# First Purchase Anniversary Page: https://alidemirbas.com.tr/en/lab/journeys/first-purchase-anniversary First-purchase anniversary → eligibility check → celebrate or exit ## Purpose Acknowledge the anniversary of a customer's first purchase with a single lightweight message. Goal: Progression & Milestone · Category: Loyalty & Relationship ## Steps - **Trigger**: First-purchase anniversary is approaching - **Decision**: Is the customer relationship still active? - Yes: Push: Mark the anniversary of the first purchase - No: Journey ends - **Action**: Push: Mark the anniversary of the first purchase - **Exit**: Journey ends ## Guardrails - Send at most once per anniversary period. - Do not imply a reward unless one actually exists. ## Core rule An anniversary message should recognise a real date, not invent a reward or status that does not exist. ## When to set it up Set this up when cohort reports show many customers passing their first-purchase anniversary with the relationship still alive, and nobody says anything to them on that date. Before launch, confirm the first completed purchase date is verified on the customer record, your active-relationship definition is written down and push permission is known; also set up the shared exclusion group with Birthday & Milestone, so nobody gets two recognitions in one window. If you expect the anniversary to produce a second purchase or a renewal, use First-to-Second Purchase or Membership Renewal Decision instead of disguising an offer as a recognition. ## How to set it up - **Trigger and entry**: Entry opens as the anniversary of the first completed purchase approaches. At that point, randomly split eligible customers into the journey group and a control group that gets no push from this flow. - **Who must not enter**: Customers whose relationship is no longer active, or whose first-purchase date is unverified, stay out. Anyone due a Birthday & Milestone recognition in the same window is suppressed here; in the shared exclusion group this journey is the one that yields. One anniversary per customer is the scope. - **Timing and channels**: There is a single touch: when the anniversary arrives, the journey checks that the relationship is still active and then sends one push. The message recognizes a real date and implies no reward, gift or new status the program has not defined. - **Exit and handoff**: Once the push is sent the journey ends; when the relationship is not active it ends earlier, without a message. No handoff, no re-entry: the next anniversary opens a new instance. - **Frequency and consent**: Limit the anniversary period to a single push; without push permission nothing is sent and no other channel is tried. No second reminder or email is added. ## How to measure success **Incremental active-customer share vs control**: This journey does not try to produce a sale or a renewal; its measurable value is whether recognized customers keep their relationship alive more often than customers who were not recognized, not whether the push was opened. Among all customers assigned at entry to the journey and control groups, the share whose relationship is still active, by the activity definition the eligibility check uses, within the same follow-up window after assignment; the gap between the groups is the journey's effect. Delivery or opening of the push does not change the denominator. Also track: - **Message engagement rate**: Taps on the push as a share of assigned customers; read them as a signal about the relationship, not as proof of lasting loyalty from one message. - **Push opt-outs**: Watch who turns push permission off in the days after the recognition; if the anniversary message annoys people, even one touch can cost too much. - **Share dropped at the eligibility check**: Of the anniversaries that arrive, the share that gets no push because the relationship is inactive; if it is high, revisit the trigger date verification and the activity definition. - **Exclusion-group overlaps**: Count anniversaries suppressed because a Birthday & Milestone recognition was due in the same window; a suppressed person never enters this journey. ## What to watch when reading the result - If the journey group's active share does not beat the control group, the recognition has not measurably changed the relationship, and a high tap rate does not make up for that. Such a result does not justify adding a reward, a second touch or a new channel; the recognition should stay light. - What you measure here holds for one push, the activity check and the activity definition you used. A second purchase right after the anniversary belongs to First-to-Second Purchase and a renewal to Membership Renewal Decision; do not credit either here. People who received the Birthday & Milestone message never entered this journey, so the two recognitions do not blur each other. - An anniversary comes once a year per customer, so the gap builds slowly. Before deciding, enter the control group's active share and the smallest gap you care about into the [sample size calculator](https://alidemirbas.com.tr/en/calculators/sample-size-calculator), then divide the sample per arm by your daily anniversary count to see how long the read will take. - Recheck with every new copy version that the message promises no reward or status; adding a gift that does not exist to lift engagement is not a fix. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who should receive a first-purchase anniversary message? Use a verified first-purchase date and an ongoing customer relationship, checking messaging eligibility before sending. This example ends after one push. An anniversary does not itself create a new status or benefit. ### Does an anniversary message need a gift? Not in this example. A brief relevant acknowledgment may be enough. Any promised gift or status must genuinely exist and be granted. Treat interaction as a relationship signal rather than proof of lasting loyalty.