sweet tooth info 1.9

8/8/2019 Sweet Tooth Info 1.9

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Customer Points & Rewards Loyalty System

Prepared by Lisa Soares, Jay El-Kaake and Steve Deckert

Modified by Jay El-Kaake, Steve Deckert and Scott Tolksdorf Last Modified: June 18 th 2009


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This document was last updated 18/05/09 by Lisa Soares. All information in this document can only be modified by anauthorized WDCA representative, and can be modified without prior consent. WDCA is a registered trade name of Trade

Business Technology Corp.

Executive Summary

Sweet Tooth is a revolutionary step for customer loyalty programs, not only because its thefirst fully featured rewards program built on top of the Magento E-Commerce platform, butalso because its the only loyalty system that gives store administrators full control over theway customers earn and redeem points.

In minutes, store administrators can create and employ a unique and fully featured rewardscampaign. Through this document you will learn how Sweet Tooth is simple, flexible andtraceable, and built with only the highest software quality standards in mind.

The enclosed document was prepared by WDCA, a registered organization under TradeBusiness Technology Corp in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Contained is everything you need toknow about the Sweet Tooth customer loyalty system. The content is geared towards readerswith any level of technical understanding.

Sweet Tooth is a turn-key commercial open-source plug-in for any supported Magentoplatform. With your purchase of a license, we will guarantee twelve (12) months of SweetTooth system bug fixes and security updates subject to the terms and conditions of the license.

Please direct any further questions or inquiries you may have to me or Steve [email protected] or [email protected] respectively.

Regards,

Jay El-Kaake

President & Systems Analyst

Web Development Canada
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Table Contents

1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................... 4

1.1 Why Implement a Customer Loyalty Program into Your Store? ..................................... 4 1.2 Why Your Retail Business Needs a Sweet Tooth ............................................................. 5

2.0 Sweet Tooth Fundamentals ....................................................................... 6 2.1 Custom Templates and Skins ........................................................................................... 6 2.2 Sweet Tooth Promotion Rule System .............................................................................. 6 2.3 Customer Groups ............................................................................................................. 7

3.0 How Customers Earn, Spend & Manage Points .......................................... 8 3.1 How Customers Earn Points ............................................................................................. 9 3.2 How Customers Redeem Points ..................................................................................... 11 3.3 Customer Points Management ...................................................................................... 13 3.4 Interacting with Other Customers ................................................................................. 14

4.0 Creating a Loyalty Program with Sweet Tooth .......................................... 15 4.1 Rule Creation .................................................................................................................. 15 4.2 Conditions ...................................................................................................................... 16

4.2.1 Catalog Conditions .............................................................................................................. 164.2.2 Shopping Cart Conditions.................................................................................................... 174.2.3 Customer Behavior Conditions ........................................................................................... 18

4.3 Actions ............................................................................................................................ 20 4.3.1 Distributing Fixed Amounts of Customer Points ................................................................. 204.3.2 Distributing Variable Amounts of Customer Points ............................................................ 21

4.4 Point Redemption .......................................................................................................... 21 4.4.1 Deduct a Fixed Number of Customer Points....................................................................... 214.4.2 Deduct Points Based on Variable Amount Spent ................................................................ 21

4.5 Point Status .................................................................................................................... 22

5.0 Technical Specifications ........................................................................... 23 5.1 Optimization and Efficiency ........................................................................................... 23 5.2 Modularity and Scalability .............................................................................................. 23

6.0 Roadmap: Sweet Tooth Upgrades ............................................................ 24 7.0 Ending on a Sweet Note ........................................................................ 25


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1.0 Introduction

1.1 Why Implement a Customer Loyalty Program into Your Store?

Regardless of the market, consumers have many options to choose from when making apurchase. The companies that will survive are those that manage to retain customers. Thebusinesses that retain customers are increasingly using the same method: customer loyaltyprograms.

Loyalty programs add extra value for customers and create strong, long lasting customerrelationships. They increase revenue: it has been proven that loyal customers not only spendmore on each visit, but are twice as likely to refer a new customer. 1 They also decrease cost: anew customer is six to eight times more costly to acquire than to maintain an existingcustomer. 2 The global retail industry trend is towards loyalty programs: reward programs havedoubled between 2006 and 2007 alone. 3

Figure 1: Image of a Rewards Card

Implementation of a loyalty program will pay for itself.

1 Reichheld, Fredrick F. Loyalty Rules: How Today's Leaders Build Long Lasting Relationships . Boston: HarvardBusiness, 2003. Print.2 September 2007 Express Market Brief 3 September 2007 Express Market Brief


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1.2 Why Your Retail Business Needs a Sweet Tooth

Sweet Tooth is the most innovative loyalty program on the market. It sets itself apart using itspromotion rules system, its transfer system and its marketing power.

This system provides store administrators unparalleled flexibility to create and control virtuallyany incentive program that is based on customer points. Sweet Tooth achieves this by using itsadaptable promotion rule system ; a system that is as configurable as it is intuitive. If yourloyalty program involves customer points, the promotion rule system can configure it.

Sweet Tooth distinguishes itself from other e-commerce loyalty systems using its transfer system . Rather than storing customers point balances in a lump sum and debiting or creditingthat lump sum like other loyalty programs, Sweet Tooth records each customer pointtransaction individually ensuring that each change in points balance is accounted for.Administrators will be able to determine where each of their customers points has come from.

Powerful marketing is another key feature of Sweet Tooth. Administrators can allow their new

and frequent customers to earn points for referring friends, signing up for a customer account,rating products, writing reviews, and signing up for newsletters to name a few. Not only willthese create store-loyalty, but they will also provide an opportunity for administrators to gathervaluable feedback from customers.


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2.0 Sweet Tooth FundamentalsThe open source Sweet Tooth system is built upon Magento, a powerful open source e-commerce framework. Sweet Tooth matches Magentos excellent open source codingstandards without touching a single Magento core file! The following sections will detail thefundamental concepts of Sweet Tooth.

2.1 Custom Templates and Skins

Sweet Tooth is completely customizable to any website design. The Sweet Tooth template,skins and layouts can easily be changed to seamlessly integrate with the appearance of anyMagento e-commerce store.

2.2 Sweet Tooth Promotion Rule System

Sweet Tooth utilizes a comprehensive rule system to create point rules that control how pointsare distributed or redeemed. This rule system is extremely flexible and limitless in the types of customer loyalty programs it can generate. There are three types of rules that can be created:catalog, shopping cart and customer behavior. Catalog rules are specific to a certain product,whereas shopping cart rules are specific to a customers checkout shopping cart. Customerbehavior rules are based on a customers actions that are not tied to a purchase.

Figure 2: Screen Shot Showing Customer Points They Will Earn


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2.3 Customer Groups

Administrators are able to create customer group specific promotions using Sweet Tooth. Forinstance, customers can be organized into groups such as Gold members, Silver members and

VIP members. Each group can have different promotions applicable. See Table 1 for anexample.

Customer GroupStatus

Points earned forwriting reviews.

Can redeem pointsto get a freehammer?

Can redeem points toget a free woodenduck?

John Doe Silver 10 points NO NOStacey Allen Gold Member 10 points

+ 1 Gold PointYES YES

Mike Foo VIP Member 10 Points+ 10 Additional

Points

NO YES

Table 1: Shows how customer group status affects how customers can redeem or earn points .

Administration can create a rewards program in which customers have to pay a fee to be amember of a certain group (and receive that groups specific promotion rules).


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3.0 How Customers Earn, Spend & Manage PointsSweet Tooth presents many features that allow customers to manage, track and use theirpoints. The following sections demonstrate the customer end of Sweet Tooth.

Figure 3: Customer Point Management


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3.1 How Customers Earn Points

Earning points on the customer end is simple. If a customer meets certain conditions defined inthe rule system, such as buying a product or participating in a poll, then an action, such as

rewards 10 Gold points, is performed. When a customer successfully earns points, a notice isdisplayed. Customers are able to earn points for a multitude of interactions. Examples of theseare:

Purchasing products

Customers will receive points for specific purchases. Using points on a specific product is aneffective way to sell excess inventory, or perhaps persuade customers towards products withhigher profit margins.

Purchasing product combinationsCustomers will receive points for specific purchases. Using points on a specific product is aneffective way to sell excess inventory, or perhaps persuade customers towards products withhigher profit margins.

Voting in a poll

Rewarding customers for voting is valuable because these polls will not only increase customersite browsing, but also provide a method for administrators to collect feedback on products,experience and recommendations to name a few.

Signs up for a new customer account

A great way to infuse new customers into a client base is to reward them simply for creating anaccount. Even if the customer does not make an initial purchase, a sales lead is generated.


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Figure 4: A notice showing the customer receiving points for signing up a new customer account

Figure 5: Notice displayed showing a customer has earned points for signing up to a newsletter, for making a purchase and

has redeemed points on a purchase as well.

Purchases using a specific payment and shipping methods

Customers are able to be rewarded for purchases that are made using specific payment andshipping methods. Keep customers away from costly payment methods by rewarding themwith points for those that take less off your bottom line.

These are only a few of the multitude point distribution rules that Sweet Tooth is able to create.See section 4.0 for a more in depth view on point rule creation.


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3.2 How Customers Redeem Points

Customers are able to redeem points in the two ways that rules are created: on a catalog levelas well as on a shopping cart level. Both are simple and intuitive for the customer.

Catalog redemptions are viewable on the product page that they correspond to. For instance,redemption on a specific laptop is shown on that laptops product page. All redemptions thatare applicable to that product are shown on that products page, showing the customer thepoint-spending options available. When a customer selects which redemption to apply, thecheckout process proceeds normally: the customer selects the quantity of purchases desired,then proceeds to the shopping cart. See figure 6 for an example of a catalog redemption.

Figure 6: Showing a customer an available catalog redemption

Once at the shopping cart page, the customer is able to apply the desired points to anyshopping cart redemptions that are available. The customer is able to see all applicableredemptions, selects the desired shopping cart redemption (if any), and proceed to checkoutnormally.


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Figure 7: A shopping cart view showing both catalog redemption, $5 off notebooks for 1 Silver, as well as shopping cartredemption, $15 off when you spend 30 Gold points.

At any point during the checkout process the customer can remove any redemption withoutlosing the shopping cart. Points earned, points spent and associated discounts or prizes will beupdated accordingly.

Point and purchase combinations

Depending on shopping cart redemption rule conditions, is it possible for customers to redeemdiscounts or prizes on products by redeeming points and purchasing other products. If the rulerequires that the cart contents meet a certain criteria as well as the customer redeem points,the customer will not receive the benefits of the rule such as discounts or free shipping until the

cart conditions are met.

Customer Rewards

Shipping, product and/or shopping cart discounts are reflected in the shopping cart totals aswell as in the final checkout section of the checkout process.


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3.3 Customer Points Management

Upon logging in, a message displays the customers point balance (see figure 8).

Figure 8: Message Displaying Points Balance

For more detailed point information, the customer can visit the My Points and Rewards page.This page under a customers My Account tab clearly summarizes the customers pointhistory. Here, customers are presented with their point balance, points earned and points spentin a simple format.

Figure 9: recent point earnings

Figure 10: Recent Points Earnings and Recent Rewards Points Spent


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The My Points & Rewards page is the go to page on the front end for a customers pointinformation. Not only will it display recent earnings and spending, it will also display the statusof a transfer. There is also a selection of products customers can use their points on displayedin the My Points & Rewards page. Constant reminding of what customers are able to spendpoints on reinforces interest in the stores points program and will keep customers excitedabout purchases.

Figure 11: My Points & Rewards page, showing Send Points to a Friend, Redeem Your Points and point balance.

3.4 Interacting with Other Customers

Another feature in the My Rewards page is a point transfer function. Customers are able toselect an amount of points from their balance to be transferred to a friends point balance,simply by entering the friends email address. Future feature proposals include a PointsCustomer Ranking feature that will display the customers with the most points, among otherfeatures.


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4.0 Creating a Loyalty Program with Sweet ToothTotal control over point distribution and redemption is granted to store administrators.Administrators have the power to approve points, set statuses on points, create both pointdistribution and redemption rules, and manage transfers. The following section will detail theadministrative end of Sweet Tooth.

Figure 12: Customer Rewards tab in the Magento administration panel

4.1 Rule Creation

Creating a rule to govern how points are distributed or redeemed is simple and logical with therule creation system. Rules are created by setting situational conditions that, if met, will triggeran action. Conditions, followed by actions, are both further detailed later in this section.


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4.2 Conditions

The conditions of a rule define the situation that must be present for an action to occur.Conditions that are available depend on whether a catalog, shopping cart or customer behavior

rule is being created.

4.2.1 Catalog ConditionsCatalog promotions are created within Sweet Tooths Catalog rules. These rules createconditions that can be applicable to a particular product. Store administrators can createproduct promotions based on various conditions of a product, such as: price, category, color,SKU or manufacturer to name a few. Examples of product conditions are:

Store administrators can grant customers points/discounts for any purchase:

Receive 10 Gold points for every purchase Store administrators can grant customers points/discounts for a specific product

purchase:

Receive 10 Gold points for every notebook purchase

Store administrators can grant customers points/discounts based on attributes as aproduct such as:

Price: Receive 10 Gold points for every purchase that has a price greater than $499

Category: Receive 10 Gold points for every product in the category Laptop Computers

The Sweet Tooth rules system also has the ability to specify which dates the pointspromotions begin and end:

Receive 10 Gold points for every purchase this weekend only.

A combination of product attributes can be used to grant points/discounts to customersas well:

Receive 10 Gold points for every product in the category Laptop Computers that is priced greater than$499 between the dates of June 1st June 3rd.

All product promotion rules can be used to create discounts as well, where thecustomer would opt to spend points to receive the discount:

Deduct 10 Gold points for every product in the category Laptop Computers between the dates of June1st June 3rd and grant the customer a 15% discount on price.


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4.2.2 Shopping Cart ConditionsShopping cart promotions are created with Sweet Tooths shopping cart rules. These rulescreate conditions that are applicable to the customers shopping cart. These rules are similar toSweet Tooths catalog point rules with the exception being they are applied to only theshopping cart rather than a specific product. Store administrators can create shopping cartpromotions based on various aspects of a shopping cart, such as: cart subtotal, productquantities, coupon codes applied, date, and payment method, to name a few.

Shopping cart promotions can be based on the subtotal of the shopping cart:

Receive 30 Gold points for every order greater than $300

Figure 13: Shows customer that they will earn 30 Gold points for purchases over $300 Shopping cart promotions can be based on the product quantities of the shopping cart:

Receive 30 Gold points for every order that contains 3 or more notebooks

Shopping cart promotions can be based on a coupon code. Coupon codes can beconfigured to only be used once or to have multiple uses:

Receive 10 Gold points when using coupon code VIP123 during checkout

Shopping cart promotions can be based on payment methods as well:

Receive 10 Gold points for all orders purchased with VISA

A combination of shopping cart attributes can be used to grant points/discounts as well:

Receive 30 Gold points for all orders containing 3 or more notebooks that is greater than $300 subtotalbetween the dates of June 1st June 3rd using the coupon code VIP123


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All shopping cart promotion rules can be used to create discounts as well, where thecustomer would opt to spend points to receive the discount:

Deduct 30 Gold points for every order subtotal greater than $300 and grant a 15% discount on price

4.2.3 Customer Behavior ConditionsThe customer behavior system rule system is another feature exclusive to Sweet Tooth. Itallows store administrators to grant points based on conditions that are not tied to a purchase.Using the customer behavior rules system allows administrators to generate point promotionsin a variety of creative ways. Call out boxes can be created, Answer this, and earn X points toremind customers they can earn points on reviews, tags and polls. Some customer-interactivefeatures include:

Points for Rating and Reviewing Products Points

Reviews must be approved by a store administrator before points are distributed. This ensuresthat customers will receive points only for legitimate reviews that are accepted byadministration. See figure 14 for a screen shot of a review for a notebook.

Figure 14: Shows that these points from review need to be approved by an administrator

Points for Newsletter Subscription PointsCustomers who subscribe to a stores newsletter can receive either a lump sum of points orrecurring points for each newsletter they receive.

Points for Referring FriendsThis Sweet Tooth Premium upgrade feature allows customers can earn points for referringsomeone they know to the store. Customers can type in their friends e-mail addresses forreferral and receive an administrator-specified amount of points for each friend referred. This

special rule is an extremely cost-effective way to expand a customer base.

Points for Participating in a PollCustomers can receive points for participating in a poll, an example of which is shown in Figure15. Store administrators can use these polls for valuable customer feedback regarding an array


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of topics such as: the website, a product, a promotion, and customer demographics, to name afew.

Figure 15: An example of a community poll

Sell Points Administrators can create virtual products that represent an amount of points that customersare able to purchase. A catalog rule would be tied to this product that would distribute pointsto the customer upon purchase. For example, if a customer is 28 points away from buying aproduct with their points, the customer can buy the product 30 Points for $10.

Figure 16: An example of points for sale

Points for Signing-up Customers earn points for creating a customer account. New customers are drawn into thestore using a point bonus. For example, all new customers who sign up this weekend will begiven 50 Gold points.


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4.3 Actions If the conditions of a rule are met, then an action takes place. The following section willhighlight these actions and how they may be applied to create various promotions.

4.3.1 Distributing Fixed Amounts of Customer PointsStore administrators can distribute points to customers simply with the Give X Points functionin the administrative features. This option allows the distribution of X points, X being thepoint amount (See Figure 17).

Figure 17: A fixed amount of points will be distributed if conditions are met

These distribution actions work directly in all rules: shopping cart, catalog and customerbehavior. Following is an example of each.

Catalog: Give 10 points to a customer who purchases a notebook

Shopping Cart: Give 10 points to a customer whose subtotal is over $300

Customer Behavior: Give 10 points to a customer who writes a product review


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4.3.2 Distributing Variable Amounts of Customer PointsThese distribution actions work directly in all rules except for customer behavior. They awardpoints variably based on a dollar amount. This follows the for every Y amount spent give Xpoints format. Following is an example of each.

Catalog: For every $10 price give 1 Gold point

Shopping Cart: For every $10 subtotal give 1 Gold point

Figure 18: Administrator view of point distribution

4.4 Point RedemptionCustomers can redeem their points for discounts or free products. Administrators have controlof point redemptions through the creation of specific actions. For example, for 1000 Goldpoints customers can receive a 100% discount (free product) on a laptop: an administratorwould set the condition to be category is laptop and the action would be deduct 1000 Goldpoints. The following sections outline these actions.

4.4.1 Deduct a Fixed Number of Customer PointsStore administrators can deduct fixed points from customers. For example: deduct 100 Gold

points from a customer and in turn customer will receive a discount amount of $20.

4.4.2 Deduct Points Based on Variable Amount SpentStore administrators can set a redemption that deducts a customers points based on howmuch the price. This follows the for every Y amount spent deduct X points format. Forexample: deduct 1 Gold point for every $10 price.


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4.5 Point Status

Store administrators can set statuses on points, and a point transfer can be in one of severalstatuses. A transfers status can easily be changed by administrators. This is useful for

controlling purposes, such as for ensuring a customer who receives points for writing a reviewonly does so if the review is valid and does not violate the websites policies. Following is a listof point statuses. See table 2, and figure 18 for more information.

Table 2: Point statuses with description

Figure 19: Point Status Diagram with the initial state being pending.

Status Description

On Hold The coordinators have not yet decided whether the transfer is valid. The store coordinator shouldcomment on the status of the transfer.

Cancelled The order or transaction was cancelled before points were changed.

Approved The changes have been made to the customers point balance. No further action is required.

Retracted The changes created by a previously approved transfer were recalled. Customer points should revert tothe same status as before the transfer was initiated.

Pending A store coordinator needs to approve the points to be transferred to the customers account.

Pending

Approved

Cancelled

Retract

On Hold

Begin


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5.0 Technical SpecificationsSweet Tooth is a commercial open-source system engineered from the ground up to becompletely modular, without touching a single core Magento file. It is for this reason thatSweet Tooth is comprised of almost 200 files with nearly 10,000 lines of code.

5.1 Optimization and Efficiency

The Sweet Tooth system makes extensive use of heavily optimized functions from the ZendFramework, which has been tested and assured in web technology for years. This methodologyholds all Sweet Tooth source code to a controlled system of security and efficiency.

The built-in caching mechanisms of Magento are utilized in all Sweet Tooth components,meaning that web pages and data will be cached and reloaded only if there are changes made

to their content. This drastically increases performance by ensuring that resource-heavycomputations are only performed as often as they are absolutely required.

5.2 Modularity and Scalability

Sweet Tooth is designed to interface with your store seamlessly, allowing you to modify thelook and feel of your website at any time without the need to change anything you dont wantto. All the system functionality and logic exists outside of the design files, leaving the systemunaffected by any changes you make to templates, layouts or skins, and yet still fully accessible.

Sweet Tooth is geared to be 100% modular with the rest of your store, including core Magentocomponents as well as any other extensions you may have. The system focuses on using classrewrites and Magentos observer technology to execute tasks when the Magento coreperforms specific actions, ensuring that everything happens when it needs to withoutmodifying a single core file.


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6.0 Roadmap: Sweet Tooth UpgradesSweet Tooth will have a second edition released as an upgrade in the near future. Sweet ToothPremium Upgrade(s) (formally referred to as Sweet Tooth Enterprise Edition) will encompassmore advanced features including additional special rules, advanced analytics, and multiplepoint currencies. The following table will highlight the similarities and differences betweenSweet Tooth and Sweet Tooths Premium Upgrade. See Table 3.

Table 3: Sweet Tooth & Sweet Tooth Premium Upgrade feature list

Sweet Tooth Sweet ToothPremium Upgrade

General Features

Rules System Detailed Transfer System Skin & Template Support Points Expiration Points Hold (cannot be spent for # days)

Administrative Features

Customer Group Rules & Transfers Buy Points Export Transfer History to CSV/XML Mass Points Transfer System Incremental Point Application Multiple Point Currencies Point Currency Conversion Forced Point Redemption Rules Based on Points Balance Advanced Analytics Year to Date Point Summaries Integration with Other Points System

Customer Interactive Features

Point Summary page Send Points to a Friend Product Review Points Voucher Support (store credit) Coupon Support Show Points Earnable with Purchase Sign Up Points Refer a Product to a Friend Points Newsletter Points What You Can Buy page Affiliate Program Points Log-In Points Time on Website Points Special Date Points (Birthday, etc) Automatic Email of Points Balance


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7.0 Ending on a Sweet NoteRewards systems can be extremely effective if properly created and managed. Entice newcustomers and retain existing customers. Give them more than just a product with a rewardssystem that will enhance their experience. Give your business the advantage of a rewardssystem that will increase sales and improve customer satisfaction. Get a Sweet Tooth.

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