Keep customers coming back with a built-in loyalty program for your customers. Award points to customers when they order, subscribe to your SMS list, or refer friends. They can redeem those points for discounts on future orders.
How it works
Once enabled, customers will automatically begin earning points for each qualifying order placed through your storefront. The number of points earned per dollar spent is customizable — you can set this value anywhere between 3 and 10 points per $1 spent.
💸 For example, if your accrual rate is set to 5 points per dollar, and a customer places a $20 order, they will earn 100 points.
Points are then stored in the customer’s account and can be applied to future orders for a discount. When a customer has available points, they’ll see the option to redeem them at checkout. If they choose to redeem, the corresponding discount will be automatically applied to the order, and they’ll see it reflected on their receipt.
Do customers earn points on orders if they also redeem points for a discount?
Points are earned on every dollar spent, so if customers redeem points for a partial discount, they’ll still earn points on the remaining purchase amount of the order. The cycle of earning and redemption always continues!
💸 For example, if a customer redeems 500 points for $5 off of a $20 order, they will still earn points on the remaining $15 they spend.
Enabling and Customizing Loyalty Points
To turn on Loyalty Points:
Go to your Settings
Click Loyalty
Click Enable
Set your Points earned per dollar spent (between 3 and 10)
You can use our tool to preview how your chosen point rate will act for a sample order
Set a Minimum Balance to Redeem: This is the threshold of points a customer needs to reach before they can redeem their points on future orders (a higher threshold encourages repeat buying to earn enough points to redeem)
Awarding bonus points
The best loyalty programs give customers the ability to earn points for reaching milestones or engaging with your business in other ways. We currently offer three options - each of these has their own settings in the Settings panel, so you can customize for your specific need:
Repeat order bonus: If enabled, customers will earn extra points every certain number of orders (e.g. 500 bonus points every 5th order placed through your storefront)
Bonus to new subscribers: If enabled, new subscribers to your storefront will receive a one-time credit of loyalty points
Bonus for referring friends: If enabled, current customers who successfully refer their friends (i.e. the person referred completes an order through your storefront) will earn bonus points
Manually awarded bonuses: You can add (or deduct) points from a customer’s balance at at any time to reward them for completing a task outside of Hotplate.
Click on their customer profile
Click the three-dot menu in the bottom right
Click “Adjust loyalty point balance”
Some inspiration: offer bonus points to customers who follow your social media pages, show up to events, or post about you online!
Loyalty Points with Cash, Venmo, or Zelle
Customers earn points at the moment their payment is processed. When customers pay with a credit card, their points are applied to their account automatically. If they choose to pay with Cash, Venmo, or Zelle, they’ll receive points only once you confirm payment on their order.
You’ll see this note under the “Confirm Payment” button on the order detail page if you have loyalty points enabled:
(missing in new portal!!)
How do customers see their points balance?
Once enabled, customers will start seeing a message at the bottom of their order confirmation page, letting them know how many points they earned:
This is also where they’ll see their progress towards earning a repeat order bonus, if you have this set up:
On future orders, customers with a point balance will see an option to redeem those points for a discount at checkout:
Important Notes
Points can be used alongside discounts or gift cards. They stack!
Points are storefront-specific — customers can only use points earned from your storefront on future orders placed with you (not any other Hotplate storefronts)
Points never expire, and remain usable even if you later turn the feature off. You will see a note describing this if you ever turn the setting off and customers still have unredeemed loyalty points:
