Earning points: Common questions

Find answers to common questions about earning points and how customers earn loyalty points.

Making a purchase earn option

Q. How does Marsello award points for international customers with multiple currencies?

A. Customers are awarded points based on the amount spent in their local currency. Marsello does not convert currencies before awarding points. For example, if your store is set to GBP and a customer in Australia purchases in AUD, the points awarded would match the value of the AUD spent. Marsello will not convert the AUD into GBP and then award points.

Q. Can the points awarded per dollar spent include decimals (e.g., 1.5 points)?

A. Yes, you can use decimals when you set how many points customers earn. Here are a few ways merchants use this:

Earn more per dollar: 1.5 points for every $1 spent
Earn less on high-value items: 0.25 points for every $1 spent on a product tag or collection
Reward VIP tiers differently: for example, 1 point for every $1.10 spent on your base tier and 1 point for every $0.90 spent on your top tier

You can use decimals in the Making a Purchase earn option and in your VIP tier earn rules. This works on all paid Marsello plans.

Points are added to your customers’ accounts as whole numbers. Marsello rounds down when it awards points for an order. For example, if your program gives 1 point for every $1 spent and a customer’s order total is $45.50, they’ll earn 45 points.

Q. If a customer's total is $45.50 and the reward is 1 point per dollar, will they get 46 points?

A. No. Marsello doesn't round up when awarding points. If your points award is set to 1 point for every dollar spent and the customer spends $45.50, the customer receives 45 points. If you have a more complex ratio, like 1 point per $5 spent, and the customer spends $12, the customer receives 2 points.

Q. Can I delay awarding points for a purchase, for example until 24 hours later or a set number of days after purchase?

A. No. Currently, there isn’t a feature that lets you delay when points are added to a customer’s account for making a purchase, either by a set number of days or with a delay step. If this is something you’d like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Can customers still earn points on blacklisted collections but not be able to redeem rewards on purchases that include them?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature that will automatically do this. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

In the meantime, as a workaround, you can whitelist all products that are eligible for a discount under the advanced options menu when creating a reward.

Q. Does 'do not reward points on gift card purchases' mean not award points on purchases for gift cards? Or, on a sale where someone has used a gift card as payment?

A. The 'do not reward points on gift card purchases' means that points will not be awarded when the customer purchases the gift card. Points will be awarded when the gift card is used to purchase other products. This prevents the awarding of double points when customers purchase and use the gift card.

If this option is disabled, then customers will be awarded points for the purchase of the gift card.

Q. If I create a draft order and set it to live, will points be awarded?

A. Yes, once the order status is "Paid," points will be awarded.

Q. I've paused loyalty in my Marsello app admin, are my customers still eligible to earn points for purchases?

A. When your loyalty program is paused, customers will not be eligible to earn points or redeem rewards. However, customers will still be eligible for marketing emails.

Q. Do shipping costs count towards points earned?

A. Yes. By default, eCommerce stores award points for the amount a customer spends on shipping. To turn off points on shipping, go to the Loyalty > Settings tab. Once in the Settings section, scroll down to the Points Setting section and select the option "exclude points for shipping (online only)".

Q. What happens if a customer has a blacklisted item on their order along with other items that should earn points?

A. Customers will not earn points when purchasing blacklisted items. If the customer's order contains both blacklisted and non-blacklisted items, the customer will only receive points on those items which are eligible for loyalty.

Q. What does "No points rewarded - Order rewarding rules not met" mean?

A. This message means the order didn't meet the rules for awarding points. Points weren’t awarded because items on the order may be blacklisted, or the payment status hasn't been met.

Q. Why do some customers in my Marsello database show that they've earned points and others do not? Everyone has made a purchase, and I have my earn points for making a purchase earn option enabled.

A. There are several reasons why some customers may not have earned points. Some troubleshooting steps include:

Historical purchases.
- Customers begin earning points in Marsello from the date the making a purchase earning option is enabled. Please check to see if the customers who have not yet earned points have purchased prior to this date.
Product blacklisting
- Confirm if you have blacklisted any products or product collections in Marsello. If so you will need to check to see if the customers who haven't yet earned points have purchased these items as blacklisted items do not earn points.
Points import
- Have you run a recent points import? If so, can you confirm the points balances on that file reflect what is in the system?

If these steps don't help, contact our support team and give them the customer's name, email and order number. The team can then take a closer look for you.

Q. Can a customer still earn points for making a purchase even if they do not have an email recorded in my database?

A. Yes, it is currently possible for customers to still earn points and participate in loyalty without having an email recorded. However, it is recommended to record the customer's email as the customer's email address serves as the unique identifier in Marsello.

Q. Is there a special earn option for customers who shop a specific brand in our range?

A. Currently, you can not set up different earning rates per brand in your product range. However, as a workaround, you could create a points promotion for a specific brand in your product range.

Q. Do you have a feature where a customer can spin the wheel and earn extra loyalty points?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature where a customer can spin the wheel and earn extra loyalty points. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Is there a way to reward customers for the orders they have placed prior to connecting Marsello?

A. By default, Marsello rewards customers points for their purchases from the moment this feature is enabled. There isn't a feature that will automatically reward customers for historical purchases. However, you are welcome to manually reward customers for these via a points import.

Q. How can I change the value of my earning points reward from dollars to Euros?

A. The currency displayed in your loyalty program settings will automatically reflect the currency enabled on your integration. This means that if your store is set up to use Euros, all your loyalty program settings will be in Euros as well.

To ensure your loyalty program is set up in euros:

Check that your store's primary currency is set to euros in your e-commerce platform settings.
Once this is done, log into your Marsello dashboard.
Navigate to your loyalty program settings.
You should now see all monetary values displayed in euros throughout your loyalty program setup.

If you're still seeing dollars instead of euros, double-check your store's currency settings and contact our support team if the issue persists.

Q. Is there a way to reward customers with loyalty points based on when their weekly or fortnightly subscriptions are renewed?

A. Currently, there isn't a loyalty earn option that provides customers with points based on a subscription model. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. My settings prevent points from being rewarded on the purchase of discounted items. Is there some way that points can still be awarded for the non-discounted sale items without having to ring up a separate sale?

A. Currently, there isn’t a feature that allows you to award points only on non-discounted items in an order without processing a separate sale. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. We processed an order yesterday that included a discounted item. However, loyalty points were not awarded for the entire order. Why is that?

A. The whole order earns no loyalty points when the setting "Do not award points on discounted orders" is enabled. With this setting on, any order containing at least one discounted product will not earn loyalty points, even if it also includes full-priced items.

Q. Is there a way I can prevent customers from earning points when purchasing specific items?

A. Yes, you can prevent customers from earning points on purchases of specific products. To do this, simply blacklist those items within your loyalty settings.

Q. Is it possible to show customers how many loyalty points they could earn from the items currently in their cart?

A. Currently, there isn't a way to display the number of loyalty points customers would earn for the items in their cart. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Completing their profile earn option

Q. Is the "complete profile" points earn option currently the only way gender can be captured?

A. Yes. The "Complete Profile" earn option is currently the only way to capture gender information in Marsello.

Q. Is there a way to change the format of the birthdate field under the complete your profile earn option?

A. No. Currently, there isn't a way to change the format of the birthdate field in the complete your profile earn option. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Is there a system to prevent customers from updating their profiles every month to change their birthday and repeatedly unlock birthday rewards?

A. Yes, the "Complete Profile" earn option can only be completed once per customer, which helps prevent this kind of abuse.

Q. Can more fields be added to the "Complete Profile" earn option beyond birthdate, gender, and mobile number?

A. Currently, there isn't a way to add more fields to the complete your profile earn option. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Is there a way to add a section to the complete your profile earn option so that the customer can let us know how they found out about our store?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature that will allow you to add a section to the complete your profile earn option so customers can tell you how they found out about your store. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Celebrating their birthday earn option

Q. For the birthday points, do customers need to redeem them via the points email they receive or is this automatically applied to their account?

A. Birthday points are automatically awarded to the customer each year on their birthday.

Q. Is it possible to award birthday points for a child or pet's birthday instead of the account holder’s birthday?

A. Currently, it is not possible to record a child or pet's birthday. Points can only be awarded based on the account holder’s recorded birthday. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. A customer entered their birthday through the "Complete Your Profile" earn option a week ago, and today is their birthday. Why haven’t they received their loyalty points?

A. After submitting their birthday through the "Complete Your Profile" earn option, customers must wait 30 days before being eligible for birthday points.
This is a fraud prevention measure. If a customer enters their birthday close to the actual date (e.g., submits it on July 2 but their birthday is July 1), they will not receive birthday points until the following year, as points are not awarded retroactively.

Reviewing a product earn option

Q. Is there a way a customer can leave a product review for items that are only available in-store?

A. No. Unless the items are online, there isn't currently a feature that lets customers leave a product review for items that are only available in-store. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Can a customer earn points for leaving a review on a product they haven't purchased?

A. No. Customers can only earn review points on products they’ve purchased. Product review points are only available for Shopify stores.

Q. I'd like to reward customers for leaving a review on TrustPilot, do you have an integration?

A. Currently, there isn't an integration that will allow you to automatically reward customers for leaving a review on TrustPilot. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Can I set up an automatic reward for product reviews across Shopify and Lightspeed?

A. No, this isn’t supported right now. It would require a new feature to automatically reward customers for reviews across both online and in-store channels.

If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Why didn’t my customer earn points for leaving a review?

A. If certain conditions aren't met, it is not uncommon for customers to not earn points for leaving a review. This usually happens if the review hasn’t been published, the product wasn’t purchased through your Shopify store, or the review exceeds any limits you’ve set.

Check that the review is approved and that the customer meets your reward rules. This will help ensure points are applied correctly.

Acting sustainably earn option

Q. I have several products I'd like to reward points for under my "Acting Sustainably" earn option. Can I award different point values per item returned?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature to reward different point values to the products eligible in the Acting Sustainably earn option. All products are awarded the same amount of points. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. I’ve enabled the "Acting Sustainably" earn option. If a sustainable product is added multiple times (e.g., 3 items) to an order, will the customer earn bonus points multiple times or just once?

A. The customer will earn points for each sustainable product added to the order. If the product is added 3 times, the customer will earn bonus points 3 times.

Q. Can I reward customers for acting sustainably in Marsello?

A. Yes. You can set this up by creating a $0 product in your POS (like “Used KeepCup”) and linking it to the “Acting Sustainably” earn option in your Loyalty settings. Once enabled, staff can add this product at checkout and customers will automatically earn points.

If the $0 product doesn’t appear, try placing a test order to sync it. This usually fixes the issue.

Liking on Facebook earn option

Q. Does Facebook's terms prohibit Marsello’s points-earning option for customers liking the merchant’s retail page on Facebook?

A. Due to API limitations with social media platforms, Marsello cannot track if a customer likes or follows a page. To earn points, customers must use the Marsello widget to link back to the social media site. Retailers can still reward points for visiting the page, but the customer will only be awarded points once for this action.

Q. Do we have an earn option for following a Facebook page?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature that will reward customers with points for following a page on Facebook. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. For merchants with only physical store locations, can they set up points for liking a Facebook page?

A. Yes, the earned points email will give customers access to all loyalty widget features via the "Check Rewards" button. From there, customers can select the "Like on Facebook" option and earn points.

Referring friends earn option

Q. Is it possible to click on an image in the portal to redirect customers to the friend referral feature?

A. Currently, clicking on an image in the portal to redirect customers to the friend referral feature is not possible. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Earning points automation

Q. Will customers receive Points Earned emails once they complete any loyalty earning option?

A. If the points earned automation is enabled, customers will receive emails upon completing any loyalty earn option.

Marketing your loyalty program

Q. Do you have any recommendations on ways we can explain how to use the loyalty program to our customers?

A. Adding a loyalty program information page to your website can be an easy way for your customers to find out how they can join your loyalty program, earn points, redeem rewards, and more. This handy help center guide contains a template to help explain your loyalty program to your customers.

General earning points questions

Q. Can I customize the text for each earning rule on the Earn page?

A. No, you can’t customize the text separately for each earning rule right now. The wording will appear the same because all earning rules use the same merge tag, which pulls in a default text structure. This would require a new feature.

If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. I am using a third-party integration to help manage my store sales, credits, and gift cards. Will customers still earn points if I connect Marsello?

A. As long as the third-party integration syncs orders into one of the eCommerce or POS platforms that Marsello is integrated with, the orders should sync into Marsello. You’ll also need to ensure that the "Making a Purchase" earn option is enabled in your Marsello loyalty dashboard.

Please note: While order syncing is likely, it is not guaranteed that all points balances will remain current, as Marsello does not directly integrate with third-party apps. If the app modifies the order payment status, this change may not be communicated to Marsello, and points may not adjust accordingly.

If you are using a third-party integration, we recommend reaching out to our support team so they can log this as an integration request for our product team’s review.

Q. What happens if the eCommerce (Ecwid) connection is disconnected?

A. If you disconnect the Ecwid integration, Marsello will operate solely through your R-Series POS. Here’s how this change affects the loyalty program:

What stops:
- Customers will no longer earn points on online purchases.
- Rewards cannot be redeemed on your website.
- Online orders will stop syncing into Marsello.
- New online-only customers will not be added for email/SMS marketing.
- Customers accustomed to online earning and redemption will no longer see loyalty features on your site.
What continues:
- In-store earning and redemption will function as usual.
- Existing loyalty members and their point balances will remain intact.
- In-store customer marketing will continue as normal. From a billing perspective, disconnecting Ecwid removes the additional location charge from future invoices.

Q. Are you integrated with any apps or do you have a feature that would host a customer's wish list allowing them to earn additional points?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature or an integration that would host a customer's wish list and reward them with loyalty points. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Can I set up a secondary loyalty program in addition to the main program that will function like a collectors club for a particular line of products?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature to support a secondary loyalty program. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. Can customers earn points for subscribing to YouTube Rewards?

A. Currently, there isn't a feature that will reward customers for subscribing to YouTube Rewards. If this is something you'd like to see added, feel free to vote for this feature. Your feedback goes directly to our product team and helps us prioritize what’s most important to you!

Q. What happens to a customer's points if they receive a store credit rather than a refund on an item(s) that they return?

A. If the customer receives store credit, their points balance will remain untouched. This is because store credit doesn't change the order's payment status.

Q. Can I translate or customize the language in Marsello?

A. Yes. You can fully customize or translate all customer-facing features, such as emails, pop-ups, loyalty widgets and on-site messages, to suit your brand and audience. However, the Marsello admin dashboard is currently only available in English.

Q. Do manual points adjustments affect a customer's progress toward VIP tier levels?

A. Yes. Manual points adjustments, whether points are added or removed, count toward a customer's total points balance and can affect their eligibility to level up into a VIP tier.