How to design a product points system from 0 to 1?

The points system connects users and products, which can effectively guide user growth and cultivate new users into high-value users. Building their own points system has now become a task that many platforms have to do. Based on his actual work situation, the author of this article sorted out and summarized very valuable knowledge about integration module design and shared it with everyone.

Some time ago, I received a task to redesign the marketing platform. I have sorted it out during my free time, and it is only for reference for product novices. I have experienced some setbacks myself, and I would be very happy if this article can help 1-2 people.

After thinking about it, I decided not to share the entire marketing system, mainly because the business needs of each company are different. We are now a social e-commerce company, but we have very few e-commerce marketing activities. It's nothing more than signing in, drawing prizes, helping, grabbing coupons, and red envelope rain. The red envelope rain is similar to grabbing coupons.

So let's take the integration module out and talk about it separately.

Points: Virtual currency circulated on a certain platform, with limited value.

There are many types of points now. It is no longer the gold coins of the PC-WEB era. There was only one gold coin in the entire app.

Points can help the platform improve the effectiveness of event operations and increase user stickiness. This is mainly because points are a perceptible and quantifiable reward for user behavior .

Therefore, JD and Taobao will play an interactive game to accumulate "red envelopes" during every Double Eleven and 618 promotion. Of course, the red envelopes here can also be implemented using the logic of points.

Let’s first organize the points system, which is mainly divided into basic points information (including points ratio, points validity period, etc.), points issuance, points consumption, and points risk control.

Since what I want to do is the points middle platform, it is divided into the management end and the functional interface provided for the business.

1. Management

When you want to make an integral, what is the name of the integral that comes to your mind first? The next question is what is the value of the points. How much is it worth if it can be converted into RMB? How many points can you get by spending 1 yuan?

So this is how to define a platform point, and you need to fill in the basic information of the points.

The next question is how do users collect and use points? The contents of the management side are sorted out as follows:

It can be seen that except for the user points account, there is no need for a management interface, so the only things left are points management, points records, and points channels.

1. Points Management

Points management is sorted in positive order according to the points ID, without the need for paging. Points management supports creating new points, editing points, managing points channels, and querying points issuance records.

The list displays the basic information of points, including point ID, point name, validity period, status, and redemption ratio. For the convenience of operation, it also supports adding multiple points, which is suitable for different activity scenarios.

Why is there a button to create points? Do you want more points?

For example, during the Double Eleven this year, we can see that these three are interactive games that give out cat coins, small fish, and gold coins. These cat coins, fish, gold coins and main line points are different account systems, but they are all points in essence.

What these points have in common is a unified validity period . These points are only valid during big sales and will expire after Double Eleven.

Therefore, the point system is designed to allow the creation of points, which can facilitate operations to create unique points in different forms of activities. It can be called cat coins, gold coins, or even small fish...

Of course, we also recommend not to have too many long-term points, maintain 1-2 long-term points, and use other short-term points to assist in event marketing.

1. Points Record

The next step is to keep records of each point separately, with records from the past 30 days clearly available for searching. Filter by time range, record type, or search directly by user ID or mobile number.

The reason why the points records are also managed is mainly to provide them to customer service for inquiry and to facilitate the handling of customer complaints.

1. Points channel management

The main purpose of points channel management is to better manage points and do a good job in risk control of points.

Points are virtual currencies circulating on the platform. If they are stolen, the losses will be difficult to recover. Therefore, before the points are issued, restrictions on the points channels are added. The points channels can be applied for by operations colleagues to generate a unique token.

Every activity that calls for points distribution relies on this token to be successfully called and distributed to users normally.

1. Create a points channel

Each channel can also individually set the maximum amount that all users can receive, the maximum amount that a single user can receive per day, and the maximum amount that can be received per day.

All risks are divided into each activity. When problems occur, the problematic activities can be quickly located based on the Token without affecting other activities.

A management terminal that supports multiple points is ready~

2. Business Points Interface

Another important feature of the points platform is to provide business-oriented interfaces, which are usually universal and functional. In the face of ever-changing marketing activities, the versatility of the points system is really important.

The following 5 interfaces are sorted out:

The points system needs five interfaces : issuing points, consuming points, returning points, recycling points, querying user points records, and locking points .

• Points refund scenario : After a user redeems a certain product with points, the redemption fails due to reasons such as the product being out of stock. In this case, the points consumed by the user need to be refunded to the user.
• Points recovery scenario : After a user receives points for placing an order for a certain product, if the user returns the product, the points given to the user need to be recovered.

The main functions are issuing points, consuming points and querying user points records. These three points interfaces are the core interfaces, and the other three interfaces of returning points, recycling points and locking points are used less frequently.

Because by using the two interfaces of issuing points and consuming points to increase or decrease the balance of the user's points account, the effect of rolling back and recovering points can be achieved.

Why do we need to single out these interfaces? In fact, it is mainly for refined operations. When collecting data statistics, each detailed scenario can be split to analyze user activity and usage frequency.

Usually when we redeem points for merchandise, the inventory of promotional merchandise is limited. To confirm the redemption of a product, we usually deduct the required points first and then occupy the inventory of the product. When inventory deduction fails, the points refund will be enabled and the points deducted during redemption will be returned to the user.

During this process, the increase or decrease in the user's account points will affect the accuracy of our statistics.

Therefore, we can add a point locking function to separate the behavior of using points into first locking the points and then consuming them. The business side always has a lot of KPIs to worry about, and will also put forward many strange and normal demands for the sake of KPIs.

I encountered a demand scenario like this: a snack supplier jointly organized an event and used points, but the supplier hoped that "the points I issued can only be used in my store"!

In this case, it is generally recommended to use the management end of the points system to create a new points system for the supplier, called "pork strips", "beef jerky", "spicy strips"... whatever is fine.

At that time, the platform points were not yet mature, and it was necessary to rely on suppliers' products to increase the value of platform points. After comprehensive consideration, Dabao had an idea. Since the points can be locked, let's give this part of the locked points a unique key.

When locking points, there are two types:

1. Specify object consumption
2. Unlimited object consumption

When the specified object consumption means locking the points, a unique key will be generated accordingly. The key can represent the supplier or the activity (the channel code can be used directly as the key here) and it will be returned. When the points are actually consumed, the corresponding generated key needs to be passed to consume these points.

Moreover, if the points locked by the "specified object consumption" type have passed the points lock period, these points of the user will be automatically invalidated.

It is very easy to understand that there is no limit on the consumption . After the points are locked, everyone can use them. For this type of lock that is "unlimited in consumption", the points will be automatically released if the lock-up period for the points expires.

However, it is rather confusing for the scenarios of points consumption. It can be used in a single consumption scenario.

• Points lock-up period : the limited time period for which points are locked.

Regarding the points lock-up period , if the system uses a complex function such as points lock-up, it is necessary to add a lock-up period mechanism. Because if the points are not consumed, they will remain locked, so a mechanism is added to automatically unlock or invalidate them after the lock-in period.

The lock period of the "specified object consumption" type is generally consistent with the activity validity period. The lock-in period for "unlimited object consumption" is generally shorter, and can be configured by the system to default to 24 hours, which can be modified in the management interface of the basic points information.

Points system interaction flow chart

Dabao doesn't have a WPS membership, so the flowchart can only add so many graphics, so I drew the points refund and points recovery together... Everyone, please take a look~

The principle of consuming points is to consume locked points first, and then consume points that are about to expire. Dabao feels that using this method of quick expiration of points to encourage users to consume points does not improve the platform's marketing capabilities, and users will still let points that have no use become invalid.

Non-expiring points can also allow users to save them and redeem them for big prizes, thus improving user retention. Therefore, we have not designed a mechanism to prioritize the first-collected points and let them expire first. All points on our platform have a unified validity period, so there is no such thing as giving priority to points that are about to expire soon.

3. Points Statistics

After the points system is completed, statistics need to be compiled based on the records of points issuance and consumption each day.

1. Key Metrics

1. Consumption ratio = points consumed/points issued;
2. Average number of points held

The consumption ratio is mainly used to analyze whether the points issuance and consumption are reasonable. The value of points lies in the fact that they cannot be over-issued and cannot be consumed without a place, so the main core indicator of points is the consumption ratio.

The number of points held per capita is an important indicator in the initial stage. In the early stage, there are not many users holding points, so the main purpose is to count the points held by users, so as to analyze the participation in the platform's points activities and user activity. Operations staff formulate reasonable points issuance and redemption rules based on the number of points held by users, lowering the threshold for user participation and expanding the user base.

1. Observe the integral data

I mainly divide it into 3 tables to observe the points data.

(1) Points summary table

(2) Points holding status table

(3) Points channel status table

Author: Dai Dabao

Source: Dai Dabao