How the Rewards System Works

Earn XP and coins with every purchase, level up through tiers, and redeem prizes at our South Carolina locations.

The Big Picture

Customers earn two currencies: XP (experience points) and Coins. XP is permanent and determines their tier rank. Coins are spendable in the Coin Shop on scratch cards and discount coupons.

Everything runs automatically except purchase awards — you manually confirm those in the admin panel when a customer buys something in person.

How Customers Earn XP & Coins

Action XP Coins How It Happens
Sign Up 50 50 Automatic — when they create an account
Daily Visit 5 5 Automatic — once per day when they visit the site
Purchase 25 25 You do this — search the customer in Admin > Rewards > Award Purchase
5th Purchase Bonus +25 +25 Automatic bonus on their 5th purchase + a bonus scratch card
Lucky 13th Purchase +50 +50 Big bonus on their 13th purchase + a bonus scratch card
Weekly Challenge 25 25 Automatic — when they complete the weekly challenge goal

Tiers

Tiers are based on lifetime XP (XP never goes down, even when they spend coins). As customers earn more XP, they rank up automatically.

🧭

Explorer — 0 XP

Starting tier. Everyone begins here.

🔍

Treasure Hunter — 300 XP

Regulars who visit and buy often. Better scratch card odds.

👑

Vault Master — 1,000 XP

Top-tier loyal customers. Best scratch card odds.

Scratch Cards

Customers get a scratch card every time you award a purchase. They can also buy extra ones from the Coin Shop for 150 coins.

They scratch the card on their phone/computer and reveal a prize. Possible prizes:

Higher-tier customers get better odds. Scratch cards expire after 30 days if not scratched.

Subscriber Perk: Monthly Guaranteed Scratch Card

Customers who pay for the blog subscription get a free scratch card every month that is guaranteed to win something. The "Better Luck Next Time" outcome is completely removed from their card.

This happens automatically — when a subscriber visits the site, the system checks if they've received their monthly card yet. If not, one is created and they see a notification on their rewards page.

Coin Shop & Coupons

Customers spend their coins in the shop. They can only hold one active coupon at a time, and each coupon tier has a cooldown before they can buy the same one again.

Item Cost Cooldown
Mystery Scratch Card 150 coins None
5% Off Coupon 100 coins 7 days
10% Off Coupon 200 coins 14 days
15% Off Coupon 350 coins 30 days
20% Off Coupon 500 coins 60 days
25% Off Coupon 750 coins 90 days

Coupons expire after 30 days. When a customer comes to you with a coupon or scratch card discount, you mark it as redeemed in Admin > Rewards > Pending Redemptions.

Weekly Challenges

There's a default challenge that always runs: "Visit the site 3 days this week" for 25 XP + 25 coins. It resets every Monday automatically.

You can also create custom challenges in Admin > Rewards > Challenges. These have a start date and end date and don't repeat. You set the reward amount (up to 50 coins max for manual challenges).

Total weekly challenge coins are capped at 75 coins per week (25 from the default + up to 50 from manual challenges).

Badges

Badges are awarded automatically for milestones. You can also award special badges manually in Admin > Rewards. Here are the built-in badges:

🎉 Welcome to the Hunt — joined
💎 Treasure Seeker — 1st purchase
🛒 Regular — 5 purchases
🏆 Loyal Hunter — 10 purchases
🍀 Lucky 13 — 13 purchases
🔥 Streak Starter — 3-day visit streak
Dedicated — 7-day visit streak
🎯 Challenge Champion — 5 challenges done

Your Daily Workflow

Most of the system is automatic. Here's what you actually need to do:

  1. When a customer buys something:
    Go to Admin > Rewards > "Award Purchase." Search their name or email, click their name, then click "Award Purchase." They get 25 XP, 25 coins, and a scratch card automatically.
  2. When a customer shows you a discount coupon or scratch card prize:
    Go to Admin > Rewards > "Pending Redemptions." Find their coupon/scratch card and click "Mark Redeemed." Then honor the discount at checkout.
  3. If you want to create a special challenge:
    Go to Admin > Rewards > "Create Challenge." Give it a title, type, target value, reward, and date range. It'll show up for all members automatically.
  4. If you want to award a special badge to someone:
    Go to Admin > Rewards > "Award XP, Coins, or Badge." Search the customer, pick the badge, and award it.

Leaderboard

The public leaderboard shows the top 50 members ranked by lifetime XP. Customers can opt out in their account settings if they don't want to appear. The leaderboard is visible to everyone, even visitors who aren't logged in.

Quick Answers

Can customers cheat by visiting multiple times a day?

No. Daily visits only count once per day. The database enforces this.

What if I accidentally award a purchase twice?

It will count as two purchases. Be careful to only click "Award Purchase" once per transaction. There's no undo, but you could manually subtract coins/XP from the manual award section.

Do coins expire?

No. Coins stay in their account until spent. Coupons and scratch cards expire after 30 days though.

Can I change the prices in the coin shop?

Not from the admin panel — that requires a code change. Let us know if you want to adjust pricing.

What does the "Free Small Item" scratch card prize mean?

It's up to you! When a customer shows you this prize, give them a small item of your choice for free. It's very rare (about 2-5% chance depending on tier).

Happy Shopping.