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Not every shopper wants to be automatically signed up to a loyalty program, and depending on your local laws or business needs, you may not be able to offer it that way at all.
LoyaltyLion lets you switch from the default auto-enrollment method to an opt-in method, where customers must give explicit consent before joining your program. Either way, customers can still create and keep their Shopify accounts without it affecting their loyalty program status.

By default, LoyaltyLion uses auto-enrollment. This means that when a customer creates a Shopify account, makes a purchase via POS, or makes a purchase using the latest version of Shopify's customer accounts, they're automatically given a LoyaltyLion account and added to your loyalty program. This keeps the path to joining as frictionless as possible.

If you'd rather customers choose to join, you can switch to Opt-in. With this method, a customer needs to create a Shopify account and separately create a LoyaltyLion account to join the program.

This change will affect your loyalty data. You can expect to see:

This is expected behavior, and not a sign that anything is misconfigured. That said, LoyaltyLion still recommends auto-enrollment for most stores, as it brings the largest number of customers into your program.

Once opt-in is enabled, customers will be prompted to join your program in three places:

​1. The on-site Loyalty Page

When a customer with a Shopify account visits your loyalty page, they'll see a Join program button instead of the usual sign-in/create-account flow.

2. Customer account extensions

If you're using the latest version of Shopify's customer accounts, customers can join the program directly from our installed app extensions: the Loyalty Status extension and the Loyalty Page extension.

Loyalty Status account extension:

Loyalty Page account extension:

3. Join Program Checkout extension

This extension can be added to the Thank You page (the order confirmation page shown right after purchase), giving customers a direct prompt to join the program at checkout.

Q: What happens to customers who already joined the program before I switch to opt-in?
Nothing, we won't un-enroll any customer who already has a LoyaltyLion account.

Q: Does the change take effect immediately?
It may take a few minutes to fully apply, but for all practical purposes, it goes live right away.

Q: Can customers un-enroll from the program themselves?
No. If a customer wants to stop participating, you can block them to halt all communications and notifications, or they can request account deletion via Shopify.

Q: Can customers still join in-store?
No. Customers must join online, since we require their direct consent and that consent can only be captured through an online flow.

Q: When does a customer get their enrollment date?
A customer's enrollment date is set when they opt in, not when they create their Shopify account.

Q: How do I tell whether a customer has opted in?
A customer who hasn't opted in has no LoyaltyLion account, so they appear as a Guest. Anyone who has joined appears as a member.

Q: Can I tell which members joined before I switched to opt-in?
Not from a single filter. If you know the date you made the switch, you can find your auto-enrolled members by looking for anyone with an enrollment date before it, which can be done by downloading a Customer export.

Q: Do your customers get tier benefits before they opt in?
No. A customer needs a LoyaltyLion account to belong to a tier, so no tier benefits apply until they've joined your program.

Q: How does opt-in affect customer profiles in my email or SMS platform?
We won't push any LoyaltyLion properties or trigger any loyalty events until a customer has a LoyaltyLion account. What happens before that point depends on how you've set up your own Shopify integration with that platform, since it may create a profile from the Shopify account alone.