While the Loyalty App will continue to function for the foreseeable future and you are welcome to continue using it, the app has reached the end of its lifecycle and we will no longer be updating or maintaining the app. It is possible that a future iOS update will render the app inoperable, so you may wish to preempt any issues by migrating to the web portal before that happens. 

A note for European merchants

Note that due to this end of development, the iOS/Android Loyalty apps will not be updated to support Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).

Differences between the app and the web portal

The web portal is streamlined for ease of use. As a result, some of the more complex and less-frequently used features of the app are not present in the web portal. Below is a list of the features available in the app and which of those features are also available on the web portal.

Some features, such as SMS marketing, email marketing, and physical loyalty cards, will continue to work with the web portal as they did with the app; no action is required on your part. Some of the changes, however, will require some preparation.

Points-for-credit rewards

If you've set up any points-for-credit rewards as part of your Loyalty program, you'll need to discontinue their use after migrating to the web portal and replace them with points-for-product rewards instead.

Even after doing so, however, you may have many customers who have already redeemed points-for-credit rewards and who have outstanding credit with your business. After you've migrated to the web portal, those customers will no longer be able to use that credit.

We recommend the following methods for honoring your customers' outstanding credit.

Refund the credit

You can refund the credit back to the customer through your Stripe account. To do so:

1. In the Loyalty Manager, navigate to Customers > Manage Customers.
2. Select a customer with a credit balance.
3. Take note of their email address and credit balance.
4. Log in to your Stripe account.
5. Using the customer's email address, find the customer in your Stripe account.
6. Navigate to their most recent successful payment and click on the 3 dots.
7. Select the refund option.
8. Refund the amount equivalent to the customer's outstanding credit balance.
9. In the Loyalty Manager, reset the customer's credit balance to $0.00 by:
   1. Double clicking their credit balance
   2. Change the value to $0.00
   3. Press Enter on your keyboard.

This will reimburse the customer for the amount of credit owed to them.

Provide a discount

You can discount a future transaction by the amount of outstanding credit a customer has. If the transaction may be conducted by someone who does not have access to the Loyalty Manager, you can export a list of all of your customers and their credit balances for your staff to refer to.

To do so:

1. In the Loyalty Manager, navigate to Customers > Manage Customers.
2. Click Export all customers.

A csv file will be automatically downloaded. You can open that file with the spreadsheet application of your choice and filter out any information that is not relevant to create a credit balance reference document.

Note that as discounts are applied, the customer's credit balance in the Loyalty Manager will not be updated; you will have to update their balance manually.

To do so:

1. In the Loyalty Manager, navigate to Customers > Manage Customers.
2. Find the customer in question using the search bar.
3. Double clicking their credit balance
4. Change the value to $0.00
5. Press Enter on your keyboard.

You may also be able to use the exported csv file to import credit balances into another platform, for example, gift cards.

After migrating to the web portal

If you decide to stop using your Loyalty app and migrate to the web portal, the app will be removed from the iOS and Android app stores. However, your customers who have already downloaded the app will continue to have access to it on their devices until they manually delete the app. 

Once you've resolved the matter of any outstanding credit balances using one of the methods listed above, we recommend instructing your customers to delete the app. 

Note: If a customer deletes the app before the outstanding credit balances have been resolved it will result in the loss of any credit that customer may have had. 

Changes to the Loyalty Manager

Once your migration is complete, you will notice a few changes to the Loyalty Manager. These changes reflect the functionality of the Loyalty web portal.

• The ability to add/remove credit will be removed 
• The credit column on the Manage customers page will be removed
• The credit usage report will be removed 
• The send account card feature will be removed
• The refer a friend campaign will be removed 
• The push notification section will be removed 
• The news section will be removed
• An SMS marketing section will be added 

How to migrate to the web portal

Before beginning the migration, make sure you have a plan in place for how to handle outstanding credit. We've outlined some recommended methods above, but the key factor to remember is that once you've completed the migration, you will no longer be able to edit how much credit your customers have through the Loyalty Manager. Inconsistency in executing your plan may result in some customers using the same credit more than once. If you choose to refund the credits and zero out the credit balances through the Loyalty Manager before migrating, this will not be a concern.

Once you've decided on a preferred method for handling outstanding credit, notify your account manager and they will begin the migration process.

Apple Developer accounts

While some Loyalty Apps are managed in a shared Lightspeed Apple Developer account, it is possible you may own and pay for your own. If you do and the Loyalty app is the only app you manage, remember to opt out of your Apple Developer account after your migration is complete to avoid incurring additional fees.