VIP Customers: How to Find Them and Give Them Early Access

A VIP customer is someone who buys from your store more often, and spends more, than almost everyone else on your list. For an online store, that usually means a small group you can name from your order history, and they're worth treating differently.

This guide shows how to find that group with three rules, what to offer them (time comes before money), and how to run VIP early access before Black Friday 2026, which lands on Friday, November 27.

What is a VIP customer?

A VIP customer is a repeat buyer in the top slice of your store's customers by total spend, who has bought recently and still opens your emails. Each store draws the line in its own place, because "top" only makes sense against your own customers.

You'll often see the 80/20 rule here, also called the Pareto principle: the rough idea that a small share of customers brings in a large share of revenue. Treat it as a rule of thumb, not a fact about your store. Your order history will tell you how concentrated your revenue really is.

Cite this. SmartrMail's working definition, as of October 2026: a VIP customer is a subscriber in the top 5 to 10 percent of a store's customers by total spend, with more than one order, at least one order in the last 365 days, and an email open or click in the last 90 days. Method: the definition is built from four Smart Segment conditions documented in the SmartrMail help center (Customer spend $ Total, Orders # Total, Has ordered in # Days, Has opened or clicked any emails in # Days). The percentages and day counts are starting points to adjust, not a benchmark.

How to find your VIP customers (3 rules)

You don't need a loyalty app to do this. You need your order history and your email engagement data, side by side. In SmartrMail both live in Smart Segments, and you can combine conditions in a single segment. Smart Segments are included on every SmartrMail plan, Free included (as of October 2026).

Rule 1: they spend the most

Start with total spend. Look at your customers sorted by amount spent and find the figure that separates your top 5 to 10 percent from everyone else. That figure is your threshold, and it's yours alone. A $200 threshold can be the top slice for one store and the middle of the pack for another.

In SmartrMail, that's the Customer spend ($ Total) condition. If your catalog has a few very expensive items, also look at Customer spend ($ Average), so a single big order doesn't hide a customer who buys small and often.

If you've already built a high spenders segment, this is the same idea with a tighter cut.

Rule 2: they come back

One big order is a good day. Two or more orders is a relationship. Add Orders (# Total) and set it to more than one.

This rule keeps out the one-off gift buyer who spent a lot last December and never returned. They might come back, but they aren't who you plan early access around.

Rule 3: they're still here

Spend and order count look backwards. Add two conditions that look at now:

• Has ordered in (# Days), so the segment only holds people who bought in, say, the last 365 days.
• Has opened any emails in (# Days) or Has clicked any emails in (# Days), so your VIP email lands with people who actually read your emails. The campaign engagement guide shows how to set it up.

If you've sorted your list into engagement tiers already, your VIPs should sit inside the most active one. If a big spender has gone quiet, they belong in a win-back email, not in your early access send.

One note on cost: SmartrMail bills for active subscribers, not every contact in your database (pricing, as of October 2026). Keeping the VIP segment tied to engagement is the same habit that keeps the rest of your list worth paying for.

Tier the offer as well as the list

It's tempting to stop once the list is split. The better move is to split the offer too, because your VIPs and your casual subscribers want different things from a Black Friday email.

Your VIPs already come back on their own. What they're likely to value is getting there first: first pick of sizes and limited runs, before the public rush. So give them time before you give them a deeper discount.

A simple three-tier setup for Black Friday:

The deepest discount goes where your margin can carry it and where it changes what someone does. For a customer who would have bought anyway, a bigger discount is margin you didn't need to give away.

If you do want a VIP-only code on top of early access, SmartrMail's coupon codes can create one unique code per subscriber, limited to one use per customer, with a minimum purchase, an expiry date and an optional list of eligible products. Coupon codes work on Shopify stores only, on the Essential and Pro plans, as of October 2026.

For how to keep these customers buying all year, beyond one sale, read our guide to high-value customers.

How to run VIP early access before Black Friday

Here's the sequence for Black Friday 2026, counted back from Friday, November 27. If you want the full calendar around it, our week-by-week holiday email plan has every week from October to Christmas.

1. Build the segment now, not the night before. Create the VIP segment with the three rules above in late October or early November, and look at who's in it. If the list is tiny or huge, move the thresholds until it matches the customers you'd actually call VIPs.

2. Decide how the early access works in your store. The gate itself, such as a code that only your VIPs receive, is set up in your store. Your email tool sends the invitation and, if you use one, the code. Test the full path from email to checkout before the send.

3. Tell VIPs it's coming. A short heads-up email about a week before (around Friday, November 20) tells them to watch their inbox. It's also the email where you say what early access means: when it opens, how long it lasts, what's included.

4. Refresh the segment, then send. Smart Segments refresh roughly every 24 hours on their own. Right before the early access email goes out, open the segment and hit refresh, so anyone who placed a qualifying order this week is included (how Smart Segments update).

5. Send the early access email 24 to 48 hours before the public sale. For Black Friday on November 27, that's Wednesday, November 25 or Thursday, November 26.

6. Open the sale to everyone, without sending VIPs the same pitch twice. Build your public segment so it doesn't overlap with the VIP one: for example, the same engagement rule plus Customer spend ($ Total) below your VIP threshold. Send the full Black Friday email there, and give your VIPs a short "it's open to everyone now" note instead. They've already had their turn.

Want this to work outside Black Friday too? Set up a segment-triggered automation that sends a short welcome email the first time a customer joins your VIP segment. You don't need a sale to tell a good customer they're on your list of best customers.

VIP email examples you can adapt

These are starting points we wrote for this guide, not tested templates. Swap in your store's voice, dates and products. For more subject line ideas, see our Black Friday subject lines.

The heads-up (about a week before)

Subject: You're on the early list

Preview: Our Black Friday sale opens to you two days before anyone else.

Hi {first name}, you've been one of our best customers this year, so you get first pick. On Wednesday, November 25, we'll send you access to our Black Friday sale, two days before it opens to everyone. Keep an eye on your inbox.

The early access email (Wednesday, November 25)

Subject: Your early access is open

Preview: First pick, before Friday.

The sale is open, for you only, until Friday morning. Same prices everyone gets on Black Friday, two days sooner. [Shop early access]

The welcome to the VIP list (all year, segment-triggered)

Subject: A thank-you from {store name}

Hi {first name}, you've ordered from us more than almost anyone, and we noticed. From now on, you'll hear about new drops and sales before everyone else. No sign-up needed, you're already on the list.

FAQ

How do you handle VIP customers?

Give them access and attention before discounts. Let them shop a sale first, tell them about new products first, and reply to them like regulars. Keep the deepest discounts for customers who need a reason to buy.

What's another word for VIP customers?

Stores also say best customers, top customers, loyal customers or high-value customers. The label matters less than the rule behind it: who spends the most, comes back, and still reads your emails.

What's a good spend threshold for a VIP customer?

There isn't one number that works across stores. Start with your top 5 to 10 percent of customers by total spend, look at who that includes, and adjust. The right threshold is the one that gives you a list of customers you'd recognize by name.

Should VIP customers get a bigger discount?

Not by default. They already come back without a push, so early access can matter more to them than a few extra percent off. If you add a VIP code, give each VIP their own single-use code with an expiry date.

Is a VIP segment the same as a loyalty program?

No. A loyalty program usually runs on points or rewards inside a separate app. A VIP segment is a list you build from data you already have, and use to decide who hears from you first. You can run one without the other.

How many VIP customers should I have?

Few enough that the early access feels like a privilege. If your segment holds most of your buyers, raise the thresholds.

Build your VIP segment in SmartrMail

Everything in this guide runs on order history and email engagement you already collect. In SmartrMail, that's one Smart Segment with four conditions, a coupon if you want one, and three emails.

Start your free 15-day trial. It opens the full Pro plan, and you don't need a credit card (as of October 2026).