Learn how to choose the best Shopify loyalty program for your store. Discover key features and strategies to boost customer engagement and retention.
Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, with more than two million merchants selling their products on Shopify. The platform is growing, too — 675 million buyers place an order with Shopify merchants each year, a 2.25x increase since 2019.
Shopify offers dozens of tools and features that help eCommerce merchants fuel growth. Loyalty programs are one especially powerful way to drive sales on Shopify. These programs are implemented through third-party apps and integrations that allow merchants to reward their customers for repeat purchases, referrals, social media interactions, and other actions.
In this guide, we’ll highlight the best loyalty programs for your Shopify store, what features to look for, and how to implement a loyalty program that boosts your sales.
Yes, Shopify does support loyalty programs on its platform.
Shopify does not have a native loyalty program, but merchants can browse and choose from various loyalty program apps available in the Shopify App Store.
Browse through the thousands of apps to find the right loyalty program for you. Then, simply install the app through Shopify’s admin panel, customize it, promote the program to your customers, and monitor the results in your Shopify dashboard.
For example, here’s how the workflow would look for Influence.io
Once you have the right app, running a loyalty program on Shopify is relatively simple. Finding the right app, however, requires research and careful consideration.
There’s no single best loyalty program that works for every business. The best loyalty program for Shopify depends on your business goals, customers, and the features you need to bring your vision to life. These steps can help you compare and evaluate the best loyalty program apps for Shopify to find your perfect fit.
Start by defining what you want to achieve with your loyalty program. Loyalty programs can help meet a range of business goals, from increasing sales to boosting brand trust. Setting clear goals can help you find an app that aligns with your business objectives.
Here are a few things a loyalty program can do for your business:
Knowing your goals helps you focus on the features and metrics that matter most for your business.
A successful loyalty program is one that resonates with your customers.
For your loyalty program to have any chance of success, you have to understand your customer's buying behavior and purchase preferences.
Before you sign up for any loyalty program for Shopify, use your customer data to inform the structure and the features that your program will use.
Analyze purchase history, frequency, average order value, and customer feedback to understand what motivates your customers. Are they driven by discounts, exclusive access, or points they can redeem? Tailoring your loyalty program to customer preferences increases its effectiveness and adoption.
Many Shopify loyalty program apps will appear to offer the same benefits. Rather than try to sort through marketing claims, try to match your needs with the features offered by different apps. Not every app will deliver the tools that are relevant to your business; it’s best to avoid paying for features you won’t use and don’t need.
Look for features that align with your goals and customer preferences. Key features to consider include:
Explore each app’s capabilities to see if they support the type of loyalty program you want to implement (e.g., points-based, tiered, or VIP programs).
User reviews are your best bet for vetting the different options on Shopify’s app store. For instance, one Influence.io user said:
“To be honest, loyalty programs can often be expensive. This one, however, provides a full-fledged solution that's not only correct in terms of prices but also integrates effortlessly with Reviews.io, Klaviyo and Shopify POS.
It does have all the generic features you want from a good loyalty app and so far it works like a charm.”
Reviews are a great place to learn more about customer support options, overall satisfaction of other merchants, and how easy it was to get up and running.
Case studies can also help you see real-world examples of loyalty programs and understand their impact on businesses like yours.
Influence.io worked with DOGHOUSE, a high-end pet store based in the UK, to launch a loyalty program using Shopify’s API. Within a month of launching, DOGHOUSE had 1,214 customers signed up to its loyalty program. Not only that, these customers are actively engaged, with a redemption rate of 21% compared to the 15% average.
[Read more: How DOGHOUSE Masters Multi-Channel Loyalty With Google & Apple Wallet]
The cheapest Shopify customer loyalty program isn’t always the best one.
Ideally, you should look for a program based on its potential ROI. Consider these stats:
Cost is a critical factor in any business investment, but loyalty programs can pay off quickly. A more expensive app might offer advanced features that lead to higher customer retention and sales, justifying the cost. Sign up for a free trial first to make sure the program you choose provides sufficient value.
Many loyalty programs offer limited time free trials so you can test the program features and make sure they fit your needs. Use these free trials to learn about the setup, user engagement, and spot any technical issues. This hands-on experience helps you make an informed decision based on how well the program meets your needs and integrates with your store’s operations.
Finally, as you narrow down your options, be thorough in understanding the app’s potential. You may not care about customer support — until something goes wrong and you need help urgently.
Or, the program could fuel growth to new levels — and now you need a loyalty program that scales with you. Security, reliability, scalability and support are all criteria to consider as you weigh your options.
The process of creating a loyalty program on Shopify is relatively straightforward, depending on the app you choose. Influence.io is rated highly for its simple installation process — one reviewer said, “The installation was a breeze and we had it up and running before they reached out to schedule an onboarding call!”
We’ll use Influence.io in this outline for hout to create a loyalty program on Shopify.
Download the Influence.io app from the Shopify app store. Follow the prompts to get to the installation wizard.
The wizard will ask you to name your program and select your widget launcher icon. You can change the name of your program at any time. Pick something fairly simple and recognizable to start.
You will also need to make sure you have customer accounts enabled in your Shopify store settings. In order for customers to be able to earn & collect points, they need to be able to create customer accounts.
In Shopify, selected the “Accounts required” or “Accounts are optional” checkbox under the Customer Accounts tab.
The set-up process involves answering a menu of questions so the program can be tailored to your needs. These questions are designed to help you create a program that is relevant to your brand and goals.
Selecting the option to get a tailored loyalty program can significantly reduce the time and manual effort it takes to launch: Influence.io will deliver insights and tips that are relevant to your brand.
[Read more: Roll Out Rewards on Shopify in 5 Steps with Influence.io’s Quick Launch Loyalty Program]
Once you’ve finished with the wizard prompts, you will be taken to your Influence.io dashboard to further customize and set up your program. On the dashboard, you’ll find menu options for setting rules and managing how customers will use your program.
This step is where you implement earn and redeem rules, referral rules, and loyalty tiers, depending on your specific program. You can reward your customers for completing actions such as making purchases, following your social media accounts and more.
Additionally, you can set up methods for how your customers can redeem their points, including discounts on future orders, free shipping and more.
[Read more: Getting Started - Shopify | Influence.io]
The final step is to promote your loyalty program on your Shopify site. In your Influence.io dashboard, navigate to the "Let's get started" tile by clicking Install Widgets at the bottom. From there, you can select a full-page widget, pop-up widget, floating widget, stamp card widget, new visitor widget, etc. to show on your Shopify page. Widgets help bring customers into your program, and each option can be tailored to your brand specifications.
Once you’ve setup the mechanics of your program, you’re ready to go. Head back to the Home button on the left-hand menu and select Enable Programs. Activate all parts of your program and apply each of the widgets to your live site. That’s it!
Things can go wrong, even with Shopify’s best loyalty program. Maybe your rewards are misaligned, or your structure is too complex.
At Influence.io, our support team is hands-on during the process of starting and growing every client’s loyalty program. Here are a few common issues we’ve seen, plus some tips for troubleshooting.
Influence.io makes it easy to add loyalty points in Shopify.
1. Once you’ve installed the Influence.io app, navigate to Loyalty Program >> Earn & Redeem.
Here, you’ll find everything you need to set up a points-based structure for your scheme.
Customize elements such as the points name, points expiration date, and a notification to make sure your customers know their points are expiring soon.
2. Next, go to Loyalty Program >> Earn & Redeem to create a redemption rule.
Click the button that says “Add option to Redeem”.
You can determine the amount of points a specified discount is worth. Set a reward value, such as 500 points is worth $5 off or 100 points is a 10% discount.
You can apply this rule to specific collections of product if there are some products you don’t want to offer a discount on. Or, you can set it so apply to a specific product if you’re promoting something in particular.
[Read more: Redeem Rules | Influence.io]
As you may have already figured out from the previous FAQ, Influence.io allows you to apply points to specific products or collections.
Merchants on the Shopify Plus plan can set the number of points required for the specified discount on a chosen product—for instance, 5000 points for a 100% discount.
Products sync through the Influence.io and Shopify integration, making it easy to determine which specific items you want to set reward rules for.
You can also choose to offer rewards for specific collections of products. This is handy if you have the opposite issue — there are products that you don’t want to offer a discount on.
You can also set a minimum order amount for the discount code to apply to the customer’s basket—e.g., 50% off on orders greater than $5000.
Many eCommerce merchants also sell offline, at retail locations, pop-ups, or events. If this sounds like you, find a Shopify loyalty program that syncs points for customers no matter where they shop.
Merchants that use Shopify’s POS can add an Influence.io tile to the dashboard and redeem rewards for customers no matter where they shop.
To set up this capability, head to Loyalty Program >> Earn & Redeem, scroll down to Redeem Rules, and select "Add option to redeem.”
Here, you can create your POS-specific redeem rule, set the discount amount, and determine how many points this will cost your customer.
[Read more: Use Influence.io with Shopify POS]
Yes, you can absolutely track the success of your loyalty program and its impact on sales. Influence.io has a robust set of analytics that indicate where your program could be improved and iterated.
There are three ways to monitor your loyalty program’s effectiveness with Influence.io.
Referral tracking and exclusions shows your referral progress, such as what discounts have been created, if they have been used, and if there are any issues with completing the referral process.
The activity tab is where you’ll find real-time activity from your loyalty and rewards program broken into 3 sections; Points, Referrals & Loyalty Tiers.
And the reports functionality allows you to monitor the performance of your loyalty programs over time. You can review data points such as
Finally, point activity export lets you export your data for further analysis and external auditing from our platform.
Hopefully, this guide has given you a complete understanding of the loyalty program options available to Shopify merchants. With thousands of apps to choose one, look for a Shopify loyalty app that meets your business goals, has a proven ROI, and comes highly recommended by other eCommerce merchants.
Explore all that Influence.io has to offer with our free plan for up to 300 orders per month. Book a demo to get started.