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Lifecycle

Customer retention strategies: one for every stage, and each runs on its own

Sandra sells pet food and accessories. Her customers need supplies every month, and still some of them never order again after the first bag. Her list of customer retention strategies holds a welcome bonus, an incentive for the second order, something for the birthday and an offer for everyone who has gone quiet. She runs none of them as a campaign: each one hangs on the customer's stage, and the plugin recognises it on every order by itself.

The plan by customer stage

Ten measures in four stages, none of them by hand

A customer is new, active, loyal or quiet. For each stage the plugin has measures that work without a campaign: shipped flows, settings and boosters with a customer trigger. Sandra creates four of these boosters herself; everything else is ready after installation.

  1. 1Under Boosters Sandra's four boosters with a customer trigger are listed with their effect.

StageMeasureWhere in the pluginStarting value
NewWelcome points for the customer accountFlow "Bonuspunkte bei Registrierung"50 points
NewPoints for the newsletter sign-upFlow "Bonuspunkte bei Newsletter-Anmeldung"30 points
NewBonus on the second orderBooster, trigger "Order count in range"free, Sandra: +100
ActivePoints per purchase, visible before buyingSetting "Points earned per 1.00 spent"1 point per euro
ActiveMore points after redeemingBooster, trigger "Reward redeemed in last N days"free, Sandra: × 1.5 for 30 days
LoyalLoyalty tiers with a higher earn rateLoyalty tiersSilver to Titanium, × 1.0 to × 2.0
LoyalBirthday bonusFlow "Bonuspunkte zum Geburtstag"100 points, once a year
LoyalDouble points in the birthday monthBooster, trigger "Birthday month"free, Sandra: × 2
QuietReminder before points expireSetting "Send reminder mail before expiry"14 days ahead
QuietBonus for coming backBooster, trigger "Win-back (no order since N days)"free, Sandra: +250 after 180 days

The plugin determines the stage afresh on every order, from the customer account: completed orders, date of birth, newsletter, last redemption. Guests have no customer account; none of these measures applies to them, and they do not collect points anyway.

The customer triggers: measures tied to the stage

The second order: 100 points for everyone with exactly one order

Between the first and the second order Sandra loses many customers. A booster with the trigger "Order count in range" from 1 to 1 starts exactly there: whoever has one completed order gets a fixed bonus of 100 points on the next one.

  1. 1In the Customer trigger card Sandra picks Order count in range, with Min. completed orders 1 and Max. completed orders 1.

  2. 2Under Scope & effect it says Fixed bonus (one-time) with 100 points.

  3. 3Only logged-in customers the trigger applies to see the Notice text.

Orders count in the state the settings treat as completed. An order still on its way does not count yet; it is the same definition that decides when points are released.

Win-back: 250 points for coming back after 180 days

Whoever has not ordered for half a year probably buys their pet food elsewhere. Sandra's booster "Comeback" has the trigger "Win-back (no order since N days)" set to 180 days: if the last completed order is older than that, the next one earns 250 extra points.

  1. 1In the Customer trigger card Days since last order (min.) is set to 180.

  2. 2Under Conditions Sandra picks her rule "Ordered before" as the Rule.

  3. 3Once the customer is back and logged in, the notice appears in the customer account under Current offers and in the cart.

What applies: customers without any completed order always match this trigger; without a rule the very first order would get the bonus as well. Sandra therefore binds the booster to a rule from the Rule Builder with the condition "Quantity of completed orders" from 1. She can announce the 250 points in her newsletter.

Birthday month: double points on every order that month

On the birthday itself the shipped flow credits 100 points, once a year. Sandra adds a booster with the trigger "Birthday month": for the whole month every order earns double points. The bonus is a gift, the booster a reason to order in that month.

  1. 1In the Customer trigger card Sandra picks Birthday month; this trigger needs no further values.

  2. 2Effect type is Multiplier with the value 2.

Customers without a stored date of birth never match. If a customer already has a loyalty tier, the higher multiplier counts by default: Gold with 1.2 and the birthday month with 2 give 2, not 2.4. How the birthday bonus itself works is explained under Birthday points.

After redeeming: the empty balance fills up faster

Whoever has just redeemed is back near zero, and the next incentive is far away. A booster with the trigger "Reward redeemed in last N days" gives Sandra's customers 1.5× points for 30 days afterwards. It applies after every redemption, whether as a discount or as a reward.

  1. 1In the Customer trigger card Lookback window in days is set to 30.

  2. 2Multiplier 1.5 on the whole order.

Redeeming pays off twice this way: the customer gets the discount or the reward and then collects faster again. Two more triggers, "Newsletter subscribed" and "Birthday today", Sandra does not use as boosters of their own: the shipped flows already reward the sign-up and the birthday.

A customer year at Sandra's

All measures on one customer, in points and euros

A customer orders pet food for 42 euros each time. Points are rounded down per line item; all other values are the plugin's defaults.

252 €
revenue from six orders
853
points credited
8.53 €
at most, if everything is redeemed
3.4 %
cost as a share of revenue
WhenOccasionPointsBalance after
Januarycustomer account created, newsletter confirmed+50, +3080
January1st order+42122
February2nd order, order count 1 to 1+42, +100264
March3rd order, 250 points redeemed as a 2.50 € discount+42, −25056
April4th order, redemption within the last 30 days, × 1.5+63119
Junebirthday, then an order in the birthday month, × 2+100, +84303
Julypoints of the June order released, loyalty tier Gold reached303
Decemberback after 190 days without an order, Gold × 1.2 and fixed bonus+50, +250603

The redemption in March does not reduce the points of that order; points are calculated per product line item. The customer reaches Gold with 553 points and five completed orders within the rating window. All measures together cost Sandra 8.53 euros at most, and only if the customer redeems her points.

What you set for this

The settings behind these measures

The point values of the shipped flows and the combination rules of the boosters sit in the configuration. The customer triggers themselves sit in every booster under Customers → Loyalty points → Boosters, card "Customer trigger".

SettingDefaultWhat for
Registration bonus points50welcome points
Newsletter confirmation bonus30newsletter sign-up
Birthday bonus points100once a year
Combining multiplier rulesHighest winsbirthday month and loyalty tier
Combining fixed-bonus rulesAdd uptwo fixed bonuses in one order
Send reminder mail before expiryona reason to return for quiet customers

Where to find them in the settings (loyalty menu on the left under System → Settings):

  1. 1Default-flow point values card → Registration bonus points

  2. 2Default-flow point values card → Newsletter confirmation bonus

  3. 3Default-flow point values card → Birthday bonus points

  4. 4Boosters card → Combining multiplier rules

  5. 5Boosters card → Combining fixed-bonus rules

  6. 6Expiry reminder card → Send reminder mail before expiry

Read the whole manual →

Common questions

Common questions on this topic

Which customer retention strategies run without me?

After installation these are ready: points per purchase, welcome points for the customer account, points for the newsletter sign-up, the birthday bonus, the loyalty tiers and the reminder before points expire. Boosters with a customer trigger, for example for the second order or for coming back, you create yourself; after that they run on their own as well.

How do I win back customers who have not ordered for a long time?

With two measures: before their points expire they get a reminder email, by default 14 days ahead. And a booster with the trigger "Win-back (no order since N days)" rewards the return, for example with 250 points after 180 days without an order.

Do new customers get the win-back bonus too?

Without a rule, yes: customers without any completed order always match this trigger. If only customers who have ordered before should get it, bind the booster to a rule with the condition "Quantity of completed orders".

Can I reward the second order specifically?

Yes, with a booster and the trigger "Order count in range" from 1 to 1. It applies to customers with exactly one completed order, as a fixed bonus or as a multiplier.

How do birthday bonus and birthday month differ?

The birthday bonus is a credit through the shipped flow, by default 100 points once a year, even without an order. The birthday month is a trigger for a booster: it raises the points of every order in that month.

How does the customer know a measure applies to them?

From the booster's notice text. If a booster has a customer trigger, only logged-in customers it applies to see the notice. It appears in the cart, in the customer account under "Current offers" and, with a product scope, on the matching products. The higher points already show before the purchase on the product page and in the cart.

Other use cases
Repeat business

Winning regular customers

Why a growing point balance outlasts the next voucher, and what a customer year actually costs.

Read on → Margin

Rewards, not discounts

Why a product as a reward costs the shop less than the same amount in discount, and when a discount is still the right answer.

Read on → Frequent buyers

Loyalty tiers

Four tiers with a rising multiplier, a rolling score window and a grace period that softens a drop.

Read on →

Try the loyalty program in your own shop

The plugin installs free of charge from the Shopware Store. After the installation the program is running straight away, with values that suit most shops.

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