Choosing the best ecommerce loyalty program for your Shopify online store
eCommerce Loyalty Programs: Why Your Online Store Needs One
E-commerce is an easy way for small businesses to reach more customers, as long as you don’t lose them to big players like Amazon and Walmart. Amazon alone took in 44% of the e-commerce in the US in 2017.
To compete with major retailers’ selection and price, you probably already know that your online business needs to stand out by offering unique items, expertise in product selection, and excellent service.
Another way to appeal to new customers and keep current ones coming back is with an e-commerce loyalty program.
What Can an E-commerce Loyalty Program Do for Your Online Store?
We often think of loyalty programs as tools to get customers to come back, but that’s not all a loyalty plan can do. Here are five more benefits to e-commerce loyalty programs.
1. Get new customers on board.
Don’t make your customers wait until they’ve spent a certain dollar amount or placed several orders to start getting the benefits of loyalty program membership. Offer your customers an immediate discount or bonus item for joining your loyalty program and they’re more likely to sign on and make a purchase.
2. Collect marketing data.
A good loyalty program will provide analytics on your members so you can see which products they prefer, when they buy, how much they spend, and other information you can use to refine your marketing efforts. Smarter offers can lead to more sales and higher order values.
3. Increase the lifetime value of your current customers.
With your loyalty program marketing data and targeted offers, your business should be able to not only retain customers but earn more from them. Exclusive product offers, previews, and upsells of related items are easier when you have accurate information and your customers’ trust.
That trust is valuable—Invesp found that established customers are 50% more likely to buy a new product from a business than new customers are, and those existing customers spend about 30% more when they buy.
4. Keep your customer acquisition costs in check.
By using your digital loyalty program to target offers to your existing customers, you can boost revenue from those shoppers and reduce the amount you need to spend on new-customer acquisition to keep your revenue stream flowing. And when you do look for new customers, your loyalty program data can help you identify target audiences similar to your most loyal and lucrative customers.
5. Win back customers.
Sometimes an existing customer just stops shopping with you, and you don’t know why. Rather than write off that customer, you can use your e-commerce loyalty program to craft a custom email offer to bring them back to your store.
Think about which of these goals is most important to your business, and take stock of the channels that you use most often to reach current customers and new customers. Depending on your goals and customer habits, you may be able to do well with a straightforward points-for-purchase loyalty program, or you may need a program that includes social media reward options, tiered reward levels, and other advanced features.
Setting Up Your E-commerce Loyalty Program
There are several tools you can use to add an e-commerce loyalty program to your online store. Your options will depend on the e-commerce hosting platform you use and your budget as well as your goals and customer habits.
Here are a few options for the Shopify platform to show you what’s available and what you can expect to spend.
Loyalty, rewards and referrals – LoyaltyLion
LoyaltyLion is an award-winning loyalty software company that is trusted by thousands of e-commerce brands and millions of customers worldwide. They are a Shopify Plus technology partner and work with e-commerce stores of all sizes to increase customer engagement, retention, and repeat spending.
Loyalty, Rewards & Referrals – SLoyalty
S Loyalty adds a sleek rewards program in your online store to create deeper connections with customers. It helps new businesses and Shopify’s largest merchants delight and reward shoppers to increase customer loyalty and boost sales.
Bold Loyalty Points
Bold Loyalty Points allows you to start a new customer retention program in minutes. Shoppers earn points as they buy from your store, and then use those points to redeem for rewards, such as discounts on future purchases.
Loyalty Points Manager
This is a free app to add a sleek rewards program to your online store.
Gratisfaction-Loyalty+Referral
Gratisfaction is an all-in-one loyalty, referral, celebrate events, giveaways, sweepstakes, instant win, promotions, and rewards platform.
It is also integrated with ETSY – So you can reward your Etsy customers with points and other prizes which can be redeemed on your Shopify store.
Loyalty Rewards and Referrals
This app helps you to give members points for each dollar they spend with you. With this app, you can also award points for birthdays, membership anniversaries, and referrals!
Gift Cards, Loyalty & Rewards
With Gift Wizard, you’ll harness the power of gift cards to increase your revenue and drive new customers to your store.
And you can find more apps on Shopify App Store with the search keyword “loyalty“.
