Subscribe to SMS marketing
Reward customers the first time they opt in to SMS marketing — and, if you want it, the first time they add a phone number.
This feature is available in all plans
What is "Subscribe to SMS marketing"?
Subscribe to SMS marketing rewards a customer once, for life, the first time they opt in to SMS marketing consent. It is the SMS counterpart to Sign up newsletters — same shape, different channel.
Inside the same program you can switch on a second, separate reward: Add phone number reward, paid the first time a customer saves a phone number in the widget Profile. The two rewards are independent. A customer who does both gets both, once each.
Why do you need this feature?
An SMS list is worth exactly what your consent rate makes it. Points give a customer a concrete reason to say yes at the moment they are already inside your loyalty widget, and Joy writes that consent straight to Shopify — so whichever tool actually sends your messages reads the same state you rewarded on.
The phone-number bonus covers the step before that one. A shopper cannot subscribe to SMS without a number on file, so paying for the number itself clears the blocker on the way to the subscription.
How to set up this feature
Get access to "Subscribe to SMS marketing"
Choose Reward programs → Earning programs → click Add rule → choose Subscribe to SMS marketing.
Set up the program
a. Rule information
- Rule name: the name of this earning program
- Start date and End date: the period the program runs for
b. Reward rule
- Earning points: how many points a customer receives for opting in to SMS marketing
Turn on the phone number reward (optional)
In the same screen, switch on Add phone number reward — Give points when customers add their phone number for the first time. Then set Points to reward.
This bonus is a separate reward with its own points value. Customers earn it once, the first time they add a phone number, and they do not need to opt in to SMS marketing to receive it.
Save and activate
Hit Save, then press Turn on to activate the program.
What customers see
Customers get one earn card, Subscribe to SMS marketing, with a Subscribe action on it. Selecting it asks Shopify to record their SMS consent — the same thing the widget's Profile → Settings toggle does, without making them go looking for it.
While the phone-number bonus is switched on and still unclaimed, a small badge appears inside that card's Details block. It disappears once the bonus is paid.
The card reads Earned once the SMS reward has been awarded. That state tracks the SMS opt-in only — a customer can already have earned the phone bonus while the card still shows as unearned, because the two rewards are tracked separately everywhere.
The consent toggle and phone field customers use live in the Unified Widget Profile. See SMS marketing consent in the widget Profile.
When each reward fires
SMS marketing reward
- Awarded when Shopify confirms the subscription, through the marketing-consent webhook. The Subscribe button requests the consent; it never awards points on its own. This keeps points tied to a subscription that actually took effect rather than to a click.
- Guests do not earn it. A shopper with no linked Shopify customer record cannot receive that webhook, so no SMS reward is issued for them.
Add phone number reward
- Awarded when a customer saves a phone number through the widget, going from no number on file to a number on file.
- Changing an existing number to a different one does not pay again.
- Numbers added through checkout, the Shopify admin, a CSV import, or another app do not count — this bonus covers widget Profile saves only.
Both rewards
- Forward-only. Customers who already had SMS consent or a phone number before you switched this on are not rewarded retroactively.
- No claw-back. Unsubscribing later, or removing the phone number, never takes back points already awarded.
FAQs
A customer subscribed but did not get points — why?
Points follow the marketing consent state in Shopify, not the button press. If the subscription never reached a subscribed state in Shopify — a number Shopify rejected, a sync that failed, or a shopper who is not a logged-in Shopify customer — no reward is issued. Check that customer's SMS marketing status in Shopify first.
Can one customer earn both rewards?
Yes. They are two independent one-time rewards, and earning one does not block the other.
If I switch off the phone number reward, does the earn card disappear?
No. Turning the program off hides the card. Switching off only the phone number reward leaves the card in place and removes the bonus badge inside it; the SMS reward is unaffected either way.