In this article:
How customer accounts work with LoyaltyLion
Enrolled customers
At LoyaltyLion, we do not create separate accounts for customers, they are synced with your online ecommerce platform. Customers create their account via your store site and this auto-enrolls them into LoyaltyLion.
A customer account must exist in your ecommerce platform to then sync to LoyaltyLion. Your customers can enroll in your loyalty program by going to your site's sign-up page and creating an account.
Once the customer has an account, they'll have an enrolled customer profile in LoyaltyLion:
Enrolled customers are members of the loyalty program. This means they can accumulate points with your activity rules, and spend those points on your rewards.
Guest customers
Customers who have made a purchase, but did not create an account, will be shown in the LoyaltyLion admin as guests:
Guest customers are not members of the loyalty program. They cannot accumulate points with your activity rules, redeem rewards, or interact with the program until they have created a full account on your store.
However, we still store guest customer information (such as orders made and the amount they have spent at your store). If you have historic purchases enabled, you can enable guest customers to get points for previous purchases once they have created their accounts. Read more about that here.
All guest customers are technically placed in the default tier, tier 1. If a guest customer makes an account and you have loyalty tiers, we will then place them in a tier based on their previous annual spend. This means if a guest customer has spent enough at your store, they could technically be placed in tier 3 once they create an account.
You may notice guest customers are assigned a referral link. These referral links won't work until the customer is enrolled.
How can I make changes to my customers' account details?
Change customer details on my e-commerce platform
As LoyaltyLion only syncs information from the ecommerce platform, we are not able to make changes to the customer account details on the platform.
For queries on how to change customer details such as email addresses or passwords, your ecommerce platform's help center is best placed to support you.
See:
Change customer details in LoyaltyLion
In Shopify, once you change the customer's address on your platform, the email in LoyaltyLion will update automatically.
If the customer is updated within your system, and they have the same ID, the next time they sign into LoyaltyLion, they will be automatically updated. LoyaltyLion will recognize the changed email from the same customer ID.
For Magento, BigCommerce, and custom platforms, change the customer details on your platform. The updated customer details will automatically pull through after the customer has placed another order.
[Shopify only] How customer accounts work with Shopify POS
When a customer makes a purchase with an email address via Shopify POS, they will be enrolled in LoyaltyLion, but not Shopify. The customer should be able to gain points for the transaction with that LoyaltyLion account and view them via the POS.
If the customer registers for a full account online using the same email, they should be able to access the points there as well.
How customer accounts work with imports
Customer imports (with tiers, points, and birthdays) will apply changes to your customers in LoyaltyLion. As LoyaltyLion syncs with the customers from your online store, the customers need to be in your platform's customer base first to work.
Carrying out an import means that the customer profile will be pulled from your store into LoyaltyLion and updated with points, tier status, or birthdays. LoyaltyLion imports do not:
Convert guest customers to enrolled customers
Apply points, tiers, or birthdays to customers that don't exist in your store customer base
LoyaltyLion does not modify your customer base on the e-commerce platform. We modify the customer account in LoyaltyLion that has been created with information synced from your online store.
If a guest customer is updated by the points import, the points will be on the account but won't be accessible until the customer enrolls.
If a guest customer is updated by the tier import, the tier will be on the account but won't be updated until the customer enrolls.
Scenarios where customers would not be enrolled in LoyaltyLion
Customers would not be enrolled in the loyalty program if:
They only ever checked out online as a guest
They never checked out and never registered otherwise
[Shopify only] They started to check out in Shopify POS, then abandoned the cart
[Shopify only] They have been invited to create an account (e.g. via a bulk import to Shopify) but have not yet accepted their invite
Frequently asked questions
Is this program one where the customers sign up themselves or does it pull the customers from our customer base?
Customers use their existing store account, so there's no separate loyalty account. We automatically enroll customers in the program when they log in for the first time in your store.
Why is the number of 'new customers' on my dashboard smaller than the number of total customers I have?
The figure on the dashboard is customers who have newly enrolled in the given period; if you've just signed up to LoyaltyLion, it will include all your enrolled customers.
The count on the Customers tab includes all the same customers plus any guests you've manually given points to, e.g. via an import.
Why is the number of customers in the Customers tab different than people who created an account in my store?
Shopify has two types of customers:
Customers with active accounts
Guests (customers who made a purchase but haven't created an account)
The Customers section includes:
Customers who have created accounts
POS-only customers who have made a purchase
Guest customers
Can we block certain groups of customers from enrolling in LoyaltyLion during the signup process?
We don't own/manage sign-ups or user memberships. However, you can block customers from your loyalty program - check here how to block a customer.
[Shopify] I made a customer profile for my customer in Shopify - why aren't they appearing in LoyaltyLion?
To appear in LoyaltyLion, a customer needs to have either made a guest purchase or fully enrolled by creating an account. If you have sent a customer an account activation email, but they have not accepted it, the customer will not have an active account in Shopify and the customer profile will not sync with LoyaltyLion.
My customer can't log in to their account - what can you do to help?
While LoyaltyLion syncs the customer data from your e-commerce store, we don't create or manage the customer's online account - this is carried out through your e-commerce platform.
This means when the customer "Logs in" to LoyaltyLion, they are actually logging through your e-commerce site to their customer account portal. LoyaltyLion then shows the customer their loyalty account data.
If your customers can't log in, we would recommend reaching out to your e-commerce platform's help center or support team.