Setting Up VIP Tiers in Reorbit

Reward your most loyal customers with status. Build a ladder of tiers that members climb by earning points — unlocking perks, faster earning, and welcome rewards as they rise.

What are VIP Tiers?

VIP Tiers turn your loyalty program into a status ladder. Customers move up tiers (for example, Silver → Gold → Platinum) as they earn points, and each tier can unlock perks, better-paying earn rules, and a one-time welcome reward. Members keep their status by staying active within a maintenance window you define.

Your tiers appear on the VIP tiers page as an ordered ladder, highest tier at the top. Each tier’s rank is decided by its position in the ladder, not by a number you type.

What a tier can include

Element	What it does
Qualification	The minimum points a customer needs to reach the tier.
Perks	Benefits shown to members — Free shipping, Discount, Early access, or a Custom perk.
Tier rules	Earn rules that only members of this tier (and above) can be paid by, so they earn faster.
Welcome reward	A one-time reward when a customer first reaches the tier (bonus points, a discount, or a free product).

---

Before you start

• Make sure customers are already earning points (see Creating an Earn Rule) — points are how members qualify for tiers.
• Sketch your ladder: how many tiers, their names, and the points threshold for each.
• Decide how members keep their status — forever, or by re-qualifying within a rolling window.

---

Step-by-step: build your tier ladder

1. Open the VIP tiers page

From the app, go to Settings → VIP tiers. You’ll see how many active tiers you have and your current ladder.

2. Create a tier

Click Create tier (top-right). On the tier builder, fill in:

• Tier details — a Tier name (e.g. Gold). Reorbit auto-generates a Shopify tag handle (vip-tier:<name>) that Shopify segments, automatic discounts, and Flow can use; you can customize it after creating the tier.
• Qualification — the Minimum points a customer needs to reach this tier.
• Perks — add member benefits (see Perks below).
• Status (in the sidebar) — Active (visible to customers) or Disabled.

Click Save in the save bar. Repeat to create each tier.

Tier rules and the Welcome reward are added after you save a tier for the first time — reopen the tier (Edit) to configure them.

3. Order the ladder

On the VIP tiers page, use the up/down arrows on each tier to order them — highest tier at the top. The top tier gets a Top tier badge. Position, not a number, sets the ranking. If two tiers look out of order for their thresholds, Reorbit shows a “Check your tier order” warning.

4. Add perks

In a tier’s Perks section, add one or more:

Perk type	What it is
Free shipping	Free shipping, described to members.
Discount	A discount, described to members.
Early access	Early access, described to members.
Custom perk	Free-text perk you describe.

A perk is a description, not a mechanism. Perks are shown to members in your loyalty widget and nothing more. To make one actually apply at checkout, build a Shopify automatic discount targeting the tier’s tag (vip-tier:<name>) — Reorbit keeps that tag on your members in Shopify, so the discount follows anyone who joins or leaves the tier.

5. Add faster earning (Tier rules)

Open a saved tier (Edit) and use Tier rules to add earn rules that only this tier’s members (and the tiers above it) can be paid by. A tier rule is a normal earn rule with a higher points value: when both it and your standard rule match the same action, the higher-paying one pays, so members earn more for the same action than everyone else. It replaces the standard award rather than stacking on top of it.

6. Add a welcome reward

In a saved tier’s Welcome reward section, add a one-time reward granted when a customer first reaches the tier:

Reward type	What it grants
Bonus points	A lump of points.
Percentage discount	A % off coupon.
Fixed-amount discount	A fixed amount off coupon.
Free product	A specific product (chosen with the Shopify product picker), free.

---

Program settings

At the bottom of the VIP tiers page, Program settings control how the whole program behaves. Change anything here and click Save.

Setting	What it controls
Qualification metric	What customers accumulate to climb tiers: Points earned.
Qualification start date	Points earned before this date don’t count toward status — turn VIP on without retroactively tiering customers on their past activity. Leave blank to count all history.
Maintenance window	How members keep status: Rolling window (hit the threshold within N days), or Lifetime (evergreen) — status kept forever.
Window length (rolling only)	The rolling number of days members must re-qualify within.
Downgrade grace period (rolling only)	How long a member keeps their tier after falling below the threshold before being demoted.
Higher tiers inherit lower tiers’ perks	When on, a member’s tier includes every perk (and tag) from the tiers below it.
Grant welcome rewards for skipped tiers	When a customer jumps past tiers at once, grant the welcome reward of every tier crossed.
Base member label	Optional display name for customers who haven’t reached a tier yet.
How status works	A description shown to customers explaining how they earn and keep status.

---

Managing tiers

On the VIP tiers page, each tier row shows its rank, name, threshold, perks, and member count, plus a ⋯ (More actions) menu:

• Edit — change the tier’s details, qualification, perks, tier rules, or welcome reward.
• Delete — remove the tier from the ladder.

Renaming vs. the tag handle. Renaming a tier does not change its Shopify tag handle. Editing the handle itself re-tags members and can break Shopify segments, automatic discounts, or Flow triggers built on the old tag — so change it deliberately.

---

Tips and best practices

• Start with 3 tiers. A simple Silver / Gold / Platinum ladder is easier for customers to understand than many small steps.
• Space thresholds meaningfully so each tier feels like a real achievement, and keep the ladder order consistent with the thresholds (watch for the order warning).
• Use tier rules to accelerate the top. A higher-paying rule for your top tier makes climbing feel rewarding and encourages repeat purchases.
• Use a rolling window if you want status to reflect recent loyalty; use Lifetime if you’d rather never demote customers.
• Set a Qualification start date when launching so existing customers aren’t instantly sorted by years of past history.
• Back perks with a Shopify automatic discount built on the tier tag, so the benefit applies at checkout rather than only being described.

---

FAQ

How is a tier’s rank decided?

By its position in the ladder on the VIP tiers page — reorder tiers with the up/down arrows. The top tier is the highest. There’s no rank number to type.

Do customers lose status?

It depends on your Maintenance window. With a Rolling window, members must re-qualify within your set number of days (with an optional grace period before demotion). With Lifetime, status is kept forever.

What’s the difference between a perk and a welcome reward?

A perk is an ongoing benefit while a customer is in the tier (e.g. free shipping). A welcome reward is a one-time grant when they first reach the tier (e.g. bonus points).

Why add tier rules?

A tier rule pays more than your standard rule for the same action, and only members of that tier (and above) can be paid by it — so higher tiers earn points faster. That’s a strong incentive to climb.

Can I tier customers by amount spent or order count?

No — status is earned on points earned. Set a points-per-dollar earn rule if you want spending to drive the ladder.

Will changing a tier’s Shopify tag handle break anything?

It can. The handle powers Shopify segments, automatic discounts, and Flow triggers. Renaming the tier is safe; changing the handle re-tags members and can break tooling built on the old tag.

---

Next steps

• Next: Setting Up Referrals — grow the membership you’re now rewarding.
• Related: Creating an Earn Rule · Creating a Reward Rule · Program setups that work