Contact us anytime to know more — Amit A., Founder & COO CISIN
This standard practice has long been used by retail shop owners to increase the loyalty of a customer towards a shop.
However, E-commerce has contributed a new dimension to those conventional loyalty programs.
What was used by retail outlets to boost customer loyalty has evolved as a standalone B2B business venture. Loyalty software providers are targeting the E-commerce ecosystem and cooperating with retailers so as to set up a digital loyalty tool for their companies.
This "3rd party loyalty software" system rewards both merchants as well as buyers. While merchants can concentrate on their core business with all the loyalty program being handled by 3rd party seller, customers can find new vendors and save more on every other purchase they earn in the shape of loyalty credits and discounts.
The specialist Shopify programmers at The CISIN recently had the opportunity to assist a
comparable 3rd party loyalty program provider "Freebeespoints". Freebees worked on a comparable business model of targeting online merchants with their distinctive loyalty program that contains some innovative features like:
- Freebees members to use their accounts on multiple partner sites and retail shops.
- Cashback on ordering from a partner site.
- Virtual wallet to supervise your cashback and utilize it while fixing.
So as to enlarge their partner base, they initialized their internet merchant search by establishing a plug and play app for Shopify.
To give our readers a concept of the intricacies involved with getting this kind of program developed, we compose this guide to walk you through the key features provided by the Shopify app and also the approach we took to create the app from the ground up.
Customized Shopify App Development
This custom constructed Shopify app gives an ability for partners to include "Freebees loyalty points" as an option in their website's cart page.
About the cart page, these customers who've subscribed to the Freebees loyalty points program can utilize their Freebees account balance to get discounts on their orders.
So as to achieve this operation, the Shopify app used Freebees API to conduct CRUD operations within the Freebees database.
This entire procedure was compiled as a Shopify embedded program that was hosted on the client's server.
When the app was set up, it had been made on the Shopify admin region from the installed app alternative:
To be able to activate the app, the admin was given access into the App settings where he can Enable their Freebee accounts so customers can use the option on the webpage.
Once done, the choice to enter loyalty card information will show up on the Cart page where the customers can utilize their freebees rewards factors.
The buyer can merely input his Freebees card details and the machine fetches the freebees account information of the consumer.
The buyer can input the sum he would like to pay through his freebees accounts so as to make the purchase. The identical amount is represented as a reduction of the order value.
How It Was Completed
This app was constructed using the Embedded apps SDK as well. While the port was built utilizing the YII framework, the port was loaded within Shopify within an Iframe with the help of Embedded apps functionality.
In order to display the Freebees account balance of a customer during the checkout, then we now utilize the Freebees card number of a customer and deliver a petition to the Freebees server through their internet API.
The API callback reacts back using the account title and account balance instantly.
These details are then displayed to the Shopify front-end programmatically and the consumer can then input the desired value that he would like to pay using the Freebees balance.
The simple fact that customers will be inputting discount worth from Shopify whereas the actual account details are saved on Freebees server, therefore our expert Shopify developers had to create an extremely versatile code that checks for numerous problems.
It includes:
- Assessing the client isn't able to go into the reduction amount that exceeds his wallet balance.
- The client cannot enter the discount amount that exceeds the item value.
- Every time a client utilizes the wallet, the balance is updated in the freebees database also.
- After customer employs the reduction, the purchase value is correctly updated before sending it further in the Shopify Checkout page.
- Each time the order is canceled or returned, the wallet equilibrium can also be refunded dependent on the complete cart quantity and value in addition to returning order amount and value.
Operating Shopify Refunds and Checkout
After a client applies the discount with his Freebees card then moves on to the checkout page, then the discounted sum is deducted in the Freebees account.
Once he moves to the checkout page, his freebees account balance is updated. However, the client is unable to add, remove or update cart items as per his convenience and every time he does this, we update the freebees cart equilibrium as well.
Not only that, this logic is also extended following the order is set: in use instances for order cancellation and refunds, as the application is dependent upon the order value of a commodity inside the Shopify database.
Its Process
To be able to understand the way the freebees equilibrium was synced, let's begin by understanding the idea behind making an order within Shopify.
As our app is hosted out of Shopify, hence in order to make an order whose value is changed from an external machine -- we used the Shopify API hooks.
Utilizing the hook "Checkout Create", we were able to push the discounted order amount on into this Shopify checkout page.
The function that triggered the hook "Checkout Create" was that the"apply" command in the Freebees option from the cart page.
In order to update the freebees account balance of a customer every time he adds or removes any product in the checkout page, we used a comparable Shopify hook "Checkout update".
This hook wasn't only synced with events such as add merchandise, remove product etc. but also together with the default arrangement database.
We programmatically monitored the order value and even when the purchase value was altered by the admin after calculating a refund, then the hook "Checkout update" was automatically triggered and also the rewards balance was reimbursed automatically also.
Conclusion
Were there some major challenges during the creation process? Not really!! With years of experience, our Shopify pros have developed countless cellular programs that demand third-party API integration and Shopify cart page personalization.
Read more about our adventures in custom Shopify app development very similar to Freebees loyalty application.
Do you have some questions about the custom Shopify app development we did for Freebees? Get in contact with us today to talk about your ideas or employ Shopify developer if you're looking to implement a habit Shopify alternative.
