Reward store shopping experience

Overview

The Reward store lets employees redeem their earned points for a catalog of physical products, merchandise, and gift cards. With this release, the Reward store moves from a gift card only experience to a full product catalog. Employees now shop the way they would on a large e-commerce site, and administrators get a new surface to curate what appears in the store.

This article covers the shopping experience for end users, the checkout and shipping model, email notifications for order events, and Catalog management for administrators.

What's changing

The previous version of the Reward store offered a single type of redemption: prepaid gift cards from a single provider. Employees could pick from a limited set of cards and had no way to shop for actual products.

The new Reward store expands this in three ways:

• Product catalog. Employees can browse and redeem points for physical products in addition to gift cards. The catalog covers merchandise, clothing, footwear, and other categories delivered by our fulfillment partner.

• New fulfillment partner. Product inventory, order fulfillment, and shipping are handled through a new integrated fulfillment partner. The change is transparent to end users and admins.

• Catalog management for admins. Administrators can now shape what employees see. Products can be hidden or unhidden at product, brand, or category level, with bulk actions and search to make the review quick.

The rollout is automatic. No customer-side enablement is required. When the release lands, existing Reward stores are updated in place. An employee who logs out before the release and logs back in after will see the new experience the next time they open the Reward store.

Reward store home page

When an employee opens the Reward store, they land on a home page organized into these sections:

• Hero banner. A welcome banner that introduces the shopping experience.

• Explore products. A view of the full product catalog available to the employee, based on their country.

• Sale. Products marked as on sale by the fulfillment partner.

• Trending. Popular products across the fulfillment partner's platform, ranked by the partner's own trending algorithm.

• Shop by price range. A filter that surfaces products within the employee's current wallet balance.

• Explore products within your price range. A curated view of products the employee can afford right now.

The Sale and Trending sections are populated by the fulfillment partner and reflect their platform-wide data. Simpplr does not decide which products appear in these sections.

Point balance and label

The Reward store shows the employee's current point balance in the header. If your organization has renamed points to a custom label (for example, "Bonus Ri"), that label appears throughout the Reward store, on product cards, and at checkout.

Setting your location

The Reward store catalog and delivery are country specific. What an employee sees, and where they can ship, both depend on the location they select.

First-time setup

The first time an employee opens the new Reward store, they are asked to select their location. If the selected country supports multiple languages, they are also asked to pick a preferred language for the catalog.

Once a location is selected:

• The product catalog updates to show only items available for delivery in that country.

• The delivery address at checkout must be within the same country.

Changing your location

Employees can change their location at any time from the Reward store. When the location changes, the catalog refreshes to match the new country, and any saved addresses must match the new country to be usable at checkout.

International shipping is not supported

An employee based in one country cannot ship a redeemed product to an address in another country. At checkout, the system validates that the delivery address matches the selected country and blocks addresses outside it.

Shopping for a product

Selecting a product opens its detail page, which shows:

• The point cost of the product, displayed in the employee's point label.

• A short product description, with a Read more option that expands to the full description.

• Standard shipping and returns information.

• A Redeem and checkout button to start the checkout flow.

Checkout flow

Checkout is a single-page flow designed to be quick and predictable.

Delivery address

The delivery address is pulled from the employee's account. On first checkout, the employee is prompted to add a delivery address. The address must match the country selected in the Reward store. From the address section, employees can:

• Add a new address.

• Edit an existing address.

• Select any saved address for the current order.

• Set a default address to speed up future checkouts.

Point summary

Before confirming the order, the employee sees a summary that includes:

• The point cost of the product.

• Their current point balance.

• The points that will be deducted.

• The final balance after the redemption.

Placing the order

Clicking Place order submits the redemption. The order is confirmed immediately, and the employee sees an order confirmation screen with the message that their reward is on its way.

Order tracking

After placing an order, employees can track it from the Orders page inside the Reward store. Order statuses update in this sequence:

1. Placed. The order has been submitted and is being processed by the fulfillment partner.

2. Shipped. The fulfillment partner has handed the order to a carrier.

3. Delivered. The order has reached the delivery address.

Granular carrier stages such as picked, out for delivery, attempted delivery, or delivery retry are not shown. The fulfillment partner does not pass these updates back to Simpplr.

Email notifications

Employees receive email notifications at these points in the order lifecycle:

• Order placed. Sent right after checkout. Includes the order details.

• Order shipped. Sent when the fulfillment partner marks the order as shipped.

• Order delivered. Sent when the fulfillment partner marks the order as delivered.

Notification copy is intentionally generic on timing. Because fulfillment and shipping timelines depend on the fulfillment partner and downstream carriers, Simpplr does not commit to specific delivery windows in either the checkout confirmation or the email copy. For example, order copy uses phrasing such as "You will receive a confirmation email with tracking details shortly" and "Your order will be shipped upon successful processing," rather than promising a fixed number of business days.

In-app notifications are not sent for Reward store order events. Only email notifications are sent.

Catalog management (admin)

Catalog management is the admin surface for curating which products appear in the Reward store for end users. It is available under Reward store settings.

Default state at rollout

When the new Reward store activates, all products from the fulfillment partner's catalog are made available by default. Administrators should plan to review the catalog before or shortly after rollout, and hide anything they do not want their employees to see.

What admins can do

From the Catalog management screen, admins can:

• Search the catalog by product name.

• Filter products by country.

• Show only hidden products, to review what has been hidden.

• Hide individual products from end users.

• Unhide products that were previously hidden.

• Apply bulk actions on selected products or on a whole brand or category in one step.

Hiding at product, brand, or category level

Catalog management supports hiding at any level of the category tree, from a single product up to a full brand or category. The category structure mirrors what employees see when they browse, for example Merchandise > Clothing > Shoes.

A brand or category can be in one of three states:

• Visible. All products under the brand or category are available to end users.

• Hidden. All products under the brand or category are hidden from end users.

• Partial hidden. Some products are visible and some are hidden. For example, hiding Brand X shoes while keeping Brand X socks available results in Brand X appearing as partial hidden.

Recommended pre-launch review

Before employees start using the new Reward store, the Recognition manager or the person who owns the reward program should:

• Review the full catalog delivered by the fulfillment partner.

• Hide any brands, categories, or products that do not fit the organization's reward program, for example competitor brands, unapproved product types, or items outside the organization's reward policy.

• Confirm that the remaining catalog matches the intent of the program.

Getting help with an order

If an employee runs into an issue with a Reward store order, such as a damaged product or a significant delay, they should contact their Recognition manager or system administrator. This information also appears in the shipping and returns section on each product page and on the checkout screen.

The Recognition manager or administrator can raise a support ticket with Simpplr, and the issue is then coordinated with the fulfillment partner and their downstream carriers on the employee's behalf. Employees do not need to reach out to the fulfillment partner directly.

FAQs

When will my order be delivered?

Delivery timelines depend on the fulfillment partner and the carrier serving the delivery address, so Simpplr does not commit to a fixed delivery window. Employees receive an email when the order is placed, another when it ships, and a final email when it is delivered.

Can I ship a reward to another country?

No. International shipping is not supported. The delivery address must be in the same country as the location selected in the Reward store.

Can I change the country I shop from?

Yes. Employees can change their location from the Reward store at any time. Changing the country refreshes the catalog and requires a delivery address in the new country at checkout.

Why does the checkout confirmation not give me a delivery date?

Because fulfillment and shipping are handled by a third-party partner and downstream carriers, Simpplr does not commit to a specific delivery window in the checkout confirmation or in the notification emails. Tracking updates flow through the Placed, Shipped, and Delivered statuses as the order progresses.

Who do I contact if my order is damaged or delayed?

Contact your Recognition manager or system administrator. They can raise a support ticket with Simpplr on your behalf.

Do I need to enable the new Reward store?

No. The new Reward store is rolled out automatically. There is no customer-side enablement step. Administrators should, however, plan time to review Catalog management and hide any products they do not want to show to their employees.