Altered Cart quietly released their "
Cash Rewards :: Advanced Customer Loyalty Program" module earlier in the year -- and I quietly integrated it into my store over the summer.
I am starting this thread to congratulate Bill for the superb mod, and to share my integration with others in the community.
We had been using the BCSE Customer Reward Points (CRP) module for many years - but a bunch of things inspired me to seek out a different solution:
a) redeeming CRP points was tricky for the customer (and admin too). CRP redemptions are considered a "discount" - and it was a multi-step process to do a partial redemption and then pay the balance with credit card. Way too many errors or customers simply giving up;
b) because CRP was a "discount" - combining CRP redemptions with other discounts or coupons was sometimes impossible;
I wanted a solution that permitted the customer to redeem in checkout, without going through an extra process. I wanted a solution that automated bonuses for specific products or categories. Automatic posting when a review is approved. Automatic credit for signing up.
Cash Rewards (CR) does all of this. IN the cart.
And Bill made it so that a 100% redemption solved tax issues -- since a free item is not taxable in many/most jurisdictions. This was a big deal!!!
The days of "you need 25,000 miles/points to redeem a free ticket" from the land of frequent flyer programs is very 20th century. Modern loyalty programs accrue based on spend or other metrics, and redemptions often start at 0 -- if you earned it, you can redeem it. This is what I wanted. I wanted a system that allowed the customer to simply apply their rewards in the cart, without having to go through a checkout process just to return to the cart.
CR is a wonderful UX for the customer. It's not hidden.
I am gushing... I don't do this too often here.
If you want to see CR in action, PM me and I'll share my URL.