An import adds data to your customers' LoyaltyLion profiles in bulk. You can make the same changes one customer at a time from the Customers page, so an import is worth it when you have more customers than you want to work through by hand.

You run imports yourself from Analytics, and then Imports. There are five kinds:

Four of those five you run yourself. Tier imports are the exception and we run them for you, because a tier import cannot be undone.

These apply to every kind of import:

On Shopify, the Add or remove points tile stays disabled until your initial customer sync has finished. If it is grayed out, the sync is still running.

A points import adds points to, or removes them from, each customer's approved points balance. It adjusts the balance rather than replacing it, so importing 100 points for a customer who already has 400 leaves them with 500.

Your file needs a header row and these columns:

The importer has a Download example CSV button that gives you a file with the right headers already in place.

The date you set also decides when those points expire, if your program expires points.

Before you launch the importer you can set three things:

If you fill in the reason column, your customers see it in their loyalty history under Action. Leave it blank and they see Adjustment instead.

You can revert a points import for 90 days after it starts, using Revert this import on the import in your history. A revert undoes the adjustments the import made.

A birthdays import adds or updates birthdays for customers who are already members of your program, so they earn points on their birthday each year.

Your file needs a column identifying the customer and a birthday column. Before you launch the importer, set Birthday format to match your file:

If your program collects the day and month only, the format is fixed and you cannot change it here. That setting lives in Settings, under Data and privacy.

Customers earn their birthday points on the date you import, not on the day the import runs, and they earn them once a year.

Blocking a customer excludes them from your loyalty program. A bulk block is useful when you are moving from another loyalty platform and already know who you want to leave out.

Your file needs one column, identifying the customer. Set Match customers using to match what is in your file, then pick whether you are blocking or unblocking. Customers who are not in LoyaltyLion, or who are already in the state you are setting, are skipped.

A customer activity import completes an activity rule for many customers at once. It creates the activity on each customer's profile, marks the rule complete, and awards the points that rule is set to give.

You can trigger two kinds of rule this way: Create an account and any custom rule. The tile only appears if you have at least one of those rules live, and you pick which rule to trigger when you launch the importer.

Your file needs a column identifying the customer and an optional date column, which sets when the activity happened and defaults to today. Customers must be enrolled in your program at the time of the import, so guests and customers without an account are skipped.

This import can also be reverted for 90 days after it starts.

A common use is a program launch: if you want existing customers to earn points for the Create an account rule they never triggered, a customer activity import gives it to them in one go.

If you are moving to LoyaltyLion from another loyalty platform, we can bring your customers' tier information across. Send your file to our Support team at support@loyaltylion.com and we will run the import for you.

There are two ways to do it, and which one you want depends on whether you need to keep each customer's progress.

A placement import puts each customer straight into a tier you name. Use it when you already know which tier everyone belongs in and you do not need their history. Customers are placed at the minimum qualifying value for that tier.

Your file needs two columns:

A placement file looks like this:

A progression import brings each customer's historical spend or points into your tier program instead of placing them. We treat the imported value as though they had earned it with you, so they carry on progressing and requalifying under your own tier rules, whether those are rolling, calendar-based or lifetime. Imported progress ages the same way their future activity will.

Your file needs:

A progression file looks like this, with two rows for the same customer:

You can give one customer several rows to reflect their spending over time. Dates are read in your program's timezone.

Give the value in whatever your tiers are built on. For a points-based program that is whole points, and for a spend-based program it is whole currency units, so 250 for £250.

Guests can be included in either kind of tier import. A placement import puts them in your lowest tier for now and moves them to the tier you named once they enroll. A progression import stores their progress and applies it when they enroll. Either way, a customer has to be a member of your program before they can hold a tier.

When the import finishes we report rows completed, rows skipped, failed rows, and customers updated. On a progression import, customers who are already in your highest tier are reported as succeeded rather than skipped, because their progression was still recorded.

We can import customers who already exist in your ecommerce store, whether or not they have an account. Guests will not be able to spend their points until they create one.

Rather than importing guests, it is usually worth emailing them and running a limited period where the Create an account rule is worth double, which gives them a reason to sign up. You would double the points on that rule, then set it back when the promotion ends.

An enrolled customer has an account on your store and is a member of your loyalty program. A guest has bought from you without creating an account, so they can earn points but cannot spend them until they sign up. Both can be imported, as long as they exist in your ecommerce platform.

No. You can set the reason per row in the file, and different rows can carry different reasons, but it cannot be edited afterwards. Each import also carries its own reference, which is how we tell which customers were affected by which import.

Exactly as they would have otherwise. Once they have spent or earned enough to qualify for the next tier we move them up and notify them on your site, and they stay in that tier for at least the length of your tier period. On lifetime tiers they keep moving up as they spend or earn more and never move back down.

Yes, on the birthday you imported, and once a year after that. A customer whose birthday you import as 2000-02-22 earns their points on February 22, not on the day the import runs.

Someone who has created an account on your store. We enroll them in your program automatically when they do, and there is more on how customers join your loyalty program.

No. Those tiers are managed customer by customer, so they cannot be set from an import.

Most imports finish quickly, but a large file, or several files running at once, can take up to 24 hours. Plan for that if you are importing as part of a launch.