The Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify to Boost Customer Relationships

The best loyalty apps for Shopify are an excellent way for business leaders to improve the lifetime value of their customers.

After all, returning customers are one of the most important assets an ecommerce company can have. Repeat customers are easier to sell to than new visitors on your ecommerce store, and they spend more too (up to 67% more).

Unfortunately, convincing clients to return to your business and keep spending their hard-earned cash isn’t always easy. With so many competing brands fighting to attract the same customers, it’s easy to lose even your most satisfied shoppers. That’s where loyalty apps come in.

With a loyalty tool built into your Shopify website, you can attract customers by offering them bonuses every time they buy from you. This is an excellent way to engage your shoppers, generate higher “average order value”, and outshine the competition.

The only question is, which loyalty app do you choose?

One of the things that makes Shopify such a compelling choice for business owners is how flexible it can be. The technology comes with a fantastic app market, brimming with tools to add to your store. Shopify apps can help with everything from SEO to email marketing, and customer service.

Customer loyalty apps allow you to build your own loyalty program, referral strategy, or simply distribute loyalty points to customers.

What Are The Most Popular Loyalty Apps for Shopify?

Here are some of the top contenders on the market.

1. Referral Candy

Easily one of the best-known apps available for a Shopify rewards program, Referral Candy integrates seamlessly with your Shopify admin page. This tool focuses heavily on referrals, rewarding customers every time they bring a new buyer to your store.

Through Referral Candy, you can set up post-purchase pop-ups and emails to help recruit customers to your referral program. Plus, you can set up automations to immediately reward each customer when they help you capture a new sale. There are built-in analytics for tracking referrals and top sales, as well as social shares. The service even integrates with your marketing apps for ad retargeting, email campaigns and web analytics.

Referral Candy also allows you to customize your popups and landing pages with your logo, images, and brand colors, and display your content in 12 different languages thanks to a convenient theme editor. Plus, there’s a fraud centre for tracking potentially suspicious transactions.

Pricing

There’s a 30 day free trial to get you started, followed by two main pricing options. The “Premium” plan is $49 per month for unlimited customers, referrals, dashboards and data reports, live chat support and automated fraud protection. The “Plus” plan is $299 per month for everything in Premium, plus SLAs, premium support, a dedicated account manager and quarterly review.

You’ll also be charged commissions on successful referral sales from Referral Candy, so it’s important to plan for this when you budget.

2. Growave

Ideal for creating a range of loyalty rewards for customers, Growave is a fantastic tool for customer retention and boosting order value. The all-in-one Shopify marketing app comes with a range of different features. You can use Growave to set up loyalty programs and rewards based on a range of different factors.

For instance, you can reward customers when they refer customers to you, or just give points to repeat buyers. There’s a referral program app which allows users to automatically reward clients when they share links on social media or email. Plus, Growave also includes a “review” system, where you can collect photo reviews, testimonials, and product reviews on auto-pilot.

To improve your chances of long-term sales, Growave also comes with a “wish list” function, so customers can save the items they want to buy later to their accounts. You’ll also be able to allow customers to register for an account with one-click access through social accounts like Facebook, as well as Amazon, Line, Yahoo, and Google.

Pricing

Like many of the top Shopify loyalty apps, Growave offers a 30-day free trial for you to test some of the features, followed by a range of packages. Premium plans include:

• Basic: $9 per month for up to 75 orders, rewards, reviews, wish lists, Instagram selling, and social log-in functionality.
• Starter: $19 per month for all the features of Basic, plus 24/7 live chat support and up to 150 orders.
• Medium: $49 per month for all the features of Starter plus up to 500 orders.
• Enterprise: $299 per month for all the features of Medium plus 3500 orders, custom actions, points at checkout, API access, and a personal success manager.

3. Smile.io

One of the better-known customer loyalty apps available for Shopify today, Smile.io is a convenient environment for boosting online sales. The solution allows you to set up powerful rewards strategies and loyalty programs with plenty of customization.

You’ll be able to reward your customers for a range of actions, from placing an order, to joining your loyalty program. You can even send out special offers on customer birthdays. The Smile Rewards app also connects with other Shopify integrations like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Shopify POS, to give you a wider range of ways to reward loyalty.

Smile.io gives companies full control over how they deliver rewards. You can set up an exclusive VIP program, deliver points to customers, and reward for referrals. The system is completely brandable, and it allows for unique features like setting a date when policies will expire, or issuing reminder emails. You can also use on-site “nudges” to encourage customers to visit the checkout.

Pricing:

Smile.io is one of the few options available for Shopify rewards which has a completely free plan. The free plan includes the points and referral program, basic branding, default reward emails, an analytics overview, and support for up to 200 monthly orders. Other plans include:

• Starter: $49 per month for all the features of “free”, advanced branding, custom reward emails, and 1 app integration. You can also manage unlimited orders.
• Growth: $199 per month for all starter features, nudges, points expiry, 2 integrations, and advanced integrations.
• Pro: $599 per month for all the features of growth, plus VIP programs, Shopify Plus features, unlimited app integrations and API access

4. Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards

Another excellent and well-known app for creating loyal customers on Shopify, Yotpo helps you to turn new customers into long-term advocates. One of the leading tools for rewards, referrals, and other strategies for boosting lifetime value, Yotpo is extremely popular among all business owners.

You can reward loyal customers with points for birthdays, sign-ups, purchases, reviews, social media shares, and referrals. It’s also possible to incentivize repeat purchases with a range of point redemption options, like coupons, discounts, free products, and free shipping.

Yotpo allows businesses to build referral programs, and increase engagement with loyalty VIP tiers to help customers access more benefits the more they spend. You can even create a paid membership similar to Amazon Prime and give VIP customers specific benefits.

Yotpo offers checkout redemption features for Shopify Plus merchants, and comes with a simple no-code rewards page builder.

Pricing

Yotpo has a fantastic free package which supports companies with under 100 monthly orders. This plan supports up to 10 reward campaigns, includes a referral program, and a custom email capture tool. Paid plans include:

• Silver: $29 per month and $0.35 per order after 200 total orders each month, with omnichannel programs, customization options, and email sync automation.
• Gold: $249 per month and $0.20 per order after 800 orders in a month with reward page templates, ReCharge integrations and email marketing enhancements.

5. Joy: Rewards and Loyalty

Joy is another fantastic choice for companies hoping to boost sales through customer loyalty programs. The Joy app offers an all-in-one environment where Shopify administrators can easily set up various reward options for customers. Customers can get loyalty points and rewards for each successful order placed on a website, or for referring new customers.

You can set up your own spending rules with Joy, like deciding whether customers can use their reward points for purchasing goods, or to access specific discounts and bonuses. You’ll also be able to set an expiration date for points earned. There are tools for creating out-of-the-box rewards pop-ups, and you can add your own brand colors and customizations.

Joy also makes it easy to collect user-generated content, with the option to import data from other loyalty and rewards apps like Rivo, Yotpo, Stamped.io, Rise.ai, Bold and many others. When a customer leaves a review, you can also give them reward points. Alternatively, you can set up social rewards for sharing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and more.

Pricing

Joy has a fantastic free plan for companies receiving up to 250 orders per month. The free plan allows you to manage point programs, set up a redemption program, access various integrations, and free translation. There’s also the option to set up email content.

The Pro “Premium” package is $29 per month for unlimited orders, custom email styles, point of sale integrations, and unlimited points and redemption programs.

6. Rise.Ai Gift Cards

Another great tool for adding loyalty elements to your Shopify store, Rise.AI allows customers to earn gift cards and points. The solution allows you to set as many rules as you like for how and when customers collect prizes. You can offer customers cash back earnings, develop a store credit system, and even build your own membership strategy.

Rise.ai gift cards supports automated voucher and gift card creation, with notifications to let your customers know when they’ve earned a reward with your company. There are pre-built templates to help you build your point-based initiatives. Plus, you can implement points and gift cards as part of your referral marketing campaigns.

Rise.AI works seamlessly with exiting apps for taking payments and sending notifications. You can also customize the store credit system at the checkout, so everything matches your brand identity perfectly. The solution is ideal for small business leaders who want to make the most of store credit and vouchers for increasing sales.

Pricing

There’s a 7-day free trial for Rise.AI. After that, the paid packages include:

• Starter: $19.99 per month for up to 100 total store orders, an advanced gift card program, and store credit accounts.
• Small business: $59.99 per month for up to 400 orders, a balance page, and customizations for points claim pages.
• Pro: $199.99 per month for 2,000 monthly orders, an apply store credit button, bulk gift card creation, and more.
• Premium: $599.99 per month for up to 12,000 orders, white labelling, and multi-store gift card creation.

7. Stamped Loyalty & Referrals

Stamped Loyalty and Referrals is another great choice from the Shopify app store if you’re looking for a top-rated loyalty app. The tool provides various options for customer engagement, so you can generate more word-of-mouth sales, and boost loyalty.

There are options to give points to customers whenever someone follows you on social media, retweets posts, makes a purchase, or sends someone new to your store. Unlike other loyalty program apps, you can also design your own VIP tiers with Stamped, so different customers get different incentives for shopping and referring new customers.

The mobile-optimized widget will automatically send reminders to customers through SMS and email when points are about to expire. Plus, the technology integrates seamlessly with your existing tools, so you can set up your email automations in no time. The back-end environment also makes it simple to customize your loyalty campaigns to suit your brand.

Pricing

There’s a free “Lite” package available with Stamped which supports up to 100 orders and comes with the basic tools you need for your points and referral programs. There’s also a UI customization system. Paid packages include:

• Premium: $59 per month for most custom branding and integrations
• Business: $179 per month for the ability to remove Stamped branding, POS integrations, and editing for email layouts.
• Professional: $479 per month for VIP programs, HTML email editing, onboarding support, and API access.

Choosing the Best Loyalty App for Your Shopify Store

There are plenty of great options available for companies in search of loyalty programs for Shopify. Whether you want to offer social login features, real-time point attribution, or referral marketing rewards, there’s something for everyone.

Many of the tools above come with free trials available, so it’s definitely worth testing the features available with the free demonstrations before you dive in. Good luck finding the ideal loyalty and rewards app for your needs.