Why Use Points Drops?
A Points Drop lets you give a one-time bonus of points to a group of customers without them having to do anything. The points appear in their balance automatically at the scheduled time.
Note
A Points Drop is different from a Bonus Points Campaign. A campaign boosts the rate at which customers earn points from their normal actions, like 2x purchase points for a weekend. A drop adds a flat one-time award to each customer's balance, no purchase or action required.
Create a Points Drop
From your Shopify admin, open the Mage Loyalty app.
In the left menu, click Loyalty.
Scroll to the Points Drops section and click Create Drop.
Enter a Drop name. This is internal only. Customers will not see this name.
Enter the number of Points each customer in the audience will receive.
Choose the Audience (covered below).
Set the Schedule date and time for when the drop should activate.
Set the Expiry window. This is how long the customer has to spend their drop points before they expire.
Review the Summary panel on the right for a clear breakdown of what you are about to schedule.
Click Schedule drop, or click Save as draft to come back to it later.
Choose Your Audience
There are three audience options. Picking the right one is the most important decision when creating a drop, so this section covers each in detail.
All loyalty members
Every customer currently enrolled in your loyalty program receives the drop.
Important
"All loyalty members" is not the same as "all Shopify customers." A customer is considered a loyalty member as soon as they appear as a customer in Mage Loyalty. That includes anyone who has signed up to the loyalty program, earned points, redeemed a reward, or otherwise been tracked by Mage. Shoppers who have a Shopify account but who do not yet appear in Mage as a loyalty customer are not included in this audience.
VIP Tier
Only customers in the VIP tier you select receive the drop. Use this to reward your higher-value customers or to thank a specific tier for their loyalty.
Shopify Segment
Customers in a specific Shopify customer segment receive the drop. Paste the numeric segment ID from your Shopify admin into the form.
Note
For Shopify Segment drops, customers who are in the segment but who have not yet joined your loyalty program are still reserved a drop. The points will be added to their account automatically the moment they sign up to your loyalty program, as long as that happens before the drop expires. If they never sign up, or sign up after the expiry date, the reserved points are not granted.
Audience at a glance
Audience | Who is included | Best for |
All loyalty members | Customers who have interacted with your loyalty program at least once. | Universal "thank you" moments. Holiday or anniversary giveaways. |
VIP Tier | Customers currently in the selected VIP tier. | Rewarding your top spenders or thanking a specific tier. |
Shopify Segment | Anyone in the Shopify segment, even if they have not joined your loyalty program yet. | Targeted re-engagement, new customer acquisition, geographic or behavioural campaigns. |
Schedule and Timezone
A drop activates automatically at the date and time you set. Drop schedule times follow your store's configured timezone in Shopify, not your browser's local time. Until that moment, the drop sits in Scheduled status and you can keep editing it.
Note
The form shows the current shop time underneath the picker so you can sanity check. If your browser is in a different timezone, you will see a caution note to confirm you are picking the right shop-local moment.
Tip
When in doubt, schedule a drop for a round time like 9:00 AM or 12:00 PM in your store's timezone, on the day you want it to land. The Summary panel will echo "Drop time" and how long from now it is, so you can confirm before saving.
Expiry Window
The expiry window controls how long the customer has to spend their drop points.
You can set the window in hours, days, or weeks.
The clock starts at the drop's scheduled time, not from when each customer first sees the points.
The Summary panel shows the exact expiry date and time so there is no guesswork.
What Happens When the Drop Runs
At the scheduled time, the drop transitions from Scheduled to Processing, then to Completed once all customers have been awarded. Behind the scenes, Mage Loyalty:
Resolves the full list of customers in your chosen audience.
Adds the drop points to each eligible customer's balance.
For Shopify Segment audiences, reserves a drop for any segment member who is not yet a loyalty customer.
Writes an entry into each customer's Points Activity so they can see the drop alongside their other points.
Customers who are skipped:
Customers marked as excluded from the loyalty program are skipped.
A customer who has already received this exact drop will not receive it twice (safe re-run).
Important
Points Drops do not send customers an email, SMS, Klaviyo, Omnisend, Postscript or Attentive event. The points appear silently in the customer's balance.
If you want customers to notice the drop, send your own announcement before or at the moment the drop activates.
Tip
Pair every Points Drop with a marketing send. A surprise email or SMS along the lines of "We just added 500 points to your account, redeem them by Sunday" turns a silent bonus into a real engagement moment.
What Customers See
During the active window, the drop appears in the customer's Points Activity as a "Points Drop" entry alongside any other points they have earned. Their balance reflects the drop points immediately.
Once the drop expires, the entry is removed from the customer-facing view. Drops are presented as a temporary bonus, so customers do not see expired drop entries cluttering their history.
What if the customer spends their drop points before the expiry?
When a customer redeems a reward, Mage Loyalty spends their drop points first, before any of their other points. This protects the customer's existing balance, so the points they earned through purchases or other actions are not eaten up by a redemption while the drop is active.
What Happens When the Drop Ends
At the moment the expiry window passes:
Any drop points the customer has not yet spent are removed from their balance.
Points the customer already spent during the active window are kept (they have already been used).
For Shopify Segment drops, any pending reservations for customers who never signed up are marked as expired and never granted.
An entry is recorded in each affected customer's history so the merchant has a clear audit trail.
The drop's status remains Completed in the admin so you can review the recipients list afterwards.
Note
Drop points are tracked separately from regular earned points. Drops do not count towards VIP tier progression (lifetime points, rolling year points, or calendar year points). A drop is a temporary spendable bonus, not a permanent boost.
Drop Status Lifecycle
Status | What it means |
Draft | The drop has been saved but is not yet scheduled. You can continue editing it. |
Scheduled | The drop is queued and will activate automatically at the scheduled date and time. You can still edit it before the schedule time passes. |
Processing | The drop is currently running. Mage Loyalty is awarding points to the audience. The drop can no longer be edited. |
Completed | All eligible customers have been awarded their points. The drop is now in your history. |
Failed | Something went wrong during processing. The error message is shown on the drop's page and the Mage team is notified automatically. |
Editing a Drop
You can edit any field of a drop while it is in Draft or Scheduled status. This includes the audience, points, schedule, and expiry window.
Important
Once a drop transitions to Processing, it can no longer be edited or stopped. Double check your audience, points, and schedule before the activation time, especially for drops targeting your full member base.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Common Mistake
Assuming "All loyalty members" includes every Shopify customer. It does not. Customers who have a Shopify account but who have never interacted with your loyalty program are excluded from this audience. Use a Shopify Segment if you need broader reach.
Common Mistake
Setting the schedule time in browser time instead of shop time. If you live in a different timezone to your store, double check the "Shop time" hint under the schedule picker. The form will warn you when your browser and shop timezones differ.
Common Mistake
Adding a customer to your Shopify segment after the drop has already run. The audience is a point-in-time snapshot. Customers added to the segment after activation will not receive the drop, even if they are technically in the segment when they sign up.
Troubleshooting
The drop status shows Scheduled but the activation time has passed
Refresh the page. The status updates automatically but may need a refresh to display the change.
If the time has clearly passed and the drop is still showing as Scheduled after a refresh, contact the Mage Loyalty team via support chat.
A customer in the audience did not receive their drop
Check that the customer is not marked as excluded from the loyalty program.
For Shopify Segment drops, confirm the customer was actually in the segment at the time the drop activated. Segment membership at sign-up time, or later, does not retroactively qualify them.
Check the customer's points history in the Customers section to confirm whether the points were granted.
A customer's drop points disappeared
Drop points are temporary. If the drop expired before they were spent, the points are removed from the customer's balance by design.
Confirm the drop's expiry date by opening the drop in the Points Drops section.
The drop shows status Failed
An error message is displayed on the drop's page explaining the failure. The Mage Loyalty team is also notified automatically when a drop fails.
Common causes are an invalid Shopify segment ID or a temporary connectivity issue. You can create a new drop with the same settings to retry.
Still need help or can't find the answers you are looking for? Reach out to the Mage Loyalty team through our live chat support.