How to Set Up a Loyalty Program Like Levi's Red Tab Loyalty on Shopify

Levi's Red Tab gives every member 4% back, and that rate never changes. Most big programs pay their best customers a higher rate than everyone else. Levi's does not. It keeps the cost down another way: save up as many points as you like, you can only spend $20 of them on any one order.

This guide walks through setting up a loyalty program like Red Tab on your own store, using Mage's Shopify loyalty program. Every setting is included, so you can follow it start to finish. It takes about twenty minutes, and if you would rather not do it yourself, our team will set the whole thing up for you free of charge.

What is Levi's Red Tab?

Red Tab Loyalty is Levi's free rewards program, running in the United States and Canada. Membership costs nothing and needs only an account. Members earn one point per dollar of merchandise, online, in store and in the app, and points convert to money off in $5 steps starting at 125 points.

There are no tiers. The Red Tab member program gives everybody the same earn rate and the same benefits from the day they join.

If you already know the program, skip ahead to what you'll set up. Everything below describes Red Tab as it stands in 2026.

How the Levi's Red Tab program works

There are four things worth separating, because you will build them separately.

Levi's Red Tab points

Members earn 1 point per $1 on the merchandise subtotal. Tax, shipping and gift wrap do not earn. Points are added once the order ships, and orders picked up in store post at pickup.

Payment method is irrelevant. Afterpay, PayPal and gift cards all earn normally, and final sale items earn too, which is unusual and worth noting.

There is no annual or per purchase cap on earning. Points expire one year after they are accrued.

Levi's Red Tab points value

Points convert to money off in fixed $5 steps:

The ladder starts at 125 points, so a balance below that is worth nothing yet. It stops at 500 points, and that is a limit per transaction rather than a limit on the balance. A member sitting on 2,000 points still applies a maximum of $20 to any single order.

How to use Levi's Red Tab points

Points are applied at checkout, on the website, in the app or in a participating store.

Rewards can be combined with other promotions in most cases. They cannot be put towards tax, shipping, gift wrap or gift cards, and they cannot be exchanged for cash.

Levi's Red Tab member benefits

Every member gets the same list on day one:

• Free ground shipping on orders over $75, against $150 for non members
• Free returns when signed in at checkout
• A birthday reward
• Early access to product drops and member only events

There is no tier to climb to reach any of it. The program is binary. You are a member or you are not.

The two things that make the Red Tab loyalty program work

This is the simplest major loyalty program in retail, and simple is not the same as unconsidered. Two decisions are doing all the work, and if you copy the numbers without noticing them you will copy the cost and miss the effect.

1. The program is flat end to end

There are two places a program can pay heavy spenders more than light ones. It can bend the reward ladder so the top rung is worth more per point, or it can add tiers that multiply the earn rate. Most large programs use one or the other, and some use both.

Red Tab uses neither. The ladder does not bend:

Four percent, four times. And because there are no tiers, nothing multiplies that rate afterwards either. A customer who has spent $125 and a customer who has spent $5,000 are earning identically, and the program never pretends otherwise.

The one place value leaks is the 125 point floor. Below it a balance buys nothing, and because the rungs are evenly spaced a member can be stranded by at most 124 points at any moment. That is under $5 of headline value, and it is the same maximum whether they spend $200 a year or $20,000.

What has been given up is the hidden progressivity. Everyone is on 4%, and the arithmetic a customer does in their head is the arithmetic that actually happens. That is worth something. Programs that are easy to explain get explained, by your staff and by your customers to each other.

2. The $20 cap turns a balance into a visit schedule

Here is where the cost comes back.

A member earning 1 point per $1 needs to spend $500 to bank $20 of reward value. The cap means each order can absorb $20 and no more, whatever the balance says. So reward value does not flow out at the rate it flows in. It flows out at a rate set by how often somebody shops.

A customer who spends $2,000 in a year has earned $80 of value and needs four separate orders to use it. Place three and the rest carries forward. Carry it long enough and the 365 day clock takes it.

That is the mechanism. The cap and the expiry work as a pair, and together they mean a flat 4% headline is not a flat 4% cost. The gap between the two is breakage, and it is entirely produced by customers who bank faster than they shop.

It also does something useful for the customer, which is why it survives. A capped reward is a reason to come back rather than a reason to place one large order.

What that combination costs you

Take the headline seriously first. Four percent back on merchandise, funded entirely by you, with no tier structure to concentrate it on your best customers, is a real line in your P&L. Budget for it as 4% and treat any breakage as upside rather than as part of the plan.

This is the decision. The flat ladder is the mechanic and the cap is the price. If 4% is too rich, do not bend the ladder to claw it back, because the whole appeal of this program is that it says one number and means it. Change the ratio instead. Set 250 points to $5 and you have a 2% program with identical mechanics and identical honesty.

The cap is where we would diverge from Levi's. Set your maximum redemption at roughly a third of your average order value, not at a flat $20. On a clothing store with a $75 average order that comes out at about $25, so Levi's number is close. On a store with a $200 average order the same cap does no protective work at all, and on one selling $30 tees it is a giveaway.

The floor deserves the same treatment. A 125 point minimum means a customer spends $125 before the program does anything for them. At a $75 average order that is under two orders to first reward, which is a reasonable first goal. At $30 it is four or five orders, which is too long a wait.

What you'll set up

We will build this on a clothing store, with a program called Thread Rewards. Rename it to suit your brand.

Step 1: Set your earning rate

Go to Loyalty → Earning Points and open the Purchase rule. It already exists, so there is nothing to create.

That is Levi's base rate exactly. Two things happen automatically and are worth knowing.

Points calculate on your merchandise subtotal, so tax and shipping never earn. That matches Levi's exclusion list with no configuration at all.

Leave the exclusion box unchecked. Levi's earns on final sale items, and your customers will be checking out with reward codes constantly. Ticking that box would stop those orders earning anything, which punishes exactly the people using the program properly.

On Approval Time, Levi's posts points once the order ships, which you could approximate by setting this to 3 or 4 days. We would set it to 0. Instant points cost you nothing, and the moment a customer watches a balance move is the moment the program becomes real to them. If you have a high return rate on first orders, a few days of delay is a reasonable hedge, because pending points are cancelled cleanly rather than clawed back from a balance somebody has already seen.

Step 2: Give 100 points for joining

Go to Loyalty → Earning Points and open the Signup rule. This one also already exists.

One hundred points is Levi's own number and it is chosen more carefully than it looks, because it sits deliberately just short of the 125 point floor.

A new member finishes signup holding something visible, sees they are 25 points from a $5 reward, and knows exactly what to do about it. Set the join bonus to 125 instead and you hand $5 to everybody who fills in a form, including the people who were never going to buy. Set it to 25 and it reads as nothing.

The gap is the point. Land your join bonus just under your first rung.

Step 3: Build the redemption ladder

This is the heart of the program and the step that repays the most care.

The whole ladder is a single reward in Mage, not four. Go to Loyalty → Redeeming Points → Add Reward → Discount, choose Fixed amount as the value type, and create it.

Mage confirms it back to you in a banner: customers can redeem between 125 and 500 points per order, for a discount of $5.00 to $20.00.

The 125 in the Conversion Rate is the setting people misread, and it is the one that builds the ladder. It is not just a ratio. It is the increment, and it becomes the step size on the slider your customers use. With the minimum at 125 and the maximum at 500, the only amounts a customer can land on are 125, 250, 375 and 500. That is Levi's ladder exactly, enforced in the interface, from one reward record.

Set that first number to 1 instead and you get a genuinely proportional reward where 138 points is worth $5.52. Same conversion rate, completely different program. The rungs disappear, and with them goes every reason for a customer to push a balance to a round number.

Maximum redemption is the cap from Section 2, and it is the single most consequential number on this form. It is enforced per order, so a member holding 2,000 points still applies $20 at a time. Revisit the recommendation above before you accept 500: a third of your average order value is a better rule than copying Levi's figure.

Check all three Combinations boxes. Levi's allows points to be combined with other offers in most cases, and letting somebody put $10 on top of a sale price is what makes a first redemption feel worth having.

Expiry Days at 30 applies to the discount code once issued, not to the points. It stops codes accumulating as an open ended liability. Set it to 0 if you would rather they never expire.

Reactivate discount code on full refund honours Levi's return policy. Return an order paid for with points and the reward comes back as a usable code, so nobody loses what they redeemed.

Show the whole ladder, not the balance

Present all four rungs together rather than showing a customer their balance and leaving them to work it out. A member on 180 points who sees "180 points" learns nothing. The same member looking at a ladder can see they are 70 points from $10, and 70 points is one order.

Step 4: Turn on points expiry

Go to Loyalty → Loyalty Program → Points Expiry.

Levi's rule is that points die a year after they are accrued, full stop. Points earned in March expire the following March however much the customer has shopped in between. That is the Time after points are acquired mode, and each batch of points runs on its own clock.

The other mode, Customer's last purchase date, works on inactivity instead. Every order resets the clock on the entire balance, so somebody who keeps shopping never loses a point. Several large programs run it that way, and it is much gentler.

Expiry matters more here than in most programs, because of the cap. A member banking value faster than they can spend it is the exact customer the expiry eventually catches, and they are usually one of your better ones. That is uncomfortable, and it is why the reminder is not optional.

Thirty days of warning gives somebody time to place an order and use up to $20 of what they are about to lose. Those emails are consistently among the highest converting a loyalty program sends, and in a capped program they are the main release valve.

Step 5: Set up member free shipping

Free shipping at $75 for members against $150 for everyone else is the benefit Levi's leads with, and it is set up in Shopify rather than in Mage.

Set your ordinary threshold first, in Settings → Shipping and delivery, as a free shipping rate that applies at $150 to everybody.

Then add the member version in Discounts → Create discount → Automatic discount → Free shipping:

Automatic means there is no code to remember and nothing to apply. A signed in member sees free shipping at $75, a guest sees it at $150, and the difference shows up at exactly the moment it converts a signup.

Use a segment of customers with accounts rather than anything cleverer. Every Thread Rewards member has an account and every account holder is a member, so the two are the same set. It also means the benefit works from the moment somebody joins, with nothing to sync and nothing to wait for.

Restrict it to your domestic zone, which is sensible anywhere carrier costs jump for remote regions.

The two threshold structure is the part worth copying. A single free shipping threshold is a cost. Two thresholds with a gap between them is an argument for making an account, and it costs you nothing on the orders that were clearing the higher bar anyway.

The same segment covers every other member benefit

Early access to drops, member only events, an extended returns window: all of them run off that same segment. Gate a collection on it in your theme, target it in your email tool, or apply it as a customer service policy. None of them cost you anything until somebody uses them, which is what makes them such efficient things to promise at signup.

Step 6: Add a birthday reward

Birthday rewards are one of the four benefits Levi's leads with, and they are one rule.

Go to Loyalty → Earning Points → Add Earning Rule → Birthday.

Two hundred and fifty points is chosen to land on a rung, and this is the bit people get wrong. It is exactly the second step, so the reward arrives as a whole $10 rather than as a fragment of something.

Award 100 points instead and a member with an empty balance has been given nothing at all, because 100 is below the 125 floor. In any laddered program, size your birthday reward to a rung.

The Date of Birth Eligibility Period of 30 days is a small anti abuse setting. A customer has to have had their birthday on file for a month before it counts, so nobody sets their birthday to tomorrow and collects.

Check that your signup form or customer account actually collects a date of birth, or the rule has nothing to fire on. There is more on building campaigns around this in Shopify birthday rewards.

Step 7: Let customers earn in store

Levi's devotes an entire help article to in store points, which tells you how much of the program happens at a till rather than a checkout. There are two halves to it and Mage covers both.

Automatic earning at the till

Install the Mage POS extension on your Shopify POS devices. Staff look the customer up, and the resulting order flows through exactly the same path as an online one, earning at the same rate on the same merchandise subtotal. That is Levi's "give your account email, phone number or QR code at checkout", and the rule you set in Step 1 already covers it.

Fixing the ones that get missed

Some will always get missed. A member forgets to mention it, an associate is rushing, somebody checks out as a guest. Levi's handles this by letting customers send a receipt in afterwards, and you should too.

Go to Customers, open the customer, and choose Edit Points Balance.

Always fill in the Notes field. It is the difference between a credit somebody can justify in six months and one that just appeared. It stays on the ledger entry, and when a customer queries a balance it is the only record of why you did what you did.

Ticking the notification means the customer hears it has been sorted rather than having to check. Recovering a missed scan is one of the few genuinely delightful support interactions a loyalty program produces, so let it land.

Set a policy on the window while you are here. Levi's uses 14 days from the purchase and requires that the account already existed. Both are sensible, and neither is enforced by software, so write it down where your team can find it.

Step 8: Schedule a double points campaign

Levi's runs double points promotions, and its own returns policy describes what happens to them, so they are clearly a regular fixture. In Mage that is a scheduled campaign.

Go to Loyalty → Bonus Campaigns → Create.

A double points weekend does something specific in a laddered program. It moves a whole cohort of members across the 125 point floor at the same time, and a member who crosses a floor has a reward waiting rather than a balance. Expect the redemptions a few weeks later, so time one about a month before a quiet trading period and the traffic arrives when you want it.

Scoping to a collection means only those products double rather than your whole catalogue, which is how you make a promotion affordable. Set the status to Scheduled and it runs itself.

There is a second campaign type, Tiered, if you would rather run a spend and get promotion. Spend $75, get 200 bonus points. It pairs well with a ladder, because you can size the bonus to close the gap to the next rung.

Returns handle themselves. Points earned during a double points campaign reverse at the rate they were earned, so a refunded promotional order takes back the doubled amount rather than the base amount.

Step 9: Put it in front of customers

A loyalty program nobody can see does not work. Three surfaces to set up.

Loyalty Pages → Landing Page. Your program explainer. Add the Hero, How It Works, Ways to Earn, Ways to Redeem, Flexible Redemption and FAQ blocks. Most of them populate themselves from what you have already configured.

Account Sidebar. The signed in view, showing the balance and what it is worth right now.

Loyalty Pages → Checkout Flexible Redemption. Lets a member apply points during checkout, which is where Levi's expects redemption to happen.

Spend your time on one block above all others. Flexible Redemption is where the four rungs become visible as a ladder, and where a customer on 180 points finds out they are 70 from $10. Every mechanic in this guide depends on that number being somewhere the customer can actually see it.

The FAQ block earns its place here too. The floor, the cap and the expiry all need explaining, and a customer who understands the cap before they hit it is not a customer complaining about it afterwards.

You don't have to copy all of it

Very few stores need the whole thing, and it comes apart cleanly.

If you want one thing, make it the ladder in Step 3. One flexible reward with the increment set to your first rung gives you fixed steps, a floor and a cap from a single record, and those three numbers are the entire economics of the program.

If margin is tight, keep every step and change one number. Two hundred and fifty points for $5 gives you a 2% program with identical mechanics.

If your average order is large, the cap in Step 3 is doing nothing for you. Raise it, or drop it entirely, and let people spend what they have earned.

If your customers buy often, the double points campaign in Step 8 and the in store setup in Step 7 will move more revenue than adjusting the base rate ever will.

If they buy occasionally, the birthday reward in Step 6 and the expiry reminders in Step 4 do more for you than anything else here.

Take the parts that suit how your customers actually shop.

We'll set it up for you, free

If you would rather not configure any of this yourself, our team will do it for you at no cost. That includes the full build above, tuned to your catalogue and your margins, plus your branding across the widget, sidebar and loyalty pages.

Already running a loyalty program somewhere else? We handle migrations free of charge too, including your existing customer balances, tiers and history, so nobody loses the points they have earned. We have migrated stores from Smile.io, LoyaltyLion, Yotpo, Rivo, Stamped, Joy and Bubblehouse.

Talk to our team and tell us what you want your program to look like.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Levi's Red Tab member program? The Levi's Red Tab member program is a free rewards scheme available in the United States and Canada, and membership needs nothing more than an account. Members earn 1 point per dollar on merchandise, online, in store and in the app, and points convert to money off in $5 steps starting at 125 points. There are no tiers, so every member gets the same 4% earn rate plus free shipping over $75, free returns, a birthday reward and early access to drops and events.

How does the Levi's Red Tab loyalty program work? Red Tab works on a flat rate with a capped redemption. You earn 1 point per dollar of merchandise, excluding tax, shipping and gift wrap, and points post once your order ships. Rewards start at 125 points for $5 and rise in $5 steps to 500 points for $20, which is the most that can be applied to any single order. Points expire one year after they are earned. Rewards combine with most other promotions but cannot be put towards tax, shipping or gift cards. That is the program as of 2026.

What are the benefits of Levi's Red Tab membership? Every Red Tab member gets the same benefits with no tier to climb: free ground shipping on orders over $75 against $150 for non members, free returns when signed in at checkout, a birthday reward, and early access to product drops and member only events. Members also receive 100 bonus points for joining. Every one of those is reproduced in this guide.

How many points do you need for a Levi's Red Tab reward? One hundred and twenty five points, which is $125 spent, gets you $5 off. The ladder then runs 250 points for $10, 375 for $15 and 500 for $20. There is no rung below 125, so a balance of 100 points is worth nothing yet, and 500 points is the ceiling for a single order no matter how large the balance is.

Do Levi's Red Tab points expire? Yes. Points expire one year after the date they are accrued, and each batch runs on its own clock rather than resetting when you shop. Points earned in March expire the following March whatever you have bought in between. In this guide that is a 365 day expiry set to the date points were acquired, with a 30 day reminder email before anything is lost.

How do I create a loyalty program like Levi's Red Tab on Shopify? Every part of the structure in this guide can be set up in Mage: the 1 point per dollar rate, the 100 point join bonus, the four rung ladder from 125 points to 500 with a per order cap, points expiry, member free shipping, the birthday reward, in store earning through POS, manual points adjustments and double points campaigns. This guide covers each step with the exact settings to use.

How long does it take to set up? About twenty minutes if you follow this guide. If you would rather it was done for you, our team sets it up free of charge, including your branding.

Should I cap how much customers can redeem per order? A cap protects your margin on individual orders and turns a banked balance into a reason to come back, so most stores should have one. What almost nobody should do is copy Levi's $20 without checking it against their own basket. The cap only works when it is a meaningful fraction of a normal order, so set it at roughly a third of your average order value. On a $60 average order that is about $20 and Levi's number happens to be right. On a $200 average order the same cap protects nothing, and on a $30 one it is a giveaway. If your customers buy rarely, consider dropping the cap entirely, because forcing four visits only works on people who were going to make four visits.

Should my ladder be flat or should the top rung be worth more? A flat ladder is easier to explain and a bent one pays your best customers more, and you cannot have both. Levi's is flat at 4% across all four rungs, so a customer can work out what their points are worth without reading terms and the number they arrive at is correct. Bending it, so the top rung is worth 6c a point against 4c at the bottom, quietly concentrates the budget on heavy spenders, and adding tiers on top of a flat ladder achieves the same thing by another route. Choose flat and untiered if you want the program understood and repeated, and bend it or add tiers if you would rather spend the same money on your top decile.

What happens to points when a customer returns something? Points earned on that order are removed automatically, including any bonus points from a double points campaign, and partial refunds reverse points in proportion. A balance never goes negative, so a return larger than the points earned floors at zero rather than putting somebody in debt. Tax and shipping never earned points in the first place, so nothing needs unwinding there. If the order was paid for with a reward, the discount code is reactivated so the customer keeps what they redeemed.

Can I switch from my current loyalty app without losing customer points? Yes. We migrate balances, tiers and history from other loyalty platforms free of charge, so your customers keep everything they have earned. There is more detail in our guide to migrating from Smile.io without losing customer points.

Mage is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Levi's. Red Tab is a trademark of Levi Strauss & Co. This guide references the program for the purpose of comparison and education.