Loyalty program in Lightspeed eCom

As a Lightspeed Retail POS merchant, you can offer your customers the Loyalty program. The program allows shoppers to earn points for purchasing from you and then redeem them in both brick-and-mortar and online stores.

Once you enable Loyalty in your Retail POS, it becomes available for all customers in your online store. The online store should be Lightspeed eCom (E-Series) since Loyalty is not supported by any third-party eCom integrations.

In this article, you will learn how Loyalty works with your Lightspeed eCom. To learn more about Loyalty and its in-depth setup, please refer to the Loyalty section in the Retail POS (X-Series) help center.

How the Loyalty program works with Lightspeed eCom

The Loyalty program is rolling out gradually to be fully integrated with Lightspeed eCom. Here’s how the Loyalty program currently works with your online shop:

• You choose how many points customers earn for purchasing products. It can be the same amount for all items across your catalog, or you can set up product-specific earned points. However, only default Loyalty value is applied to online sales. Example: your default Loyalty is 2%, and Item A has a 5% Loyalty. Buyers will earn only 2% for purchasing the Item A online. 
• 1 Loyalty point = 1 currency unit (1 USD, 1 CAD, etc.)
• To earn loyalty, customers need to pay for sales online and in full. In case customers decide to pay in cash and pick up their order, they still can earn loyalty in your brick-and-mortar store, but you have to redeem points through your POS.
• To redeem loyalty points online, customers need to login to their customer account.
• To learn about the Loyalty program or a signup bonus, customers can either open the product page or begin checkout.
• Customers can check their Loyalty balance in the order confirmation email and in their customer account on your site. You can also enable showing the current balance on a receipt.
• Returning Loyalty points to a customer’s balance during refund is not possible. Still, you can manually return points to your client’s balance.

Enabling the Loyalty program for your Lightspeed eCom

The Loyalty program works across both online and offline stores of yours. Once you enable Loyalty in your Lightspeed POS (X-Series), it becomes available for all your sale points.

To enable Loyalty for your Lightspeed POS and eCom:

1. From your Retail POS, go to Setup → Loyalty.
2. Click Enable Loyalty.
3. In the Earn Loyalty section, specify how many points customers will earn for purchasing.
   Both tax and rounding are considered as part of the Loyalty calculation. Tipping and shipping fees are not.
4. (optional) Tick the Set sign-up bonus checkbox to offer a one-time sign-up bonus and enter its value.
5. (optional) Tick the Send welcome email checkbox to welcome new members of your Loyalty program. You can then customize the welcoming email.
6. Click Save.

Highlighting the Loyalty program on your Instant Site

When using the default Lightspeed eCom site builder called Instant Site, you can create a website with or without Ecommerce. 

Instant Site includes a dedicated, pre-designed section for promoting your Loyalty program. You can add this section to your site to increase customers’ awareness. You can add your own Call to Action and customize the section to redirect shoppers to the Loyalty sign in page or to your online shop.

To add the Loyalty section on your Instant Site: 

1. From your Retail POS, navigate to Online.
2. In the left-hand side menu, choose Webstore:
3. Click Edit Site to open the site editor:
4. In the menu on the left, click Add Section, then select Special Offers, scroll down and choose a Loyalty-specific section:
5. On the Content tab, you can change the heading, image, and the button:
   • In the Title field, enter your heading for the section.
   • In the Description field, enter your Call-to-Action or explain briefly how Loyalty works.
   • Click Change Image to upload your custom photo.
   • Click Button to change the text on the button and what action is performed on click. For example, in the Action on click, you can choose Go to link and then enter the address of the Loyalty sign in page.
6. On the Design tab, you can specify the section layout and customize its look:
   

   

7. (optional) You can click Preview at the top right corner to see how your site looks with different settings.
8. Once you’re satisfied with your settings, click Publish.

Customer experience: earning and redeeming loyalty points in online store

When you have Loyalty enabled, all customers who buy online in your eCom online store are automatically included in the program. Shoppers can then redeem their earned Loyalty points as if it were cash.

In your online store, customers can redeem all points at once, they can’t choose how many points to spend. If the order total is greater than the available points, all points will be redeemed. If the order total is less than the available points, only the amount equal to the order total will be redeemed, and the remaining points will stay in the customer's balance.

When a customer pays for part of their purchase with points, they will earn new points on the portion paid with another payment method. For example, if a customer uses Loyalty to pay for 20% of the sale, they will only earn points on the remaining 80% of the sale.

To earn and redeem loyalty points in your online store, a customer needs to:

1. Go to your online store and add items to the cart. 
2. Begin checkout to see how much points they will earn:
   

   

3. Existing customers with earned points can login to their customer accounts to see their current Loyalty balance and redeem points:
   

   

   Customers can always check their current balance in their customer account in your store.

4. Once placing the order, a customer will receive an email with order details, including how much loyalty points they’ve earned:
   

   

Refunding online orders made with loyalty points

When a customer wants to refund money for an order, their loyalty points do not automatically return to their balance.

Still, you can manually adjust the Loyalty balances of customers.

To manually return loyalty points to the customer balance:

1. From your POS admin, select Customers.
2. Click Export list to download a CSV file:
   

   

3. Open the CSV file in a spreadsheet software.
4. Delete all columns except for customer_code, first_name, and last_name.
5. Add an additional column at the end and name it loyalty_adjustment. 
6. Find a customer you need to update, and under the loyalty_adjustment column enter a value to add to their current loyalty balance:
   

   

7. Save the file as a CSV, XLSX, or XLS file.
8. On the Customers page in your Retail POS, click Import customers, then Select file to upload.
9. Select a file that you saved.
10. Click Continue with import (or Continue anyway).

After the import, the Loyalty balance will be updated to the value you’ve specified in the spreadsheet.