Development of a loyalty and rewards program for a store

We run an existing online store, and we're looking for an experienced developer who will design and implement a full-fledged loyalty and rewards program built right into our existing site. The idea is simple, but requires careful implementation: with each purchase, a customer should earn points, accumulated points form participation tiers, and collected rewards can be redeemed for a discount when placing an order. Additionally, we need a referral mechanism: a customer who invites a friend receives bonus points after the invited person places their first order.

The program should feel like a native part of the store, not a third-party add-on. Points balance, current tier, and progress to the next should be displayed in the personal account, and reward redemption should happen within the normal checkout process without extra steps. On our side, we need a clear and convenient admin panel where the team can configure earning rules, set tiers and their thresholds, set point expiration dates, create referral bonuses, and manually adjust balances in disputed support situations. Reliability is more important than flashiness: point calculation must be accurate, auditable, and protected from fraud.

Please provide examples of similar loyalty or customer retention work, describe your approach, and realistic timelines. Clear communication and clean maintainable code are important to us.

— Automatic point earning on each paid purchase
— Participation tiers with configurable thresholds and perks
— Referral bonuses after the invited customer's first order
— Reward redemption right in the current checkout
— Admin panel to manage rules, tiers, expiration, and balances