Expiring points

Defining point expiration periods can be done through Antavo’s Expiring points module. The options provided by the module give the flexibility to configure the way how you’d like to remove customers' spendable points from their point balance in case they don’t spend them in time.

Expiration encourages customers to come back to your store and make use of their points and is also useful to reduce the risk of long-term liabilities.

1 Configuring expiration settings
- 1.1 Expiration Types
- 1.2 Point validity
- 1.3 Expiration day
- 1.4 Actions
- 1.5 Calendar
- 1.6 Customer attribute
- 1.7 Expiration date for refunded points
- 1.8 Saving and discarding configuration
2 Point expiration date modifications
- 2.1 First come first served
3 Point expiration data fields

You can find the configuration page of the Expiring Points module by clicking on the Modules icon in the sidebar and scrolling down to the ‘Core’ module category.

If your brand uses Points economy, the Expiring points configuration is integrated into Points economy and you’ll be redirected automatically to the Expiring points tab of the Points economy module to configure the module.

If your brand uses Multi-accounts, the Expiring points configuration is integrated into the account edior(s) of the Multi-accounts module employing the Expiring points tab. When clicking the Expiring points module icon on the module list, you’ll be redirected to the homepage of the Multi-accounts module where you can configure the Expiring Points settings under the Expiring points tab of each of the accounts added.

The availability of the configuration steps described below depends on the point expiration type you select in the first step.

Configuring expiration settings

Expiration Types

Select the expiration logic
- No expiration
  Points will never expire, and spendable points are available for an unlimited time.
- Rolling
  Customer points expire after the specified expiration time. The point expiration date is always calculated starting from the date when points were earned.
- Last activity based
  Customers keep their points unexpired until they perform specific actions within a configurable time period.
- Calendar
  Customers’ points expire on a specific calendar day every year for each customer. All points earned and not spent since the last expiration date will expire.
- Anniversary
  Point expiration occurs annually for each customer.

Point validity

The ‘Point validity’ configuration setting is only available for the Rolling and Last activity based point expiration types.

Add the time period while the points are valid. The expiration date calculation behaves depending on the expiration type selected:

Rolling type
The expiration date is calculated from the date when the points were earned.
The expiration date of each point-earning action will have its own expiration date.
Last activity based
The expiration date of all the customer’s spendable points is recalculated every time an applicable action (selected in the ‘Actions’ configuration field) is registered.
The expiration date of all point-earning actions will have the same expiration date.

The validity period can be set in monthly steps.

Expiration day

The ‘Expiration day’ configuration setting is only available for the Rolling and Last activity based point expiration types.

You are provided with 3 options to select the specific date of the month when points should expire:

When points are old enough to expire, points will expire at the beginning of the month.
When points are old enough to expire, points will expire at the end of the calendar month.
When points are old enough to expire, points will expire on the same day of the month as when they were earned.

Actions

The ‘Actions’ configuration setting is only available for the Last activity based point expiration type.

In this multi-select field, you can add the events that should extend the customer’s point expiration period based on the date when any of the selected actions are registered in the customer’s Events history.

Calendar

The ‘Calendar’ configuration setting is only available for the Calendar point expiration type.

Customers’ points expire on a specific calendar day every year for each customer. All points earned and not spent since the last expiration date will expire.

Set the date by defining the day and month of the expiration
Grace period
Define the maximum amount of time that has to pass from the date when points were earned until the defined point expiration date to let customers keep the points as spendable and skip point expiration.

By clicking the ‘Add expiration date’ button, you can add multiple expiration dates per year.

Customer attribute

The ‘Customer attribute’ configuration setting is only available for the Anniversary point expiration type.

This feature allows point expiration to occur annually for each customer. After choosing this type, a dropdown appears where the event type (for which the anniversary would be counted) needs to be set up.

This can be any custom field that requires a date or datetime-type field.
The opt-in date is automatically applied as the customer’s date of points anniversary if the selected customer attribute is empty and the field doesn’t contain a date/datetime value.

Expiration date for refunded points

Expiration dates are automatically assigned to points when customers earn them. However, the expiration date has to be set again if a customer had used the points to reduce the basket value, but then the items get returned and the points are re-added to the customer’s point balance through the point_unburn event.

There are two approaches available on the interface that you can select from:

Set a new expiration date
A new expiration date is calculated based on the current expiration logic as if the points were earned on the date of the refund.
eg. There’s a 2-month rolling expiration logic set under the Expiring points module. As items were returned, 50 points were refunded on April 1. The new expiration date is June 1 (April 2 + 2 months) regardless of the original expiration date.
Keep the original expiration date
The expiration date of the points will remain the same as it was set when the points were earned.
eg. Based on a 2-month rolling expiration logic set under the Expiring points module, October 1 was the expiration date assigned to 50 points earned on August 1. The customer spent the points, but the items were refunded on September 5. No new expiration date is assigned, the expiration date of the refunded 50 points remains October 1.

Please note that with the ‘Keep the original expiration date option' being selected, the points are refunded as expired points if the original point expiration date is an earlier date than the date of the refund. If the originally assigned points don't have an expiration date, a new expiration date will be calculated based on the current expiration settings.

Saving and discarding configuration

At the right center of the screen, are two buttons, ‘Cancel’ and ‘Save’.

If none of the expiration specifications entered are to be kept, click ‘Cancel’, this discards all unsaved data.

Click ‘Save’ to save changes that will be applied to points according to the specifications entered.

Please note, that the point expiration will apply to points earned after the point expiration settings are activated, there will be no point expiration date assigned to points earned previously. Accordingly, when you change the expiration settings that are already operational, the expiration date of previously earned points will not be updated.

This confirmation message displays after clicking
Save .

Point expiration date modifications

There are 2 mechanisms of the loyalty platform that may overwrite the expiration dates of points that are originally calculated based on the above-configured logic when the customer events are registered.

Refunds - see details above
Modify event node in the Workflow editor

First come first served

When customers spend their points in the loyalty program, the points are used up on a ‘first come first served’ method. This means that even if the expiration date of points has been overwritten by a later date, the points are spent in the same order as they were earned.

This example illustrates the order of points being spent:

event: 1000 points earned on 12/05/2023, expiring on 31/12/2024
event: 2000 points earned on 11/07/2023, expiring on 31/12/2024 and later modified to expire on 31/12/2025
event: 2000 points earned on 23/11/2023, expiring on 31/12/2024

When the customer spends 3000 points, the points of the 1. (1000) and the 2. (2000) events will be spent, even though the expiration date of the 2. event was later delayed and the points of the 3. event will expire sooner.

Point expiration data fields

The Expiring points module introduces the following fields providing information on the details of a specific customer’s upcoming point expirations:

total - the total number of unspent points that has an expiration date anytime in the future
date - the next point expiration date of the customer
current - the number of points to expire on the next point expiration date
today - the number of points to expire on the current day
this_month - the number of points to expire in the current month
this_year - the number of points to expire in the current year
next_month - the number of points to expire in the next month
next_year - the number of points to expire in the next year
last_year - the number of points that had expired in the last calendar year
last_12_months - the number of points that had expired in the past twelve months
last_month - the number of points that had expired in the last month
reset_date - resets the expiration date for the customer.

These properties can be used in various ways:

Customer attribute filters and input fields ( as {customer.extensions.expiring_points.<property>}) in workflows
Customer attribute filters and fields added to exports
Customer attribute filters when creating segments
Customer data fields to be synchronized to newsletter providers