Glow awards points through the earning types you enable for your loyalty program. Most stores start with points for signup and purchases, then add birthday points, anniversary points, referrals, collection bonuses, order rules, or custom actions after the basic program is tested.

Choose earning types during setup

During the Glow setup wizard, choose the ways customers should earn points.

The core earning types are:

Signup
Place an Order
Celebrate a Birthday
Have an Anniversary
Refer Friends

Glow setup wizard showing earning type choices

Choose only the earning types you want to launch with. You can change these later.

Set point amounts

If Place an Order is enabled, Glow asks how many points customers should earn for each 1 unit of your Shopify store currency.

For example, if your Shopify store currency is USD:

1 means 1 point per $1 spent.
5 means 5 points per $1 spent.
0.5 means half a point per $1 spent.

Glow supports order point rates with decimals up to four places. Glow rounds the final order points after calculating the order.

If signup, birthday, or anniversary points are enabled, Glow also asks how many points customers should earn for those actions.

Referral points are managed from Rewards > Referral Program because referrals have extra choices, such as whether to reward signup, first purchase, or repeat orders.

Change earning settings after launch

After your program is live, you can update the same core earning types from Account Settings.

In Glow, go to Settings > Account Settings.
Open the Rewards tab.
Under Reward Types, check the earning types you want to offer.
Under Reward Your Customers, set the point amounts.
If Place an Order is enabled, choose the Shipping & Taxes setting.
Select Save Settings.

Glow Account Settings Rewards tab showing reward types and point fields

Changes apply to future earning activity. They do not automatically recalculate older point activity.

How purchase points work

For purchase points, Glow starts with your order earning rate and your Shopify store currency.

The Shipping & Taxes setting controls which Shopify order amount Glow uses:

Include Shipping & Tax uses the Shopify order total.
Exclude Shipping & Tax uses the Shopify order subtotal.

After that base calculation, other Glow settings can still change the final points. Collection bonuses, order rules, VIP multipliers, refund settings, return settings, and unpaid-order settings can all affect what a customer ultimately earns.

Advanced ways to award points

Use these features when you want more control:

Order Rules can award fixed points, multiply points, or exclude points based on order details.
Collection Bonuses can award different points for products in specific Shopify collections.
VIP Tiers can multiply eligible earning types for certain customer groups.
Custom Rewards can award points for actions that need merchant review or approval.
Referrals can reward existing customers, new customers, or both.
Manual point adjustments can correct a customer's balance when support needs to make a one-off change.

Start simple, then add advanced rules after you have tested the basic earning flow.

What customers see

Customers can see enabled earning methods in the loyalty widget, usually under a How to Earn or similar earning section.

Some point awards happen immediately when Glow can verify the action, such as signup points. Others depend on timing or data:

Purchase points are awarded after Glow processes an eligible Shopify order.
Birthday points require the customer to have a birthday saved.
Anniversary points depend on the customer's loyalty-member date.
Referral points depend on a valid referral link and your referral timing settings.

How to test point earning

Start with one or two earning types enabled.
Use a test customer that is not excluded from the loyalty program.
Complete the action you want to test, such as account signup or a Shopify order.
Check the customer's point activity in Glow.
If the result is different than expected, check order rules, collection bonuses, VIP multipliers, and customer eligibility settings.

For purchase testing, use a real Shopify test order or a controlled development-store order so Glow receives the same order data it uses in production.

Common issues

Customers are not earning points

Check that the earning type is enabled and that the point amount is greater than 0.

For orders, also check that Glow can match the Shopify order to a valid customer and that the order qualifies under your order rules and order-processing settings.

Customers are earning more or fewer points than expected

Check whether collection bonuses, order rules, VIP multipliers, shipping/tax settings, refunds, returns, or unpaid-order settings changed the base calculation.

Birthday or anniversary points are missing

Make sure the customer has the required date saved. Birthday points need a birthday. Anniversary points depend on the customer's loyalty-member date.

Referral points are missing

Check Rewards > Referral Program. Referral rewards depend on the referral program being enabled, a valid referral link, the selected referral timing, and the point amounts for the existing and new member.