Winner selection happens inside the contest's Results stage. The one-off methods below apply to Fixed dates contests; Pro-only Ongoing contests use scheduled random draws. On mobile, open Results and tap Draw winners at the top; use Overview or Entries to return to campaign metrics or entrant data. Random, manual, and most-votes selection are available on both Free and Pro plans.
When drawing is available
For a fixed-date contest, drawing is locked until the contest ends. If you are ready to stop an active campaign early, click End contest & draw now, review the warning, and confirm.
The dashboard also shows Needs attention > Select winner when an ended contest has confirmed entries and no winner decision. Click Review winners to open Results.
Choose a prize with remaining quantity, then select a method.
Ongoing contests
For an ongoing contest, Results shows Scheduled draws (on mobile, tap Draw winners) instead of the one-off selection tools. Review a proposed winner and choose Accept winner or Redraw, or choose automatic confirmation in Build. Run draw now selects from current eligible entries without changing the schedule. The first prize is awarded on every draw; confirmed entrants who have won are excluded from future draws. See Ongoing Contests for setup, deadlines, and paused draws.
Random draw
Random draw is weighted by total earned entries. An eligible person with three entries has three chances compared with one chance for a person with one entry.
Invalid or unconfirmed entries and people who already won another contest prize are excluded. Gallery visibility and approval status do not remove an otherwise confirmed entrant from the random draw; delete an invalid entry if it must be removed from every winner method. After the reveal, choose Keep, Redraw, or switch to a manual pick.
Manual pick
Search eligible entrants and choose a specific person. Photo details and vote totals are available for photo contests to help you review the choice.
Most votes
This method is available when the contest has a photo-upload action. The highest-voted confirmed, visible photo that has not already won is eligible. Hiding a photo excludes it from Most votes. Approval and rejection control public gallery visibility but do not by themselves remove existing votes or most-votes eligibility, so also hide a rejected photo if it must not win by votes.
If multiple eligible photos share the highest count, choose among the tied leaders. Vote totals and eligibility are checked again when you confirm. Selecting a winner, or resolving the contest with No winner, closes public voting; the gallery then highlights the winner when one was selected.
See Photo Contests and Public Voting for vote collection, gallery setup, and moderation.
Multiple prizes and quantities
Results shows the remaining quantity for each prize and the total number already drawn. Select winners until the configured quantity is filled. One entrant can win only once within a contest.
Set up prize delivery
After keeping a winner, click Set up prize delivery.
On Free, choose Handle redemption yourself and I'll contact them. Contact and fulfill the prize outside UserLoop; no claim link or automated email is created.
On Pro, the wizard also provides:
- A fully discounted Shopify draft for review.
- An automatic fully discounted Shopify order.
- Secure delivery-detail collection without creating an order.
- Send with UserLoop and winner email resends.
- Secure claim windows of 3, 7, 14, or 30 days.
Winner cards track Notified, Claimed, Order, and Fulfilled. Expired claims can be set up again on Pro with a fresh link; a declined winner can be removed so you can draw a replacement.
See Sending and Fulfilling Winner Prizes for detailed steps and plan behavior.
Other winner actions for fixed-date contests
- Mark notified when you chose to contact the winner yourself.
- Remove a winner who is invalid, declined, or unresponsive. If no notification or prize delivery action has occurred, the entrant can become eligible again. Once a notification or delivery action has occurred, the removed winner stays excluded from future selections in that contest.
- Export winner data on a plan that includes CSV exports.
You can also resolve the contest with No winner when no prize should be awarded. This closes winner selection and photo voting without deleting prizes or entries. Use Reopen winner selection if that decision needs to be reversed.
Winner actions affect real campaign records. For a fixed-date contest, confirm it has ended before keeping a result. For either mode, check eligibility, prize, and your published terms before confirming a winner.