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Set up a birthday bonus

Give customers points or a discount reward on their birthday, a low-cost reason to come back, with controls that stop people from setting a birthday just to grab the reward instantly.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Go to Program → Earning points and click Add way to earn.
  2. Choose Celebrate a birthday from the rule list.
  3. Pick the Birthday reward: Bonus points (default 200), Free product, Amount off, Percentage off, or Free shipping.
  4. (Free product only) Under Gift, choose A specific product and select it, or Their pick from a collection and select the collection.
  5. (Discount rewards only) Limit how long the reward is valid is on by default, with Days the discount code stays valid set to 7, so the birthday code doesn’t linger forever. Turn it off for a code that doesn’t expire.
  6. Require advance setup is on by default, with Days the birthday must be on file before the reward unlocks set to 30. This blocks the “sign up and instantly claim” trick. Turn it off if you don’t need it.
  7. (Optional) Turn on Send the reward before the birthday and set Days before the birthday the reward is issued (10 when you switch it on, up to 60), so customers have time to order before the day.
  8. (Optional) Turn on Require birth year if your program or compliance needs a full birth date instead of just month and day.
  9. Click Add, then Save.

How it’s delivered

Section titled “How it’s delivered”

Charm checks birthdays daily and issues the reward automatically once per customer per year, so customers don’t have to claim anything. The Birthday Reward email goes out when the reward is issued, and as the day approaches customers see a countdown in the floating widget and the account Loyalty Hub card. The countdown is eligibility-aware: a customer still inside the waiting period sees when their reward actually unlocks instead of a date that won’t pay out.

With Require advance setup on, the rule is also honest up front: the birthday entry form warns that the date must be saved the set number of days in advance (“if it’s coming up sooner, your first reward will arrive next year”), and a birthday added too close to the day shows a note on the saved card that the first reward arrives next year, so nobody waits on a reward that isn’t coming.

A customer born on 29 February gets their reward on 28 February in years without a 29th.

If you expire points, you can also skip birthday rewards for customers who have gone quiet: turn on Pause recurring rewards for inactive customers in your points expiry settings.

Send the reward before the birthday

Section titled “Send the reward before the birthday”

A birthday gift that arrives after the day misses the moment. With Send the reward before the birthday on, Charm issues the reward and sends the Birthday Reward email the number of days you set before the birthday, up to 60.

  • The code’s validity still counts from the birthday. With a 10-day head start and Days the discount code stays valid at 7, the code works until 7 days after the birthday, not 7 days after it was sent.
  • The waiting period counts to the day the reward is issued. With a 10-day head start and Require advance setup at 30 days, a birthday has to be on file 40 days before the day to be rewarded this year.
  • Each birthday is still rewarded once. Changing the head start later never pays the same birthday twice.

A gift the customer picks from a collection

Section titled “A gift the customer picks from a collection”

With Free product and Their pick from a collection, the customer’s birthday code makes one item from that collection free, whichever they choose. Keep the collection to items you’re happy to send as a gift. If the cart holds several items from the collection, the most expensive one is the free one. Keep it small, too: the code covers at most 100 products and about 200 variants of the collection, and anything beyond that isn’t part of the gift.

Give each VIP tier a different reward

Section titled “Give each VIP tier a different reward”

The birthday reward can differ by VIP tier in amount and in kind, for example points for your entry tier and a free product for your top tier. You need VIP tiers set up first, and the option appears once the rule exists.

  1. Go to Program → Earning points and open the Celebrate a birthday rule.
  2. Turn on Give some tiers a different reward.
  3. Each tier gets one row. Leave a tier on Same as everyone to give it the reward set above, or pick Bonus points, Free product, Free product from a collection, Amount off, Percentage off or Free shipping and fill in the value beside it: the points (the base amount shows as a placeholder), the product or collection, the amount or the percentage. Free shipping needs no value.
  4. Click Save changes, then Save.

Customers get the reward for the tier they’re in on the day the reward is issued. Turning the switch off clears every tier’s row. See per-tier rule values for the other rules that vary by tier.

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