, and referral link, inside their account portal.

Expected result: Visit your live store. The Floating Launcher button appears in the corner. Open the cart – the Earn and Redeem widgets are visible.

Pro Tip: Add the Product Page Earn widget too (Widgets > Product Page Earn). Showing customers how many points they’ll earn on a specific product – before they click Add to Cart – lifts conversion at the decision moment.

Also Read:

1. Shopify Subscription App – Best Options for Recurring Revenue
2. Best Upsell Apps for Shopify
3. Shopify Abandoned Cart – Recovery Strategies That Work

Step 8: Set up email notifications

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Emails.

Yuko sends automated emails for every loyalty event. Each template can be enabled or disabled independently. Start by enabling these five:

• Points Earned – confirms points after every qualifying order
• Reward Redeemed – delivers the discount code when a customer claims a reward
• VIP Tier Upgraded – celebrates when a customer moves up a tier
• Points Expiring Reminder – sent 30 days and 7 days before points expire (only relevant if you enable expiry)
• Birthday Reminder – delivers the birthday bonus automatically

For each template, click Edit to open the visual editor. You can:

• Change the subject line, header, and body copy
• Insert shortcodes like [first_name], [point_balance], [tier_name], and [discount_code]
• Upload your logo and set brand colors
• Preview with sample data before saving

Go to Emails > Sender & Branding and set your From name, From email, and logo. If you’re using Klaviyo to send loyalty emails, disable the corresponding Yuko templates here to avoid duplicates. For a broader look at email tools that integrate with Shopify loyalty workflows, see our roundup of email marketing apps for Shopify .

Expected result: Customers receive branded, personalized emails after each loyalty event.

Step 9: Connect Yuko to Klaviyo (optional but recommended)

Navigate to Apps > Yuko Loyalty > Integrations > Klaviyo.

If you use Klaviyo for email marketing, connecting it to Yuko is one of the highest-leverage moves you can make. Yuko pushes real-time loyalty data into every customer’s Klaviyo profile – and fires trigger events that start Klaviyo flows automatically.

Here’s how to connect:

1. In Klaviyo, go to Account > Settings > API Keys and create a Private API Key with Profiles and Events scopes
2. Back in Yuko, go to Integrations > Klaviyo, paste the key, and select which events to forward
3. Click Save

Once connected, Yuko writes these properties to every Klaviyo profile:

• yuko_points_balance – live points balance (use in any email)
• yuko_vip_tier – current tier name
• yuko_vip_at_risk – true/false flag for customers about to lose their tier
• yuko_referral_url – customer’s personal referral link

The yuko_vip_at_risk == true segment is one of the highest-converting segments for VIP retention emails. To take advantage of it, set up a Klaviyo flow that triggers on VIP Tier Retention Warning and sends a “You’re about to lose your Gold status” email. As a result, it works

Tip: Always use default fallbacks in Klaviyo template tags, like {{ person.yuko_points_balance|default:0 }}. Otherwise, the tag renders blank for customers who haven’t earned points yet.

Also Read:

1. Shopify Email Marketing – Tools and Strategies
2. Shopify Referral Marketing Guide
3. Joy Loyalty Alternatives for Shopify

Step 10: Test your program end-to-end

Yuko best practice:

Before you promote your loyalty program to customers, run a full end-to-end test. This is the step most stores skip – and then wonder why customers are confused.

Here’s the test checklist:

Look for earning:

• Place a test order using a real customer account (not your admin account)
• Wait for the order to reach “Paid” status in Shopify
• Go to Loyalty > Customers, find the test customer, and confirm points were credited
• Check the activity feed shows the correct campaign name and points value

Test redemption:

• Log in as the test customer on your live storefront
• Open the Cart Redeem widget and claim a reward
• Confirm the discount code applies at checkout
• Complete the order and verify the code worked

Check the referral flow:

• Copy the test customer’s referral link from the Floating Launcher
• Open it in a private/incognito browser
• Create a new customer account and place an order
• Confirm both the friend reward and the referrer reward are issued

Test VIP tier progression:

• Go to Loyalty > Customers > [Test Customer] > VIP Tier
• Manually adjust points or spend to cross a tier threshold
• Confirm the tier upgrades and the VIP Tier Upgraded email sends

Expected result: Every flow works as configured. You’re ready to launch.

Troubleshooting

• Widgets not appearing on the storefront The Theme App Embed is almost certainly not enabled. Go to Online Store > Themes > Customize > App Embeds, find “Yuko Loyalty,” toggle it on, and save.
• Points not awarded after an order? Check three things. First, confirm the program is enabled in Loyalty > Settings. Second, make sure customer eligibility includes the test customer. Third, verify the order status is “Paid” in Shopify, since pending orders don’t trigger earning.
• Guest checkout customers not earning points Guest checkouts don’t have customer records. Enable “Auto-create account at checkout” in Shopify settings, or configure the guest checkout option inside Loyalty > Settings.
• Referral link not tracking This is normal behavior for privacy-focused browsers that block cookies. Yuko also tracks via UTM parameters – verify those are reaching your store analytics. You can customize UTM values in Referral > Program Setup.
• Checkout widgets not showing The Checkout UI Extension requires Shopify Checkout Extensibility, which is available on Shopify Plus and qualifying plans. Verify your plan supports it before enabling checkout widgets.
• Klaviyo profiles not updating Check that your Klaviyo Private API Key has both Profiles and Events scopes. Then confirm the relevant events are toggled on inside Integrations > Klaviyo.

Conclusion

You now have a fully configured Shopify loyalty program running on Yuko, including earning rules, rewards, VIP tiers, referrals, widgets, emails, and optional Klaviyo automation. The best part? The setup takes under 30 minutes, and from here, the program runs automatically. The next step is promoting it: start by adding a mention to your order confirmation email, then post about it on social, and finally link to your Rewards Landing Page from your navigation

For more on building a complete retention strategy, see Yuko’s loyalty program playbook .

Launch checklist:

• Points label and conversion ratio set in Loyalty > Settings
• At least one earning rule active (Place an Order is required)
• At least one reward configured and tested end-to-end
• Floating Launcher and Cart Redeem widgets live on storefront
• Email notifications enabled and branded
• Full end-to-end test completed with a real customer account

Related reading

• How to Write Shopify Product Pages That Convert Better
• 17 Best Review Apps for Shopify to Build Trust & Boost Sales in 2026
• Customer loyalty programs: The complete guide to building retention that lasts

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