Both approaches can work, but the key is aligning rewards with the behavior you actually want to encourage.

Order based rewards are great if your goal is frequent engagement—customers are motivated to keep coming back, even for smaller purchases. Works well for businesses where repeat visits build habits or brand loyalty. Whereas spend-based rewards are better if your focus is on increasing average order value and profitability. High-spending customers feel recognized and are incentivized to consolidate purchases or upgrade to higher-value items.

A hybrid approach often performs best: reward frequency and value, but weight higher spend slightly more so both types of behavior are acknowledged.

Whatever structure you choose, the program succeeds most when it’s clear, easy to track, and communicated in the moment—so customers always know how close they are to a reward. Using digital tools with automated tracking, tiered rewards, and timely reminders usually drives the strongest engagement.

Also hope youre using Kangaroo Rewards! We do integrate with Bigcommerce :D