Guide to Setting Up a Loyalty Program for Shopify Plus

Do you know 84% of the customers stick with the online store that offers loyalty programs? Besides, 66% of the customers admit their changes in spending behavior when they find a rewarding facility. So, if you want to convert your new customers to regular and loyal members, launching a loyalty program is a must!

Being a Shopify Plus member, you are already a VIP Shopify merchant and enjoying additional facilities. But what about the customer's user experience? Research shows that 75% of customers make online purchases based on user experience. To boost your customers' shopping experience and build better brand value, you need loyalty programs. For this, you will need a compatible Shopify loyalty app that supports Shopify Plus.

But how to set up the loyalty program for your store? No worries; we are here to help you out. This guide to setting up a loyalty program for Shopify Plus will solve all your problems. We have also suggested some of the best Shopify loyalty apps compatible with Shopify Plus. So, let's dive in.

What Is a Loyalty Program for Shopify Plus?

A loyalty program is a marketing strategy that encourages customers to purchase frequently to get rewards. Shopify has many apps that support loyalty programs. And if you are a merchant of Shopify Plus, you will get added benefits with loyalty.

With this program, you can offer customers fantastic deals and discounts on making purchases. As a result, they choose your store above the competitors and buy products from you at a grander scale to save money.

Thus, both the customer and the Shopify store owner benefited. You can offer your customer loyalty in several ways, including:

• Discounts.
• Coupons.
• Early access to new products.
• BOGO offers ( Buy One, Get One).
• Members-only credits.
• Free Merchandise.
• Free upgrades or personalizations.
• Early access to sales.
• Special services (like free or faster shipping).

You can offer points to the customer to join the program. These points can be credited as they purchase. Again, when the customer purchases, then for every $1 of spending, you can add one point to their account.

Later, they can use these points to get discounts, coupons, or other offers. So, they will purchase from you to earn more points rather than try new stores. This way, a loyalty program will help you grow your business.

When Should You Add a Loyalty Program To Your Business?

If you have a new store and want to build a brand identity, go for a loyalty program. This also helps you boost your sales by many times. When you aim to maximize your ROI in the least time, add a loyalty program to your Shopify store.

A survey conducted in 2022 shows that 79% of US customers are likely to shop from a single brand or store due to loyalty membership. Also, 80% of the customers boosted their purchasing behavior after joining this program.

We are adding some statistics that will help you decide where to add a loyalty program to your business:

• The loyalty program boosts repeat purchases by 3x.
• The members of loyalty programs spend 1.5x more than the non-members.
• The spending of loyalty members increases by 67% compared to guest visitors.
• 60% of the customers are more likely to shop from stores that run a loyalty program.
• 52.3% of the customers join a loyalty or VIP program, which boosts your conversion rate from guest visitor to regular customer.
• 39.4% of customers shop more frequently in stores where they can earn fuel rewards.

Therefore, if you want to boost your sales quickly, add a loyalty program to your Shopify store.

Main Features of Loyalty Programs

Holding the customer and making them repeat purchases is the loyalty program's main intention. In exchange for special discounts and coupons, you can make the most sales out of the customers going for this program. Besides, customers can also benefit from this loyalty program. Here, we are pointing out the main features of loyalty programs:

1. Continuous Rewards: Regular discounts are sessional and are usually allotted for specific products. But loyalty programs are a permanent reward system. Here, you will get points each time you make a purchase. These points are saved to your account, which you can use later to get coupons, discounts, or vouchers.
2. Tier System: Loyalty programs have different tires based on the purchase habits of the members. When a customer stays in the program for a long time or speeds much, they are upgraded to high tires. These tires can be ranked as base, diamond, platinum, etc. With higher tires, members can enjoy additional features. You can set the value for upgrading tires based on your goals.
3. Rewarding Versatility: The loyalty program is not limited to discounts and coupons. Through this program, you can give VIP services to your customers in versatile ways. For example- if you are launching a social media campaign for your store, you can offer a voucher or special deals to your loyalty members for each referral. Thus, changing reward types and values can make your store more engaging with loyalty programs.
4. Scalability: As time passes, loyalty programs help you to scale your business. More members are added to your loyalty campaign. As a result, you can communicate and promote your product to a greater scale. Besides, they become your regular customers. This way, the loyal members become an integral part of your business. For example- Starbucks emphasizes members' loyalty and takes them as the center of their business.
5. Apps Integration: Another major feature of loyalty programs is their flexible integration into multiple marketing channels. Besides, Shopify stores can integrate them into your social media pages or email. This will extend your communication with the loyalty member through email marketing. Besides, you can use the vast social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. for your brand's publicity.
6. Analytics: Just having a loyalty program won't help you if you can't track the performance or the benefits it brings to your store. A performance analysis is an essential feature of any loyalty program. This will help you see your business's progress and add more strategies to the reward program to boost sales.
7. Competing With The Rivals & Branding: In this growing market, you need to stay ahead to compete with the rival brands. This is where loyalty programs can keep your business win-win. You can give better loyalty offers to attract more customers to your Shopify store. Besides, it plays a great role in building your brand. People will know your brand for the rewards you provide and thus will boost its reputation.

How Can You Setup a Loyalty Program For Shopify Plus?

You need to download a Shopify loyalty app, integrate it with your store, and then set up to launch the program. Here is the stepwise procedure for that:

Step 1: Understand Your Goal

Before setting up your loyalty program, you must have your goals clear. A loyalty program can be of different types, and having a clear goal will help you select the right strategy. For that, first, research your customers and their purchasing habits. In fixing your goals, here are some questions to consider:

• Do you want customers to purchase more frequently?
• What are your customers' shopping habits?
• Are you willing to Increase the average order value of the customers?
• Do you want your customers to engage in a referral program?
• What do your customers expect from you?
• Are your current retention metrics healthy?

Having a clear idea of your goal will help you plan your loyalty plan effectively.

Step 2: Choose Your Loyalty Program Structure

After knowing the business well, selecting the program structure is time. Loyalty programs can be of many types, depending on your business. Here are the popular categories of loyalty program structures:

Points-based loyalty programs

This is the most common type of reward in loyalty programs. In this program, the customers can get rewards from cashback, perks, freebies, etc.

Besides, they can also earn rewards from sharing on social media, promoting discounts, leaving reviews, etc.; for each of these activities, they are rewarded with points. Later, they can redeem these points for cash or purchase coupons and vouchers. The most famous cases for providing points are as follows:

• Facebook or Instagram sharing.
• Points to open an account.
• Following on Twitter.
• Adding birthday date.
• Commenting or reviewing a product.
• Making a purchase.
• Photo and video reviews.
• Referring to friends and family.
• Engaging with your store on social media.

Tiered loyalty programs

In a tiered loyalty program, the members are rewarded based on their ranking. These rankings are determined based on customers' spending. For more purchases, they are upgraded to higher tiers where they enjoy more discounts and benefits.

These advantages also include quick access and updates of the latest and exclusive products, festive discounts, and more. You can name these tires as bronze, silver, gold, diamond, platinum, etc.

Paid loyalty programs

Customers that enroll in paid loyalty are also known as fee-based loyalty programs. They receive ongoing benefits in exchange for a participation fee. These costs may be one-time or ongoing based on the way you structure the program.

But for such a program, you need to demonstrate the loyalty program's value to convince the customers to spend their money to enroll. Though this structure seems complex, it is a suitable approach for a wide range of businesses. Amazon Prime is the biggest example of a paid loyalty program.

Value-based loyalty programs

Value-based loyalty programs merge charity and reward in a single box. Here, the customers can donate a certain amount of the rewards to charity. In this case, you can offer the customer the option to donate their rewards to a specific organization that matches their value.

Promoting such programs influences the customer to enroll in your campaign. For example- if any customer has 1000 points, he can donate $10 to X charity organization. Again, for 1500 points, $15 is donated to NGOs. This way, you can develop a value-based loyalty customer for your Shopify store.

A widely recognized example of a values-based loyalty program is the "One for One" campaign by TOMS. They promised to donate one pair of shoes to a needy child for every pair of their sales. This strategy has been the secret of their success.

Coalition-based loyalty program

Coalition loyalty programs are also termed partnership loyalty programs. In such structures, you pair up complementary brands to promote both businesses.

For example, if you have two Shopify businesses, one sells clothes while the other one deals with shoes, you can align the loyalty programs for both businesses. It's not necessary that both the businesses should be yours.

In some cases, you can also partner with other businesses, which can bring advantages to both. For example, if the customer spends $100 in your store, he will get a gift voucher for your partnered store.

Game-Based Loyalty Program

To make the loyalty program interesting and eye-captivating, the inclusion of gaming options is gaining popularity. You can add gaming features to loyalty programs through which customers can get points and discounts.

For example, spin wheels are a very common game-based reward system for online platforms. This also works great as an effective marketing strategy for your brand.

Step 3: Name Your Loyalty Program

The name of the loyalty program is crucial in encouraging customers to membership. If you keep a plan name like- 'My Shopify Store's Loyalty Program,' it sounds too dull. So, be creative and keep attractive names that draw customers' attention.

Starbucks's loyalty program is world-famous. It has a simple name, Starbucks Rewards Cash, or card, and you earn Stars. Again, the Beauty Insider Rewards of Sephora is also popular.

Besides, some brands keep their loyalty program name by adding the word reward or stars beside their company name. Here are some examples of famous loyalty programs that increased the value of the brand:

Name of Store/Brand	Name of Loyalty program
Starbucks	Starbucks Rewards-Cash or card, you earn Stars
Ulta Beauty	Ultamate Rewards
Sephora	Beauty Insider Rewards
REI	REI Co-op Membership
Nordstrom	Nordy Club
Kohl's	Kohl's Cash
Macy's	Star Rewards

Step 4: Choosing A Shopify Loyalty App

Before getting into the loyalty program, you need to select an app that will automate your program's activities. Shopify app store has about 264 apps at present that offer loyalty and rewarding services for your store.

Besides, as a Shopify Plus merchant, you can also use customized apps for loyalty programs. Here we are adding some facts to consider while looking for the best loyalty app for your Shopify Plus store:

• Make sure the app supports Shopify Plus and has better features to add value to your store.
• Consider apps with higher ratings.
• Check the reviews to get an idea about the user experience.
• Prefer apps that support customization and features like designing custom pages and pop-up tabs.
• Select loyalty apps that support different types of rewarding facility.
• The app you choose must have an analytical feature to track its effectiveness.
• Loyalty program apps should integrate with payment gateways and other apps for the convenience of your store.
• Consider apps that have a free plan; use the freemium version to test the app before going for a paid plan.
• Compare the features of different loyalty apps to pick the one that has the best value.
• The app you select should have an active customer support system.

Step 5: Design Your Loyalty Program

Once you have selected the ideal app, you must set up and launch the program. Design the pop-ups and all reward-related graphics to match your brand or store theme. This will bring consistency to the UX of your Shopify store.

To improve the user experience, give clear instructions about your loyalty program. Customers should know all the points and reward facilities before enrolling in the program. You should also inform about the tires and have an FAQ section to keep things transparent.

Thus, the customers can judge if joining the reward program is worth it. After designing the cards and pop-ups for your loyalty program, it's time to set the values for your rewards.

Step 6: Set Points For Rewards

The apps you use will have a suggested percentage to count as points corresponding to the amount your customer spends. If you are selling a high-value product, a 10% rewarding margin or something close can be an attractive program.

For example, for every 100 points, you can reward $1. So, when customers spend $1 on your store, aim to give them 3-10 points based on your flexibility. Besides, you should also set points for specific activities, like signing up, liking on Facebook, following on social media, etc.

You will find all these features in the app you choose for your store. Follow the guidance to customize the graphics and set the rewarding values per your business policy. Here are some basic rules that you can follow to set your points for different actions taken by the loyalty members:

1. Account registration = half the points of your first reward. 2. Reviews = half the points of your first reward. 3. Celebrating a birthday = half the points of your first reward. 4. Referrals = mutual points or the same discount amount to both parties. 5. Social media follows = cumulatively below the first reward amount.

Step 7: Integrate Additional Features

After setting up the loyalty program on Shopify Plus, you should also consider some additional features. This will make your program more effective. For instance, you can add email or SMS integrations to your store.

This will regularly update the customers about the availability of rewards and discounts. You can also give daily discounts to your customers to ensure frequent purchases.

Besides, social media integration is also essential. You should frequently post updates on the royalty program on social sites, including Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Step 8: Regularly Review & Update Your Loyalty Program

After launching any loyalty program, you must regularly check it. The analytical features of the apps will help you to do so. You must match the conversation rates before and after adding a loyalty program.

Besides, calculate the increment of the customer's purchase rate. After analyzing these, update the program if you think any changes are necessary. This way, you can keep your loyalty program active and engaging.

Best Loyalty Program Apps For Shopify Plus

Currently, there are over 400 loyalty apps on the Shopify app store. But not all of these apps are effective or worthy enough to run on your Shopify Plus store. So, below, we have listed the most popular and effective apps for your convenience:

Smile: Loyalty & Rewards

Smile.io is a flexible loyalty program app for Shopify stores. It supports Shopify Plus and offers excellent rewarding features to your customers. Smile.io has customization features. You can match the reward pop-ups and emails to your brand theme.

This app is designed to boost customers' purchase rates by providing points for their spending. Besides, this app requires no coding hassle. Using this app, you can launch a loyalty program in your Shopify Plus store in minutes.

Loloyal: Loyalty and Referral

Loloyal is a popular Shopify loyalty app with a 4.9 rating. With this app, customizing your brand loyalty program is quite simple. Many apps, such as Fera Reviews and Judge.me, are integrated with it. Features like points, prizes, referral schemes, flash sales, and more are included with this app.

In order to receive coupons and discounts, you can encourage your consumers to make larger purchases. Additionally, it supports many languages, enabling you to give clients a more seamless local language experience. Thus, you can create a successful loyalty program.

Joy: Rewards & Loyalty Program

Joy is designed for the Shopify loyalty program by the popular company Avada. It is built for speed that doesn't slow your server while running. This app will offer several reward systems, including VIP tiers, rewards based on actions, and many more.

Apart from this, you will also get an automated email notification and multiple app integrations with Joy. It further supports POS for a smooth shopping experience. Data exporting and importing features are also available to manage customers' tires, points, and missions.

BON: Loyalty Program & Rewards

BON is a powerful loyalty and reward program that offers VIP tires, referral options, and more. You will get abundant customization features for your branding. This includes tailoring landing page loyalty widgets, email, content, etc.

Besides, if you are using any other platform and want to migrate to Shopify, the support team of BON will help you. They have a 24/7 support system and support 250+ languages. You will also get pop-up features that cover announcements, discounts, and rewards.

To manage these pop-ups, campaigns, editor tools, templates, and more are included. However, the most impressive feature is that BON optimizes in-app features regularly based on your feedback.

Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist +

Growave was developed to create a sales-driven store. It has some exclusive features that provide you with customization options. You can run the app directly from your Shopify dashboard. Besides, it supports multiple languages to aid in cross-border selling.

The real-time analytical feature of Growave keeps you updated about the advancement of your loyalty program. Apart from this, it also has some automation features. For instance, its autopilot mode collects photos & product reviews that appear on Google search results.

Successful Shopify Plus Loyalty Program Examples

From the above sections, you came to know all about Shopify Plus loyalty program. Now, we will tell you about some successful loyalty programs by Shopify Plus merchants. These stores will help you with your loyalty program strategy:

Earning skulls with Liquid Death

Liquid Death is a bright example of a successful loyalty program. Their online store is based on Shopify Plus and runs an effective loyalty program. They offer skulls as points for the spending of the customers.

You can get 1 point for every dollar you spend on their products. Also, points are offered for social media sharing and brand promotions.

Strategy To Learn From the Liquid Death Loyalty Program:

The best strategy that you can learn from Liquid Death is their offline reward system. You can scan the receipts and add the points to your loyalty membership account online when you purchase the drink from any local shop.

This way, Liquid Death locks its customers both online and offline! You can implement this same strategy for your Shopify store if you have a physical store.

Polaroid Rewards

Polaroid is a US-based photo brand that offers high-value redeeming discounts through its loyalty program. By joining their loyalty program, you can get from $3 to $55 off on your purchases. On spending $1 on their product, you will receive 100 points.

Another attractive feature of Polaroid's loyalty program is its explainer page with FAQs. This clears up all the customers' confusion regarding how to sign up and earn rewards.

Strategy To Learn From the Polaroid Loyalty Program:

A strong referral strategy can boost your sales. Polaroid gives you 10,000 points for a successful referral, and the new customer will get 10% off. Thus, you can boost your sales by satisfying both the old and new customers.

Besides, Polaroid has removed the validity of the expiration of points. So, the customers can come back to their store and enjoy rewards any time they want, as the points will never expire.

If you have a business in such an industry where customers don't frequently purchase a product, you can implement this strategy. Thus, even for the next purchase they make after years, they will choose your store rather than run to your competitor.

Brunt Work Wear

Burnt is a footwear brand that offers a unique loyalty strategy in its store. You can earn points for posting a review on their page, liking their Facebook ID, or following on Instagram. Points are also offered for buying bundles and signing up for tools.

Strategy To Learn From the Burnt Loyalty Program:

What makes Burnt's loyalty program unique is that it offers free gifts to its customers to redeem the points. Apart from this, you can also buy digital gift cards for purchases between $1 and $2000. You can use this card anytime or gift someone for their special day.

Besides, rewarding for writing reviews and signing in for SMS is also a good strategy to learn from Burnt. It will build reliability and make your store more engaging.

The Bottom Line

If you are a Shopify Plus user, you have invested a lot in branding your store as it is the highest package by Shopify. So, a loyalty program is essential to get the most out of your ROI. To set up this loyalty program for your Shopify Plus store, clear your goals and list what you want.

They go to the Shopify app store and select a loyalty and reward app. When you select the app, make sure it is compatible with Shopify Plus and is flexible for customization. You can directly run these apps from your Shopify dashboard and set them up as per the instructions when using the app.

To make your Shopify store a big hit, you should also integrate it with other apps that add more features apart from loyalty programs.

Frequently Asked Questions