Best Practices for Designing Exceptional Loyalty Program UX

Loyalty programs can generate up to 20% of a company’s profits, according to McKinsey. But success hinges on more than just offering right rewards – it requires thoughtful loyalty design. From software architecture and program rules to gamification, rewards, and UX/UI, every detail matters.

This guide explores best practices and real-world examples to help you design or improve a loyalty program that truly engages your customers.

Note: All desktop screenshots were made on Mac, Chrome and all mobile screenshots were made using the iPhone X resolution on Chrome.

Learn more: Explore Voucherify's Open Source Loyalty Accelerator

What you need for the best loyalty design?

• Give your loyalty program a creative name and design your own loyalty currency.
• Promote your loyalty program through landing pages, widgets, and other channels.
• Inform customers about all ways to earn rewards and list all available rewards.
• Inform customers on how to cash out their rewards.
• Explain the different program levels (tiers) and the difference between them.
• Be clear about the expiry date of the rewards and keep your rules simple and understandable.
• Minimize the friction of the sign-up process.
• Personalize communications with welcome emails and progress notifications.
• Inform loyalty members about their rewards and points status.
• Use visuals to convey reward progress.
• Build a dedicated customer cockpit (digital wallet).
• Include the rewards and point status information in newsletters.
• Gamify the loyalty experience with bonus campaigns and challenges.
• Do not forget about mobile-friendliness, offer a mobile app if possible.
• Display the earned rewards/points post-purchase.
• Display loyalty points and rewards history.
• Design a simple opt-out process.

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The best practices for the best loyalty design and UX

1. Give your rewards program a creative name 

Do not call your scheme simply "XYZ loyalty program." Try to come up with something more memorable. Even better, if you align your loyalty program’s values with your brand objectives for increased effectiveness. For instance, E.L.F, a cosmetics company, has a loyalty program called The Beauty Squad.

2. Design own loyalty currency 

If your customer loyalty program offers points, you can name them differently. Try to find something that will be in line with your brand and your products. For example, if you sell wine, you can name your points "corks."

Here are some real-life examples of creative loyalty points names:

• The Starbucks rewards program calls their points "stars."
• Frequent flyer programs often call them "miles."

3. Promote your rewards program across all channels

You will not grow your membership rates if you don't advertise your loyalty program enough and via the right channels. Start off with your platforms and include links or banners directing users to your loyalty program in the most important touchpoints. Here are some inspirations:

• Homepage – your homepage is the most visited page, make sure your loyalty program is featured. Add it to the navigation menu, footer, or a ribbon (like UGG does). While the footer is least visible, all three options ensure easy access from any subpage.

• Pop-ups – pop-ups can effectively highlight your loyalty program but may feel intrusive. Use them post-launch or target new visitors. Avoid showing them repeatedly to the same user to prevent annoyance.
  

• Banners – homepage banners are great for visibility but don’t appear on all subpages. Pair them with permanent placements like the menu, ribbon, or footer for full-site exposure.
  

• Emails – invite existing customers or newsletter subscribers to join your loyalty program – automatically, if possible. For example, Kiehl’s emails new customers with key perks, a CTA, ways to earn points, and available rewards.

• Other channels – promote your loyalty program via owned channels (e.g., social media, blog, help center) and in-store with flyers or receipts. Train staff to invite sign-ups at checkout, but keep it fast to avoid delays, like H&M’s issue with on-the-spot app downloads.
• Ads – you can use paid advertising like social media ads, PPC, retargeting, radio, TV, print, or any other channel you can imagine to advertise your loyalty program. I recommend, however, to start with building the loyalty program presence all over owned channels first to build a consistent user journey for the visitors coming from paid advertising. 

4. Loyalty program landing page design 

Your loyalty program should have a landing page (website or a mobile app page) that will collect all information about it. This should be the information hub about the program, directing visitors to join your loyalty club. There is various information that such a page should contain: 

• Earning rules – clearly list all ways to earn rewards and keep your landing page updated with new or temporary actions like double point days. To drive engagement, customers need to know exactly how to participate.
  

• Rewards – list all available rewards to motivate participation, but avoid overwhelming customers with too many choices. Sephora’s Beauty Insider lets members redeem points for curated rewards, balancing variety with clarity.

• Redemption options – clearly explain how customers can redeem rewards – list point costs and any qualifying actions. Marriott’s program does this well with a “How to Redeem” section detailing all redemption options, from discounts to donations.

• Membership levels – if your loyalty program has tiers, clearly explain how to qualify, expiration rules, and tier benefits. A comparison table, like UGG uses, is the most user-friendly way to show differences.

• Expiration policies – clearly state when points or rewards expire, ideally on the landing page. Include all key program rules upfront, like a 12-month expiration, and link to full terms for details. Don’t hide essential info.
  ‍
  Learn more: Loyalty Points Expiration – Should You Do It and How?

• Terms & conditions – use clear, simple language in your terms & conditions and support explanations with visuals. Avoid overly complex rules or too many ways to earn rewards. If your point system is complicated, translate it into easy-to-understand benefits—e.g., say “get $5 off every $100 spent” instead of explaining point conversions. Keep detailed rules in the T&Cs, but make the core benefits obvious to users.
  
  Learn more: Must-Have Terms and Conditions for Loyalty Programs in 2025
  

5. Loyalty program sign-up form design 

Make joining your loyalty program simple – ideally as part of account creation or onboarding. Use a short, easy-to-find form on the landing page, and clearly explain how both new and existing users can join.

Abercrombie’s myAbercrombie program does this well, asking only for basic info and connecting loyalty to existing accounts automatically.

6. Loyalty program welcome email

Send a welcome email to new loyalty members with key benefits, ways to participate, and a link to your program page. This is especially important for sign-ups from sources other than your landing page. Consider including a first reward to boost engagement.

7. Personalize loyalty communications 

To maintain a coherent brand image and the best possible user experience, you should personalize all your communications, for example by including customer’s name, loyalty program level, points, and rewards status. This will make them feel special and appreciated as well as give them immediate access to their loyalty account information which may increase their participation rate.

• Status and points updates – to encourage more purchases and participation in your rewards program you should regularly inform members about their points balance and membership status.
• Membership progress – use visuals to help users understand available rewards, like showing their current tier, points needed for the next reward, or "locked" rewards with point requirements. This makes it easier for customers to grasp program rules and their progress.
• Contextual notifications – send notifications to customers when they earn rewards, reach milestones, or near expiration. These reminders keep customers engaged. Automatic alerts help maintain long-term participation.
  

• Reminders – To keep your customers up-to-date and to keep your loyalty program top of their minds you could remind your customers about expiring rewards, ways to earn rewards they have not used yet, benefits waiting for them if they earn X points more, available perks and discounts, and any special events (e.g., double-point days) they should participate in. For example, Rue 21 sends a recap of all available rewards, missing points until next rewards and ways to earn rewards to remind their loyalty program members about their program. 

• Include loyalty updates in newsletters – you can include the information about the available rewards and points collected in the newsletters to regularly remind your customers about your loyalty program. For example, Hollister adds loyalty points and available rewards information to all newsletters they send to customers.

8. Build loyalty wallets

Create a dedicated view for customers to track their loyalty program participation, including rewards, points, and future milestones. A loyalty wallet can be part of their account or a separate page/app. Combine it with other promotions like gift card status or coupons for a comprehensive experience. For example, H&M’s loyalty program shows vouchers, rewards, points, and tier progress in a customer cockpit.

9. Introduce loyalty gamification

Besides the basic rules of the loyalty program, you could also add in some temporary gamified bits to spice it up a bit. This will keep members on their toes and make them check your loyalty program page or app regularly. 

• Time-limited campaigns – loyalty campaigns are time-limited or segment-specific events that enrich the core loyalty experience by offering double points, instant rewards, or other perks. Sephora Beauty Insider has point multiplier events, sweepstakes and other events to keep the loyalty members interested long-term.

• Challenges – challenges are actions members complete to earn rewards, like "Invite 3 friends to join and earn 1000 points." Set short expiry dates and promote challenges widely to boost engagement and participation. Both challenges and campaigns should be mentioned on the main communication channels of the program – the landing page and the customer account/cockpit. You could also send notifications about it through other channels like email, social media, and community.
  

10. Keep your program mobile-friendly

75% of consumers would engage more with customer loyalty programs that make rewards mobile-friendly. This includes points, discount codes, vouchers, and gift cards. You can offer a dedicated loyalty program mobile app, include your program in your existing app, make a progressive website or simply make sure your website is responsive (however, in that case, you will not be able to allow offline redemptions of rewards). 

11. Master the omnichannel loyalty experience

Loyalty should be integrated across all touchpoints, from websites to in-store experiences. Ensure seamless earning, viewing, and redeeming of rewards. Also, consider the relevance, frequency, and channel of communications like reward status emails to avoid spamming loyal customers.

12. Build hassle-free redemption flows

Make it easy for users to apply rewards at checkout. If points can be used for payment, show their eligibility and allow point selection. If points can be exchanged for rewards, you could let users exchange them at the checkout or direct them to another page where they can pick their rewards and then back to the basket.

The most user-friendly way is to list all available rewards (points, coupons, discounts, products etc.) in the basket and let your customers apply them to their orders. This will make it clear for customers what their rewards are, make it very easy for them to use the rewards and will not affect your cart abandonment rate.

‍Chubbies Shorts show the available points and rewards (and allow points to reward conversion) directly in the basket. 

13. Display earned rewards/points post-purchase 

You should immediately show how many points or rewards members earned thanks to their purchase. You can do it even before the purchase is completed, by displaying “You will earn XX points for this purchase” message and recalculating the amount if the basket changes. You should definitely do it after the purchase is completed, for example on the thank you page and order summary emails. 

14. Display loyalty points and rewards history 

To make tracking of rewards easier (which can offload your customer service agents), you should show the points and rewards history. They could be displayed in the customer account’s order history or, if you offer a separate loyalty wallet, you could display it there. 

15. Design an opt-out process

Make it easy for members to opt out of the loyalty program, clearly outlining the process in terms and conditions, customer accounts, or email communications. Allow self-service opt-out via their account and offer customer service assistance for less tech-savvy users. Consider asking for feedback or reasons for leaving.

‍American Eagle Outfitters allows customers to resign from their loyalty program only by calling the customer service. That is not the most user-friendly option but they do have paragraphs in their FAQ explaining the process, which is the basic best practice you should follow. Unfortunately, many of the loyalty program terms and conditions skip that information completely. 

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