This glossary covers the key terms and concepts used across Skio's Loyalty features, including tiers, credits, rewards, and referrals. Use it as a reference when configuring your loyalty program or reviewing analytics.
A
Anniversary credits
A credit reward earned once per year on the anniversary of a customer's loyalty membership. Configured under global credit earning rules.
Available (reward state)
A reward that's ready to be applied. Rewards with no expiration stay in this state indefinitely until they're used.
Applied (reward state)
A reward that was successfully applied to an order or subscription.
B
Birthday credits
A credit reward earned once per year on the customer's birthday. Requires the customer to have a date of birth on file.
C
Cancel Flow
A feature in Skio that helps you reduce churn by presenting targeted offers, like discounts, pauses, or product swaps, when customers attempt to cancel their subscription. Learn more about Cancel Flow here.
Create Account credits
Credits automatically awarded when a customer signs up for a loyalty account.
Credit (variable order credit)
A reward type where customers earn credits proportional to how much they spend. You configure this as a number of credits per $1 spent (for example, "5 credits per $1 spent"). Reward type: CREDIT.
Credit (fixed order credit)
A reward type where customers earn a flat number of credits per order, regardless of order value. For example, "50 credits per order." Reward type: FIXED_CREDIT.
Credit application type
The source of a credit change in a customer's account. Common types include ORDER_REWARD, BIRTHDAY, EXPIRED, REFERRAL, and CREDITS_PER_DOLLAR_SPENT.
Credit delta
The change amount in a single credit transaction. A positive value means credits were earned; a negative value means credits were spent or expired.
Credit expiration
An optional setting that causes unused credits to expire after a configured number of months. When credits expire, a negative credit delta is recorded with the EXPIRED application type.
Credit history
A log of all credit transactions for a given customer, including credits earned, spent, and expired. Each entry includes the credit delta and application type.
Credit multiplier
A reward type that multiplies the credits a customer earns from other credit rewards. For example, a "2x credits" multiplier on a Gold tier doubles the credits earned per order. Configured with a multiplier value.
Credit redemption
The process of spending accumulated credits. Customers can redeem credits in a few ways: as a Shopify discount code applied at checkout, as a direct credit applied to an existing subscription, or as a product.
Product redemptions are only available to customers with an active subscription. Customers without an active subscription can still redeem credits for a discount code at checkout.
Credits name
A merchant-customizable label for your loyalty currency. You can rename "credits" to anything that fits your brand, like "Points" or "Stars."
Credits per dollar spent
A global earning rule (not tied to a specific tier) where customers earn credits proportional to their order spend across the site. Configured as a rate, such as "5 credits per $1 spent."
Custom action credits
Credits earned through a merchant-defined earning action. Use this for non-standard engagement you want to reward, like completing a quiz or attending an event.
D
Date of birth credits
A one-time credit reward given when a customer enters their date of birth for the first time. This is separate from recurring birthday credits.
Discount (reward type)
A reward type that applies a percentage or fixed-value discount to subscription orders. Configured with a discountType (PERCENTAGE or FIXED) and a discountValue (for example, "10% off" or "$5 off").
E
Exclusive content (reward type)
A reward type that grants access to gated content. This has no monetary value and is display-only, used to create a sense of exclusivity within higher tiers.
F
Failed (reward state)
A reward state indicating that the system attempted to apply the reward but the application was unsuccessful.
Fixed credit
A reward type where customers earn a flat number of credits per order, regardless of order value. For example, "50 credits per order." Reward type: FIXED_CREDIT.
Free product (reward type)
A reward type that adds a free product variant to the customer's subscription. Configured with a list of eligible product variant IDs.
Free shipping (reward type)
A reward type that removes shipping costs from qualifying orders. No additional configuration is required.
G
Give credit
A legacy implementation of the fixed credit reward type. Functionally equivalent to fixed credit. Reward type: GIVE_CREDIT. Grouped with credit and fixed credit under the ORDER_CREDIT_REWARDS category.
Global credit earning rules
Site-wide ways customers earn credits, independent of tier membership. These include earning actions like create account, credits per dollar spent, birthday, date of birth, anniversary, review, newsletter signup, SMS opt-in, custom action, and referral.
M
Max credits per order
A cap on how many credits a customer can redeem in a single order. Use this to control the maximum discount customers can generate through credit redemption.
Min cart value for redemption
The minimum order value required before a customer can redeem credits. This prevents customers from using credits on very small orders.
N
Newsletter signup credits
Credits earned when a customer subscribes to your email newsletter.
O
On cycle (reward timing)
A reward timing setting where the reward fires on a specific order number within the customer's current tier. For example, you can configure a reward to fire on the customer's 3rd order in a tier.
Once joining tier (reward timing)
A reward timing setting where the reward fires once, immediately when the customer enters a tier. Useful for welcome rewards or tier upgrade bonuses.
Any order (reward timing)
A reward timing setting where the reward fires on every qualifying order while the customer remains in the tier. Stored internally as tierCycle = -1.
Order credit rewards
A grouping that includes all three credit-based reward types: credit (variable), fixed credit, and give credit (legacy).
P
Product for credits
Specific product variants configured to be redeemable with credits. This lets you offer products that customers can "purchase" using their loyalty currency instead of money.
R
Recurring (reward order scope)
A reward scope setting that limits the reward to subscription renewal orders only.
One-time (reward order scope)
A reward scope setting that limits the reward to one-time checkout orders only.
Recurring and one-time (reward order scope)
A reward scope setting that applies the reward to both subscription renewals and one-time checkout orders.
Referral credits
Credits earned when a customer successfully refers a new customer through the referral program.
Review credits
Credits earned when a customer submits a product review.
Reward milestone
A reward that unlocks at a specific order number. For example, you might configure a free product on a customer's 5th order.
Reward order scope
Determines which order types a reward applies to. Options are: recurring only, one-time only, or both recurring and one-time.
Reward state
The current status of a reward for a given customer. Possible states are available, applied, or failed.
Reward timing
Controls when a reward fires relative to a customer's tier membership. Options include once joining tier, on cycle, and any order.
S
Site currency to credit rate
The conversion rate between your store's currency and loyalty credits. This determines how much each credit is "worth" when redeemed.
SMS opt-in credits
Credits earned when a customer opts into receiving SMS messages.
Surprise & Delight
A feature in Skio for configuring reward milestones, which are rewards unlocked at specific order numbers to increase retention and customer lifetime value.
T
Tier cycle
The order count within a customer's current tier, starting at 1. This value determines when ON_CYCLE rewards fire. For example, if a reward is set to fire on cycle 3, it triggers on the customer's 3rd order within that tier.
Tier expiration
A background job that expires a customer's tier membership after a configured period. When a tier expires, the customer may be moved to a lower tier or removed from the tier system.
Tier level
A named loyalty rank within your program, such as Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Each tier level has its own set of associated rewards and benefits.
Tier sync
A background process that evaluates customers against your tier criteria and promotes or demotes them between tiers accordingly.
U
Unlocked (milestone state)
Indicates that a customer has reached the required order number and earned a reward milestone.
Upcoming (milestone state)
A milestone the customer hasn't reached yet. Displayed to the customer as motivation to continue purchasing.
V
Variable order credit
A reward type where customers earn credits proportional to how much they spend. You configure this as a number of credits per $1 spent (for example, "5 credits per $1 spent"). Reward type: CREDIT.