Bringing an existing loyalty programme online
Tyler Heshka · https://heshka.com/work/casebook/loyalty-commerce-integration
Extending a retail loyalty programme into Shopify product, cart and account screens while keeping its existing business system in charge.
My part
Shopify app extensions, merchant settings, loyalty calculations and integration testing.
01
Work with the programme already in place
The retailer already had a loyalty programme managed in its business system. The online store needed to explain membership, show earning estimates and present account information using that existing programme.
I built a Shopify app using native extensions for merchant administration, the storefront and customer accounts. The business system remains responsible for programme rules, eligibility, points and transactions; Shopify presents the information customers need while shopping.
02
Follow the customer through the store
On a product page, the app can show an estimate for one unit of the selected variant. In the cart, it presents membership offers and projected points. The account extension reads synchronized membership information and the external points balance.
Those screens need to respond when a customer changes a variant or adds a membership to the cart. I connected the storefront blocks to those updates and handled conflicting membership choices. A membership waiting in the cart can inform an earning estimate, but does not grant access.
03
Make configuration and calculations agree
I built merchant settings for the Shopify-facing configuration, including product selection and a link to the public programme information page. The link is omitted when its destination is unavailable, rather than sending customers to a guessed address.
The app uses more than one rendering environment, so I tested agreement between the server-rendered storefront and its cart updates. Decimal handling also matters: a setting saved as 2.0 should agree with an entered value of 2, while a different value should fail confirmation.
04
Fit the platform and plan for maintenance
The storefront features are packaged as app blocks and an embed, keeping the loyalty implementation separate from the base theme. Loading feedback, retry messages and announced updates support the membership controls. The app also includes English, French Canadian and Mexican Spanish locale bundles, while currency follows the shop context.
The work includes extension builds, tests and inspected release packages. It demonstrates how I adapt an established business programme to a different platform, down to the details of configuration, customer interaction and release checks.