ID&T
Defqon.1

The Path: A Shopify loyalty platform for hardcore fans

For most brands, a loyalty program is a spreadsheet and a stamp card. For Q-dance’s Defqon.1 music festival, it’s a highly-customised badge of honour.

Run by ID&T’s Q-dance and fueled by 2 decades of hardstyle music fans, the festival has cultivated a tribe of returning loyalists. So when their team came to us with a challenge to digitise loyalty for their DEDIQATED members, it needed to go beyond points and become a rewards ecosystem that reflects fan ritual and the Defqon.1 legacy. 

But an off-the-shelf module wasn’t going to cut it. This project called for a custom loyalty system that could be integrated into the Defqon.1 festival store and powered by Shopify. It had to be connected to the Q-dance app (the central hub for all ID&T festivals), and materialize into a fully gamified tier-based loyalty system that rewards hardcore fans. It’s called The Path… and yes, we’re out of breath too.

Challenge: Turning passive points into active loyalty  

Defqon.1 already had the engagement. What they didn’t have was a platform to optimise it. With a foundational loyalty system running live in the Q-dance app, the brand needed a way to send that fan data into the Defqon.1 store, and actively reward point-rich fans. 

Key blockers:

• The loyalty engine (XP, ranks, achievements) lived entirely in the mobile app

• No existing way to link app-based data with Shopify customer profiles

• Shopify couldn’t natively handle advanced gating, validation, or metafield-based logic

• Free rewards needed special tracking to prevent reclaims or abuse

• A premium experience was expected - this had to feel as considered as stage production

Solution: One tribe, two platforms, fully synced

We architected the new loyalty system as a fully integrated layer across the Defqon.1 digital ecosystem. Working closely with ID&T and the Q-dance app team, we connected Shopify with Q-dance’s native infrastructure through a custom API framework. Designed with modularity in mind, the system supports future feature rollouts without disrupting core functionality.

Here’s exactly how we made that happen:

Multipass, meet backstage pass

Fans start in the Q-dance app, where they complete Quests, earn XP, and unlock achievements. When they hit the Defqon.1 store, Shopify Multipass authenticates them, creating a frictionless login that bridges the app and store.

We didn’t want duplicate accounts and logins disrupting the customer journey. Just instant access to the loyalty layer behind the merch.

Metafields for ranks

Each customer’s rank, XP, specialisation, and rewards status is stored in Shopify using metafields and metaobjects. These update in real-time via scheduled jobs from the app’s backend (powered by Gadget), meaning the store always knows what a user should or shouldn’t see.

Ranks move from Challenger to Warrior, to Rank 3. Rank 3 is where ‘loyalty’ peaks - fans can choose a “specialisation” tied to their favourite music subgenre, unlocking a tailored experience based on their personal hardstyle preference. 

The technicality driving fan achievements 

Completing Quests is how fans move up the ranks. From discounts, to merch or exclusive festival perks - the unlock logic runs entirely in Shopify.

Achievements are passed into Shopify via webhook, tied to external IDs, and parsed using custom Liquid logic. If a fan completes a Quest in the app, the store knows it and responds in real time with gated product visibility.

Avoiding duplicate rewards with effective claim logic 

A major challenge was tracking what fans had already claimed - especially when those rewards were free.

We used Shopify Flow to update customer metafields with JSON entries the moment a loyalty reward is ordered. This prevents duplicate redemptions, and even accounts for returns or size exchanges. If you’ve claimed it, it stays claimed.

Account environment with live states

Inside the customer account, fans can track their rewards, progress, and product access with a clean, custom interface. Products show live status updates:

• Available to claim

• Already claimed

• Locked (not yet earned)

• Requires login

On product pages, custom PDP states update based on customer rank, achievements, and available stock. It feels dynamic and responsive, because it is.

Built once, scaled many

While this loyalty system launched on Defqon.1, it was designed for replication. Q-dance and other ID&T brands are already lined up to roll out their own versions using the same logic, structure, and core integrations.

The architecture is reusable. The logic is centralised. The effort won’t have to be.

Implementation highlights

Turning The Path from concept to reality meant pushing Shopify’s native functionality to its limits and filling the gaps with smart, scalable customisation. From complex metafield logic to seamless cross-platform syncing, here’s what went into building a loyalty system that doesn’t just work, but feels like Defqon.1:

• Shopify Multipass login system integrated with Q-dance app

• Loyalty rank + reward logic built via metafields + JSON

• Shopify Flow automations for claimed reward tracking

• Product gating based on XP, rank, and Quest completions

• Express shipping fallback using Cart Transform API

• Custom customer dashboard + PDP logic based on loyalty state

• Built to scale across multiple festivals and stores
  

Outcome with Shopify: Loyalty that feels like legacy

The result is a digital layer to the Defqon.1 identity - one that celebrates participation, rewards commitment, and turns every click into an extension of the dancefloor.

And for the first time, it all feels like one experience, not two separate platforms fighting to stay in sync.

Let’s talk if you’re ready to scale engagement that actually means something.