3. How to Start a Loyalty Program

This article walks you through the first onboarding flow of your program. By the end of this process, your loyalty program will be ready to go live when you decide to launch it. Let’s set up a clear, functional foundation that you can build on.

During the onboarding, we’ll follow these steps:
1. Install Crowny and select a plan
2. Enter the Crowny Portal
3. Review and confirm your branding
4. Configure your program basics
5. Set a basic earning rule & promotion

No worries, you will not:

Let’s begin!

We’re all familiar with the Shopify dashboard. Make sure you’re logged into the store that you want to create a Crowny Loyalty Program for. 

How to get into the Crowny Portal:
1. Access the Shopify dashboard
2. Go to the search bar, type ‘Crowny’
3. Click the Crowny App

After finding Crowny in the Shopify App Store and installing it, Shopify will ask you to select a plan.

At this stage:

Once approved, your Crowny subscription is activated, and you’ll receive a confirmation email. Next time you search and click Crowny on this account, you will enter your environment in the portal immediately.

Questions about the plans?

After installation, Crowny automatically connects to your Shopify store.

When you open the Crowny Portal for the first time, you’ll see a welcome screen confirming:

This means logos, store name, and basic branding are already available, and you don’t need to upload everything manually. 

Click ‘Get started’ to begin the onboarding flow.

The first step focuses on branding. 

Here, you can review:

On the right side, you’ll see an impression of how your branding will look in the Crowny App, with some examples of how your branding assets will be applied.

To ensure a quick and seamless onboarding flow, it is not possible to edit your branding at this stage. If you’re not entirely satisfied with how your brand is represented right now, you can adjust your branding at any time after completing the onboarding flow.

Next, you’ll define two important things:

These names are shown to members in the app. Both names have character limits to ensure they’re always displayed clearly in the app. For the program name, no more than 32 characters can be used. For the points name, no more than 10 characters can be used. 

Tip! Most merchants use an acronym or other type of abbreviation for their points name, similar to a stock ticker. In their content, they can use their full points name how they please. 

Example: YourBrand Points (16 characters) → YBP. 
Points name: YBP. 
Earning rule description: “Earn more YourBrand Points by doing this!” 

In the case when your points name is less than 10 characters, this is not necessary.

You’ll also finalize the visual design of your loyalty card by selecting:

Again, all of this can be changed later. 

Now you define how customers earn points on purchases. For most Shopify merchants, this rule will serve as the main engine behind the program. 

Crowny requires every loyalty program to have an active cashback earning rule. This rule determines how many loyalty points customers earn per currency unit spent. The minimum is 1 point per €/$ (or other native currency) spent.

With cashback enabled:

You’ll see a clear example explaining how points are earned per currency unit, so you understand exactly what customers receive.

Important:
The cashback rule also controls whether your loyalty program is active. If it’s paused, your program is inactive. Customers won’t be able to earn points through any earning rules, and invitations (automatic or manual) will not work.

To get you started, we are also creating a first promotion. Members will be able to claim this deal in the app for 500 loyalty points, which grants €5 (or equivalent currency) off their next purchase.

You can edit the cashback rule and the promotion after completing the onboarding flow. Once your program is active, continue to the next article to learn how to invite customers.

In the next article, we’ll explain how to invite customers to join your loyalty program.