Very few distributors have success with a rewards program, but this one is crushing it. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jackson Orin to talk about the Riner Rewards program and a year long loyalty program designed to keep customers engaged all year instead of dropping off after seasonal online only campaigns.

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They walk through internal conversations about e-commerce, ERP, and platform selection, the decision to give greater point value for online purchases, and the move to a digital first rewards dashboard tied to the website. Jackson explains points managers, account credits, gift cards, surveys, testimonials, newsletter signups, job site photos, and vendor co-op campaigns with double and triple points. The conversation also hits pre-launch and post-launch marketing, goals like 40 percent points manager signups, a 120 percent increase in online order values for customers who earn points, and lessons from returns, accounting, and credit that help make the user experience as frictionless as possible.

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👤 Guest Bio

Jackson Orin is from Riner and works in a marketing position with a team that has pushed heavily into the e-commerce space for the last 10 plus years. He helps connect the website, rewards platform, and ERP, and works closely with sales teams, vendor partners, accounting, and credit to keep the rewards dashboard and points manager experience at the core of everything they do. Jackson brings experience with loyalty programs, online adoption, year over year numbers, and future plans for the rewards catalog and rewards landing page.

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📌 What We Cover

• How feedback from sales teams, seasonal online only programs, and big drop offs in online engagement led to a year long loyalty program instead of short term campaigns.
• What the team looked for in a rewards platform, including seamless integration with the e-commerce platform and ERP, a digital first rewards dashboard, and support for B2B structure, point calculations, and customer exclusions.
• Why online adoption sits at the center of the program, with one reward point for every dollar spent online, one reward point for every four dollars spent offline, and a focus on keeping long time offline customers rewarded.
• How the points manager model works so one person per company can redeem rewards while multiple users still access the rewards dashboard, track redemptions, and avoid miscommunications.
• The redemption experience for account credits and gift cards, including Amazon, Apple, airlines, physical and digital gift cards, and clear visibility into bonus points from vendor co-op campaigns.
• Extra earning activities beyond purchasing, like submitting testimonials, completing surveys, signing up for the newsletter, uploading job site photos, and moderation to handle competitors products or low quality images.
• How vendor partnerships and co-op campaigns offer two times and three times points on specific brands like Rain Bird irrigation products and deliver strong year over year numbers for key categories.
• The go-to market plan around January 2025, including teasing the program in September and October, multi-part email campaigns, poster boards in stores, graphics on TVs, website messaging, a blog, social messaging, flyers, and points manager signup ahead of launch.
• Targets and early results, such as aiming for 40 percent of companies with online purchases in 2024 to have a points manager in place, being on track to hit that mark, and seeing about 120 percent increase in online order values for customers who earned points in 2025.
• Lessons learned from returns, order numbers, excluded products, and automation that was not as automated as hoped, plus ongoing plans to revamp the main rewards landing page and improve the rewards catalog.
• Why Jackson sees rewards as a win win win for customers, vendor partners, and grinders, and why internal conversations, understanding all business processes, and getting ducks in a row before demos are critical for other distributors considering a similar retention and growth channel.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Company website and rewards dashboard – online account access, product detail pages, homepage messaging, and rewards landing page tied to the e-commerce platform and ERP (company website)
• Rain Bird irrigation products as a vendor example for two times points campaigns
• Amazon gift cards as a redemption option
• Apple gift cards as a redemption option
• Airlines gift cards, including physical and digital gift cards
• Jeremy Ott as a previous guest and early connector for the Riner Rewards conversation