A VIP loyalty program gives your best customers more as they spend more. The simplest version is a spend threshold, with rewards that get better as customers climb: more store credit or points back on every order, and early access to your sales. For this guide we looked at what the top tiers of real programs from our brand breakdowns, and of published Mage customers, actually give their best customers, and what is worth copying.
This guide is written by Graeme, co-founder of Mage. Mage is a loyalty and customer accounts platform for Shopify, and VIP tiers are part of it, so I've been specific about how ours works.
The short version
- Qualify VIPs on spend. Set a spend threshold and let in everyone who reaches it.
- Reward them with more of what they already earn: a higher store credit or points percentage back on every order, and early access to sales.
- Free shipping, gifts and events are optional extras, only if your margin allows them.
- Don't tier your customer support. Every customer deserves the best support you can give.
- Don't cap the number of VIPs. The more customers who reach the threshold, the better the program is working.
What is a VIP loyalty program?
A VIP loyalty program rewards your highest-spending customers with more. In practice it is the upper tier or tiers of a tier program, so how customers qualify, how long status lasts and how many tiers to run are covered in our guide to how tiered loyalty programs work. This guide is about the other half: what the VIPs actually get, and how to make them feel it.
Who is a VIP
I think spend is the most important measure. Set a spend threshold, and every customer who reaches it is a VIP. I don't cap the number of VIPs or make the criteria harder to reach on purpose: if many customers reach the threshold, your program is working. For how to set the threshold, see the tiers guide, and for how many tiers to run see how many VIP tiers a program should have.
What VIPs should get
More back on every order
The reward I would start with is a higher percentage back as customers climb: more store credit or more points for every dollar. It is easy to explain, and customers can see what the next tier is worth. Real examples:
- West Coast Goalkeeping pays cashback that rises from 5% to 7% to 10% across its Core, Elite and Pro tiers, based on spend over a rolling 12 months. Read the case study.
- Youswim pays store credit that rises from 5% to 7% to 10% at $250 and $500 of spend over a rolling year. Read the case study.
- Dr. Squatch pays 1 point per $1 at its first two tiers and 2 points per $1 at the top tier, from $150 of spend.
- PetSmart pays 10 points per $1 at every tier, plus 2 more at Bestie ($500 a year) and 4 more at VIPP ($1,000 a year).
- OSEA goes from 1 to 2 to 3 points per $1 as members spend $200 and then $400.
In Mage, a tier can carry a higher points multiplier or a higher cashback rate, and customers see their next tier and how close they are to it in the Tier Progress block (how it works).
Early access to sales and launches
Early access is the second reward I would use. It gives your best customers a reason to feel ahead of everyone else, and it doesn't cut your margin the way a bigger discount does. Brands that do it:
- Youswim adds early access to sales and launches as customers move up its tiers.
- Love Sweat Fitness gives early access to new products and sales as members move up. Read the case study.
- Kith gives every tier early access to sales and select products, and adds Kith Vault Access, re-releases of past products, at its top tier.
- Naturium gives every tier early launch access and adds flash sale access from its $300 tier.
- Foot Locker uses a member's tier as a factor in who gets selected for sneaker releases.
To run it on Shopify, Mage tags every customer with their current tier in the format "Mage VIP Tier: [Tier Name]", so you can build a segment of VIPs for an early-access email (how tagging works).
Optional extras: shipping, gifts and events
If your margin allows it, you can add more:
- Free shipping. INKEY List gives free standard shipping from its $70 tier, Represent from its Silver tier, Youswim adds free expedited shipping and free returns, and West Coast Goalkeeping gives its Pro tier free upgraded shipping.
- Birthday gifts that grow with the tier. Starbucks gives a free birthday item on the day at Green, for 7 days at Gold and for 30 days at Reserve.
- Events and exclusives. Nordstrom adds perks, events and services by level, with Personal Double Points Days (3, 4 and 5 across its upper levels), Represent adds tier exclusive products and focus groups from Silver, and Love Sweat Fitness gives its top members first access to the founder's Town Hall.
Don't tier your customer support
I wouldn't make support a VIP perk. All customers deserve the best support possible, new or existing, and a slower queue for everyone else is not a perk worth building. A reason to book a visit or an appointment, as Represent offers with in-store bookings from its Bronze tier, is an extra people choose to use, not a lower standard for everyone else.
The Shopify loyalty program growing brands trust
See how Mage helps Shopify brands lift repeat purchase rate with loyalty, referrals and store credit.
Book a demoMake VIPs feel recognized
Kris walks through the moment a customer hits tier 2 in the customer journey masterclass, and why the first job is to make them feel recognized.
The tier upgrade email and the value tree
The moment a customer reaches tier 2 the communication has to change. Until then every message was "come back, you might like these." Now the first job is recognition, and the tier two chapter of the customer journey masterclass breaks it into two steps. First, tell them they have hit the tier: a VIP tier upgrade email, not a line in a newsletter. Second, educate them about their status rather than about the brand: what the tier means, which benefits are now live, and what the next tier unlocks. The benefits that fit at this level are the ones that encourage purchases without heavy cost: bonus point events exclusive to VIPs, automatic free shipping, and a short early access window. Exclusive VIP products come later, once the volume supports them. The tier two chapter has the detail.
The wider frame is the customer value tree, which we lay out in the value tree chapter. Each level has one goal, and every touchpoint (storefront, email, account, support) should reflect it.
| Level | Goal | What the experience should do |
|---|---|---|
| Guest | Enrol | Activate the account, capture data, give a clear reason to join |
| Tier 1 | Progress | Drive purchase frequency and move them toward tier 2 and tier 3 |
| Tier 2 | Retain | Nurture the relationship, exclusive access, no more tempting with discounts |
| Tier 3 | Recognize | Exclusivity, events, automatic shipping upgrades at the cart |
Also make the benefits easy to find. In Mage, the VIP Tier Benefits section of your loyalty page shows what each tier unlocks as a comparison table or cards (how to set it up). How often and where you talk to VIPs depends on your store and your customers, so start with the upgrade email and a clear benefits page, and add channels as you learn what your customers respond to.
“Cannot say enough good things about the team at Mage Loyalty, one of the absolute best organizations we have ever worked with, full stop! So glad we connected with them, completely redid our loyalty program, new concepts, use of loyalty, increasing user engagement, showing us where we were not valuing our best customers, just WOW, amazing team!”
Read the West Coast Goalkeeping case study →
How to build a VIP loyalty program
If you're starting from scratch and want a VIP customer program, this is the order I would work in:
- Set a spend threshold, and let in everyone who reaches it. The tiers guide covers how to choose the number and how long spending counts for.
- Choose the rewards: a higher store credit or points percentage back as customers climb, plus early access to sales. Add free shipping, gifts or events only if your margin allows.
- Make the benefits easy to find. A page that shows what each tier unlocks, and a progress tracker for logged-in customers, tell people what the next tier is worth.
- Tell customers when they reach a tier. Send an upgrade email that explains what the tier means and what it unlocks, and tag customers by tier so you can build a VIP segment for early-access emails.
- Measure and adjust. Compare VIPs with customers in the tier below, and check what the benefits cost against the margin on what VIPs spend.
For the step-by-step setup in Shopify, see our guide to designing Shopify VIP tiers.
How to measure a VIP program
A few numbers show whether it is working:
- The share of your customers and of your revenue that sits in VIP tiers.
- Repeat purchase rate and average order value for VIPs, compared with customers in the tier below.
- What the benefits cost you against the margin on what VIPs spend.
- Whether VIPs buy more after reaching a tier than before, ideally compared with a similar group that hasn't been offered it.
I don't give target ranges, because they vary by category and by program. Compare your own numbers over time. Our guide to the loyalty program metrics that matter covers the rest.
VIP loyalty program mistakes
- Making status hard to reach on purpose. If VIP only works when very few customers qualify, you are rewarding scarcity, not your best customers.
- Qualifying on something other than spend. Mixing in reviews, email opens and other signals makes the criteria hard to explain and hard to run.
- Tiering customer support. Every customer deserves the best support, so don't make it a perk.
- Promising benefits you can't deliver. Promise only what you can provide consistently, because a missed promise costs more trust than it earns.
- Ignoring the cost. Work out what each benefit costs against the margin on what VIPs spend, especially for events and gifts.
Frequently asked questions
What is a VIP loyalty program?
A VIP loyalty program rewards your highest-spending customers with more, usually through the upper tiers of a tier program. The most common rewards are a higher store credit or points percentage back on every order and early access to sales.
Who should be a VIP?
Whoever reaches your spend threshold. I think spend is the most important measure, and I don't cap the number of VIPs.
What should VIP customers get?
More back on every order, such as a higher store credit or points percentage, and early access to sales. Free shipping, birthday gifts and events are optional extras if your margin allows them.
Should VIP customers get better customer support?
No. All customers deserve the best support possible, new or existing.
How many customers should be VIP?
As many as reach your spend threshold. If a lot of customers reach it, the program is working.
How should I communicate with VIP customers?
It depends on your store and your customers. Start with an upgrade email that tells customers what the tier means and what it unlocks, and a clear benefits page, then add channels as you learn what works.
Can a customer lose VIP status?
That depends on how long you measure spending for. Our guide to how tiered loyalty programs work covers status windows, protection and what happens when a customer falls short.
VIP tiers in Mage
Mage's Shopify VIP tiers let you set a spend threshold for each tier, give each tier a higher points multiplier or cashback rate, show customers their progress, and tag every customer with their tier in Shopify. For the step-by-step setup, see our guide to designing Shopify VIP tiers, and for the points-versus-tiers question see points vs. tiers.
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.
