Loyalty is an add-on feature available in Merchant Center for merchants who already have an existing loyalty programme and are interested in showcasing their benefits on Google. You can submit a range of loyalty benefits, such as free delivery, redeemable points and loyalty pricing in Merchant Center. You can also show your loyalty programme benefits in your free listings and Shopping ads across different Google properties, including Google Search, the Shopping tab, Wallet and Maps. Note that experiences may differ on desktop and mobile devices. You don't need to incur any additional fees to set up the programme in Merchant Center.
On this page
- Benefits
- How it works
- How to implement the merchant loyalty programme
- About loyalty benefits on crawled offers
- Understand loyalty programme performance
Benefits
- Engage and retain existing customers: A view into the benefits of your loyalty programme during a shopping experience on Google can enhance the customer's association with your brand. They'll be able to indicate their status as a member of your loyalty programme to enjoy a personalised shopping experience on Google.
- Attract new customers: Customers who aren't members of your programme will be exposed to your loyalty programme benefits such as member-exclusive prices, helping you to attract new loyalty programme members.
How it works
Google will show your most valuable loyalty programme benefits to potential new customers to encourage them to purchase your products and sign up for your loyalty programme. Google will also use your loyalty benefit data to highlight your programme benefits to your existing loyalty members, driving them to shop more with your business and reminding them why being part of your loyalty programme is so valuable.
To view members-only delivery benefits and points, customers will have to declare their membership status. They can do so by confirming loyalty tier association when prompted on Google Search. Then, product listings will show the appropriate perks based on your loyalty programme settings. In the future, you'll be able to use Customer Match in Google Ads to highlight member-only delivery and pricing benefits on Shopping ads to your existing customers (currently in pilot).
Types of loyalty programmes
- Free to join: Available to everyone. No membership fees or credit card sign-ups are needed.
- Spending amount: Available only to customers who have spent a certain amount on purchases in the past year.
- Membership fee: Available only to customers who pay for a subscription to your programme.
- Loyalty credit card: Available only to holders of merchant-branded credit cards.
Note: Google supports merchant loyalty programmes that provide members with perks based on membership tier. In line with our current policies, these perks should be available regardless of purchase location (web, app or in store).
Types of perks
- Free delivery: Members enjoy free delivery either with every purchase or on a minimum purchase. You also have the option to add free same-day delivery as a member benefit. Learn more about configuring the delivery settings of your loyalty programme.
- Redeemable points: Members gain points on their purchase, which they can redeem later.
- Loyalty pricing: Members enjoy specific pricing. This will be displayed alongside the non-member pricing to give shoppers an idea of the benefits of joining your programme.
Note:
- Only national loyalty pricing is supported.
- Google will only showcase member pricing in ads when the member discount is >=5% and >=$2 off the regular price or sale price (when available).
How to implement the merchant loyalty programme
Step 1 of 3: Activate the loyalty programme card
- In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings and tools icon
and click Add-ons.
- Activate the loyalty add-on and get started.
Step 2 of 3: Add details about your loyalty programme
- Add the following details under 'Programme overview':
- Programme name: Customers will find this on Google.
- Programme label: It can be the same as the programme name but can't include spaces. You can use underscores instead. The input for this field can be used as the programme label
[program_label]attribute when feed changes are made. After you've submitted your loyalty programme label, you won't be able to edit the programme label. - Programme description: A brief description highlighting the key benefits of your loyalty programme. We encourage you to highlight your key loyalty benefit here.
- Sign-up URL: A valid URL for customers to join your loyalty programme. You can customise this URL with UTM parameters to track engagement data. Learn more about URL customisation.
- Add programme tiers. If you have multiple programme tiers, start with the most basic tier as your first and then add the more advanced tiers in order as you add more tiers. Enter all the tiers for your loyalty programme – each one will need a unique name and label.
- Add the tier name, tier label (can't be edited after submitting) and tier URL (optional), then select one of the tier requirements – free to join, spending amount or branded card. Learn more about types of loyalty programmes.
- If your loyalty programme has multiple tiers of membership, click + Add another tier to add additional tiers.
- Make sure that you add the tiers in the order of 'barrier to entry'. Your loyalty tier with the lowest barrier to entry should come first and the highest should be last. For example, if you have three loyalty tiers – a free tier, a tier that costs $100 per year and a tier that costs $500 per year, the order should be:
- Free tier
- $100/year tier
- $500/year tier
- Credit card tiers should be added last.
- Make sure that you add the tiers in the order of 'barrier to entry'. Your loyalty tier with the lowest barrier to entry should come first and the highest should be last. For example, if you have three loyalty tiers – a free tier, a tier that costs $100 per year and a tier that costs $500 per year, the order should be:
- Select the benefits that you want to add to the programme.
- Set up loyalty pricing directly in your feed using the loyalty programme
[loyalty_program]attribute. - Select loyalty points.
- Select one of the delivery benefits at the tier level: Free delivery on all orders, Free delivery on orders over $, Free express delivery on all orders or Free express delivery on orders over $.
Note: To display delivery benefits at the offer level, you need to make feed and delivery service changes. Learn more about configuring the delivery settings for your loyalty programme.
- If you offer any other loyalty benefits, you can configure them as 'Other' benefit type. For example, 'Member-exclusive shopping events', 'Member-exclusive price', 'Free gift on your birthday' and more. Ensure that the benefits communicated here match the benefits listed on your website.
Note: Submit at least one benefit for each tier. You can also add loyalty pricing in 'other benefits' in the case that this is the only loyalty benefit available.
- Set up loyalty pricing directly in your feed using the loyalty programme
- Send for approval.
Google takes up to 48 hours to review your loyalty programme, its associated tiers and associated benefits before surfacing them across Google properties. You can check the status on the loyalty programmes tab in the navigation panel on the left. If the programme submission is disapproved, an email with the details will be sent to the admins of your Merchant Center account. Learn more about the editorial and participation criteria guidelines for the merchant loyalty programme.
Step 3 of 3: Turn on benefits for specific offers (optional)
To display member delivery, member pricing or the number of points that a customer can earn for purchasing a specific product, use the loyalty programme [loyalty_program] group attribute.
- To display member delivery, you need to create a loyalty delivery policy and annotate the products using the loyalty programme
[loyalty_program]group attribute. Learn more about configuring the delivery settings of your loyalty programme. - To display member pricing, specify the price within the loyalty programme
[loyalty_program]group attribute. Always-on member pricing and limited-time member pricing events are both supported. - The point earning ratio added when setting up level benefits automatically applies to all products. If you want to override the default ratio, make feed changes as outlined in the loyalty programme
[loyalty_program].
Where and how loyalty benefits are displayed
Member benefits could be displayed in several ways. Below are examples of how loyalty benefits could be shown to users on different surfaces. Note that experience availability may differ by country.
Ads (mobile)
- Member pricing when a user's member status is unknown
-
Member pricing for a known member (in pilot)
-
Member delivery for a known member (in pilot)
-
Member delivery and price for a known member (in pilot)
Free listings
- Member pricing on free listings
-
Member delivery on free listings for known members
- Member points on free listings for known members
About loyalty benefits on crawled offers
In addition to showcasing your loyalty programme benefits on your listings from the feeds in your Merchant Center account, Google will also showcase these benefits on your crawled offers. These are offers that Google has found on your website that aren't submitted via the feeds in your Merchant Center account. In an effort to increase customer engagement and personalise the shopping experience, Google may use data from Gmail. The data helps Google to understand customers' loyalty relationship status and promotion availability. If you want to opt out of displaying loyalty benefits on crawled offers or a loyalty Gmail data sync, contact our support team.
Understand loyalty programme performance
The loyalty performance report will help you to better understand the performance of your loyalty programme and gain insights on how to improve it. Learn more about the loyalty programme performance report.