UserLoop Contests

Creating Your First Contest

Open in
View as Markdown Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude
James

James

Last updated on Jul 23, 2026

This guide walks you through creating a contest from scratch. The whole process takes about five minutes.

Step 1: Start a New Contest

  1. Open UserLoop Contests from your Shopify admin.
  2. Click Create contest in the top-right corner.

Step 2: Basic Information

  • Title — Give your contest a name that customers will see (e.g., "Summer Giveaway 2026"). Maximum 200 characters.
  • Description — Explain what the contest is about. This appears on your contest entry page. Maximum 5,000 characters.
  • URL slug — This is the web address for your contest page. It's auto-generated from your title, but you can customize it. Only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens are allowed. Your contest page URL will be: https://yourstore.com/apps/contest/your-slug

Step 3: Schedule

  • Start date — When the contest opens for entries.
  • End date — When the contest stops accepting entries. Must be after the start date.

By default, the end date is set to 30 days from today.

Step 4: Add Prizes

You can add two types of prizes:

Product prizes — Select products directly from your Shopify catalog.

  1. Click Add product prize.
  2. Use the product picker to browse your catalog.
  3. The product image and title are pulled in automatically.
  4. Set the quantity (how many of this prize you're giving away).

Custom prizes — Define your own prize that isn't in your catalog.

  1. Click Add custom prize.
  2. Enter a title and optional description.
  3. Optionally add an image URL.
  4. Set the quantity (1–100).

Add as many prizes as you like. You can remove any prize by clicking the remove button next to it.

Step 5: Entry Settings

  • Winner selection method — Choose how winners are picked:
    • Random draw — Winners are selected randomly from all entries.
    • Manual selection — You hand-pick the winners yourself.
  • Entries per customer — How many times a single customer can enter (1–10). Entries are deduplicated by email address. Default is 1.
  • Collect name — Check this to add an optional name field to the entry form.
  • Collect phone — Check this to add an optional phone number field to the entry form.

Step 6: Terms & Conditions (Optional)

Add your contest rules and legal terms. This text appears as a collapsible section on the entry form. Maximum 50,000 characters.

Step 7: Save

Click Create contest to save. Your contest is created in Draft status, meaning it's not visible to customers yet.

Next Steps

From here you can:

  • Customize the design — Set colors, add images, and customize text on the Design tab.
  • Activate the contest — Click Activate to make it live and start accepting entries.
  • Share the link — Copy the contest URL to share on social media, email, or anywhere else.
  • Add to your theme — Enable the contest popup or form block in your Shopify theme editor.

See Dashboard Overview for a tour of your contest management tools.