What Is It?
Perkie’s points system lets your customers earn points every time they spend money in your store. You set a rate — say, 1 point per dollar — and Perkie handles the rest: calculating how many points each order earns, awarding them when the order completes, and showing customers their running balance everywhere they shop.
Points are the foundation of the whole rewards programme. Get this right and you’ve already done the hard work.
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Why It Matters
A loyalty programme only works if customers feel like earning is realistic and rewarding. Perkie’s per-dollar earning is simple enough that customers can do the maths in their head (“I spent $50, so I got 50 points”) — and simple programmes get used. Complicated ones get ignored.
You also get fine-grained control over what you count toward earning: just products, or shipping and tax too. And you choose how partial points get rounded. These choices let you match your programme to your pricing model.
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Before You Start
Make sure you’ve thought through:
- What you want to call your points — set this up first in Tracksies > Perkie > General tab before configuring earning. Customers will see whatever name you choose (points, stars, coins — entirely up to you).
- What counts as “earned” — decide upfront whether you want to reward shipping spend or just product purchases. You can change this later, but consistency helps customers understand the programme.
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The Steps
Step 1 — Open the Earning Settings
In your WordPress admin, go to Tracksies > Perkie, then click the Earning tab.
Step 2 — Set Your Earning Rate
Find the Earning Rate field. This is the number of points a customer earns per dollar spent.
- The default is 1 (one point per dollar).
- To make earning faster, increase it — for example, a rate of 2 means spending $50 earns 100 points.
- To make earning slower (useful if your products are high-value), you can drop it below 1 — for example, 0.5 means spending $50 earns 25 points.
Step 3 — Choose What to Calculate From
The Calculate From dropdown controls which part of the order total points are based on. There are three options:
- Order subtotal (products only) — Points are calculated on product prices only. Shipping and tax are excluded. This is the default and the most common choice. Great if you don’t want customers gaming the system by choosing expensive postage options.
- Order total (excluding tax) — Points are calculated on the full order amount minus tax. This includes shipping. A good option if your shipping costs are part of the genuine value you provide (e.g., express delivery services).
- Order total including shipping — Points are calculated on the complete order total including tax. Use this sparingly — it means customers in higher-tax areas earn slightly more, which may or may not suit your programme.
When in doubt, start with Order subtotal (products only). It’s the clearest and fairest for most stores.
Step 4 — Choose Your Rounding Method
Because point calculations often produce decimals (e.g., a $27.50 order at 1 point per dollar = 27.5 points), you need to tell Perkie what to do with the fraction. The Rounding dropdown has three options:
- Round to nearest — 27.5 becomes 28, 27.4 becomes 27. This is the default and feels fair to customers.
- Round down — Always rounds toward the customer earning fewer points (27.9 becomes 27). Slightly conservative — protects your margins if redemption value is high.
- Round up — Always rounds in the customer’s favour (27.1 becomes 28). Small gesture of goodwill; customers appreciate it.
Step 5 — Save Your Settings
Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Your earning rate is now live.
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How Customers See Their Points
Customers encounter their points balance in several places:
- My Account > Points & Rewards tab — A full view of their current balance, redeemable value, and transaction history. This is the main hub for the programme.
- Product pages — A small notice shows how many points they’d earn for purchasing that product (“Buy this and earn 42 points”).
- Cart and checkout — A summary panel shows their current balance and available redemption options alongside their order.
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Common Questions
Do customers lose their points if an order is refunded?
Yes — Perkie automatically reverses the points when a refund is processed. If it’s a partial refund, only a proportional share of the points is reversed (e.g., a 50% refund reverses 50% of the points earned on that order). This happens automatically; you don’t need to do anything.
Can I manually adjust a customer’s points?
Yes. Go to the customer’s profile in Tracksies > Customers, find the Points section, and use the adjustment field to add or subtract points. You’ll be prompted to enter a reason, which appears in the customer’s transaction history. This is useful for correcting mistakes, rewarding exceptional situations, or honouring commitments made outside the programme.
What about partial refunds — is it always proportional?
Yes, partial refunds are always handled proportionally based on the refund amount relative to the original order total. Perkie doesn’t try to match the refund to specific line items — it just looks at the ratio.
Do points appear instantly after checkout?
No — points are awarded when the order status changes to Completed, not at the moment of purchase. This is intentional: it prevents customers earning points on orders that never actually ship or get fulfilled. Most WooCommerce stores set orders to Completed automatically once payment is confirmed and goods dispatched, so in practice the delay is usually just a day or two.
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If Something Goes Wrong
Points aren’t being awarded after orders complete.
Check that the order status is actually reaching Completed — look in the order details in WooCommerce. If orders are stuck at Processing, points won’t be awarded yet. Also check that the customer has an account (guest orders don’t earn points).
A customer says their balance looks wrong.
Go to the customer’s profile in Tracksies > Customers and scroll to the Points section. You’ll see a full transaction log — every earn, bonus, redemption, and reversal. If you spot a specific transaction that looks incorrect, you can manually adjust the balance to correct it and note the reason.
The earning rate changed but old orders weren’t recalculated.
That’s expected — the new rate only applies to orders placed after you saved the change. Points already awarded on previous orders are not retroactively adjusted.