WooCommerce Points and Rewards

Every point you give away is a discount you have already signed

The day you turn on a points program it does not seem to cost anything: the sale comes in whole, the customer sees a number go up and your till feels no difference. The cost comes later, when that person returns and redeems. Every point issued is a pending commitment on your margin, and you take it on at the moment of the earlier sale.

That is why the two rates are the central decision of the program. With 1 point per dollar spent and 100 points per dollar of discount, you hand back up to 1% of what you sold. If you double points on a category, you hand back twice that there. WooCommerce Points and Rewards lets you set both rates separately, and it pays to do that math before choosing what your points will be called.

It is the official WooCommerce points extension. Points are earned and redeemed inside your store, with no external platform, and only customers with an account collect them.

How points are earned and spent

• Earning rate: points per amount spent, which can be overridden by category, product or variation.
• Actions without a purchase: points for creating an account and for the first product review.
• Redemption rate: the discount value of a number of points.
• Partial redemption: the customer chooses how many points to apply in the cart or at checkout.
• Minimum and maximum: a minimum amount to redeem and a cap per cart, fixed or as a percentage, plus a cap per product.
• Expiry: a period after which granted points expire. Left blank, they do not expire.
• Name and messages: your points can be called Coins or Tokens, with editable text.

Three settings that protect your margin

A cap per category. If a product line leaves little margin, set its discount cap to 0 and points will not apply there.

An expiry. A period can encourage redeeming and avoids carrying old balances without limit.

Careful with previous orders. The extension can award points to past orders so your customers start with a balance. This action cannot be undone and may take time on large stores. Work out first how many discounts you will put into circulation at once.

Who is left out and what it does not cover

Guests do not earn points. Points are tied to customer accounts, so a store that relies on checkout without registration will see part of its buyers outside the program.

• Coupons enabled: without them points cannot be redeemed, because redemption works as a discount.
• Per-item calculation: points are calculated per product line, not on the order total.
• Subscriptions: with WooCommerce Subscriptions points are earned on every renewal, but they are not used on automatic payments, only on manual or early renewals.
• Negative balances: if a customer spends points and the order that earned them is then refunded, the balance can go negative, and the discount already applied is not reversed.
• Export: not included. Getting data out to CSV takes the separate Exporter extension.

Setting up the program with the math done

You need WooCommerce with coupons enabled. Follow this order:

1. Work out what percentage of each sale you want to hand back, and derive the two rates from it.
2. Set them in WooCommerce, Points & Rewards, Settings, along with rounding, the minimum and the cap.
3. Mark exceptions on low-margin categories or products.
4. Decide the expiry, the name of the points and the messages.
5. Place a test order with an account and another with a refund, and review the points log.
6. Only then consider applying points to previous orders.

Day to day, Manage Points corrects balances and a log keeps every change. Customers see their history in My Account.

If your loyalty program asks for more

WPLoyalty includes levels and referrals, and redeems for coupons, free shipping or gift products. YITH WooCommerce Points and Rewards and SUMO Reward Points are other points plugins in the catalog.

And if your store lives on recurring payments, WooCommerce Subscriptions is the piece this extension rewards on each renewal.

When points arrive and how they are corrected

When does the customer receive their points?

When payment completes, or when the order moves from on-hold to processing or completed.

What happens to points if an order is canceled?

Redeemed points are returned and points earned with that order are deducted.

Can I adjust a customer balance by hand?

Yes, from Manage Points, and the change is recorded in the log.