Can you migrate from Smile.io to a store credit loyalty program without wiping your customers' existing points? Yes. Mage lets you import your Smile.io customers, convert their existing points balances into store credit, and choose exactly how much each Smile point should be worth after the migration.
This means you can move away from a traditional points-based loyalty program without asking customers to start again from zero.
Short answer: Export your customer data from Smile.io, set your Mage program currency to store credit, upload the Smile.io export, choose your points-to-store-credit conversion rate, review the total credit being migrated, and import your customers.
Prefer to watch? The walkthrough below runs through the full migration on screen, from the Smile.io export to the imported store credit balances. If you would rather read, the written steps continue below the video.
How to move from Smile.io points to store credit
What happens to existing customer points?
When moving from Smile.io to Mage, you do not need to preserve points as points.
Instead, you can convert each customer's existing Smile.io points balance into Shopify store credit at a conversion rate you choose.
For example, if you decide that:
- 1 Smile point = $0.01 store credit
- 500 points = $5 store credit
- 1,000 points = $10 store credit
Mage applies that conversion across the customer balances in your import.
This lets you move from a points-based loyalty model to a store credit loyalty program while preserving the value customers have already earned.
“I looked into so many different integrations for loyalty and referrals for our Shopify Store, but no one impressed me more than Mage on human connection, customer service, and value.”
Read the Reelie case study →
Phase 1: Export your customers from Smile.io
Open the customer export
Start inside the Smile.io app.
Go to Customers, then use the customer filtering and export options to prepare your customer data.
From the results screen, open the three-dot menu and choose Download results.
The export contains the customer information Mage needs to calculate the new balances, including customer details and the existing Smile.io points balance.
Untick "Keep the date formatted"
Before downloading the file, make sure you untick Keep the date formatted.
Then download the export.
You should now have a spreadsheet containing your Smile.io customers and their loyalty information. The most important field for this migration is the customer's current points balance because that is the value Mage will convert into store credit.
Keep an untouched copy of the original export before making any changes.
Phase 2: Set Mage to use store credit
Change your program currency
Open the Mage dashboard and go to Settings.
Before importing the Smile.io file, confirm that your program currency is set to Store Credit rather than Points.
This determines what the imported Smile balances will become after the migration.
If you are deciding whether moving away from points makes sense for your program, compare loyalty points vs store credit before choosing your final program structure.
Why configure this before importing?
The purpose of this migration is not simply to copy the old Smile.io balance into another points system.
You are assigning a monetary store credit value to the balance each customer has already earned.
That makes the conversion rate one of the most important decisions in the migration.
Phase 3: Start the Smile.io import in Mage
Choose the Smile.io provider
In Mage, go to the data import area and select Smile.io as the provider.
Click Continue with Smile.io, then upload the customer file you downloaded from Smile.
Mage will show you a preview of the imported data before anything is applied to customer accounts.
Check the customer data
Review the preview and confirm that the customer information and points balances look correct.
Pay particular attention to higher-balance customers because an incorrect conversion rate will have a larger monetary impact on those accounts.
Do not proceed with the import until the Smile.io balances shown in Mage match the values you expect from the source file.
Phase 4: Choose your points-to-store-credit conversion
Decide how much one Smile point is worth
The next step is where you choose how much each existing Smile.io point should be worth as store credit.
A common starting point is:
1 point = $0.01 store credit
Using that conversion:
- 100 points becomes $1
- 500 points becomes $5
- 1,000 points becomes $10
- 5,000 points becomes $50
Use the equivalent value in your store's program currency.
Mage lets you change the conversion rate and see the effect on customer balances before completing the import.
Preview your highest-balance customers
Mage shows a preview of customers with some of the largest points balances.
Use this to sanity-check the conversion.
If a customer currently has 1,000 Smile points and your conversion is one point to one cent, you should see a new balance of $10 store credit.
If you changed the conversion to five cents per point, that same 1,000-point balance would become $50.
Check the total store credit liability
Mage also shows the total amount of store credit that will be created across all imported customers.
Review this number carefully.
A conversion might look reasonable when checking one customer but represent a much larger total credit balance when applied across the entire loyalty program.
Treat the total as part of the migration approval process rather than simply clicking through the import.
Phase 5: Import your Smile.io customers
Start the import
Once the customer data and conversion rate look correct, click Import Customers.
For smaller programs, the import may complete within a few moments.
For larger stores, processing takes longer. A store with more than 10,000 customers may take around five to ten minutes, while a program with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of customers will naturally require more time.
Wait for the import to complete
Wait until Mage shows the import as completed, then open the customer section and verify the results.
Phase 6: Validate the new store credit balances
Check customer records in Mage
After the import completes, go to Customers in Mage.
Review several imported balances manually.
If your conversion was one point to one cent, a customer with:
- 500 Smile points should have $5
- 1,000 Smile points should have $10
- 425 Smile points should have $4.25
Include both high-balance and low-balance customers in your checks.
If those values do not match, investigate the conversion before launching the new program to customers.
Why move from loyalty points to store credit?
Traditional loyalty programs require customers to understand an additional currency.
A customer might know that they have 1,000 points but still need to work out what those points are actually worth.
Store credit makes the value explicit.
Instead of:
You have 1,000 points
the customer can see:
You have $10 store credit
The underlying loyalty mechanics can still reward purchases, referrals, or other customer actions. The difference is that the resulting reward value is easier to understand.
For merchants looking for a Smile.io alternative, this also means the migration can be used as an opportunity to change how loyalty value is presented rather than reproducing the previous points program exactly.
How to choose the right Smile points conversion rate
Start with the value customers already expect
Your conversion should normally preserve the approximate value customers believed their existing Smile points were worth.
If 1,000 points previously gave a customer roughly $10 of usable reward value, converting those 1,000 points into approximately $10 of store credit is easier for customers to understand than suddenly changing the economic value of the balance.
Review your largest balances
Before importing, check the customers with the highest outstanding points.
These accounts show the financial effect of the conversion most clearly.
A small change in the value of one point can create a significant difference when multiplied across a customer holding thousands of points.
Review the program-wide total
Do not choose the conversion using a single customer example.
Use Mage's total store credit preview to understand the complete value being brought across from Smile.io.
That gives your team a clear figure to approve before the migration is processed.
FAQ
Can I migrate Smile.io points into store credit?
Yes. Mage lets you import customer balances from Smile.io and convert the existing points into store credit using a conversion rate you choose.
For example, you could make one Smile.io point worth one cent of store credit, making 1,000 existing points worth $10.
How do I export customer points from Smile.io?
Go to the customer area in Smile.io, use the filtering and export controls, open the three-dot menu, and select Download results.
Before downloading the file, untick Keep the date formatted.
The resulting spreadsheet includes the customer information and points balances needed for the Mage migration.
What should one Smile.io point be worth as store credit?
The conversion is up to the merchant.
A common approach is one point equals one cent, or the equivalent in your store's currency.
The most important consideration is the value customers previously expected their points to represent.
Use Mage's customer preview and total store credit calculation to review the financial impact before importing.
Can I preview the conversion before importing customers?
Yes.
Mage shows the existing points balance alongside the resulting store credit value before the import is completed.
You can adjust the conversion rate and review the effect in real time.
Mage also shows the total amount of store credit that will be created across the imported customer base.
How long does a Smile.io migration to Mage take?
The processing time depends on the number of customers being imported.
Small customer files can complete within moments. A store with more than 10,000 customers may take around five to ten minutes, while much larger customer databases can take longer.
Always wait until the import is marked as completed before validating customer balances.
Ready to move from Smile.io points to a store credit-based loyalty program? Book a demo.
Graeme is the co-founder at Mage Loyalty. He heads product development, from complex loyalty migrations and large-scale data handling to building the features shaping the future of loyalty on Shopify.
