A well-designed loyalty program is the most powerful tool a retailer can have in their marketing arsenal. They offer you a way of engaging your audience, growing revenue, and ensuring your customers stick around for the long term.

But, how do you create a great loyalty program? In this blog, we’ll dive into a few simple steps that can help you design and launch an effective loyalty program for your brand.

• • 1. What is a loyalty program, and why is it important?
    2. How to create a loyalty program in 2024
    3. Decide what you want to achieve with your loyalty program
    4. Determine the type of loyalty program you want to launch
    5. Creating your loyalty program
    6. Set up your points system
    7. Configure your rewards and VIP tiers
    8. Promoting your loyalty program
    9. Final words
    10. Bonus tips

What is a loyalty program, and why is it important?

A loyalty program is a system that encourages customers to return by rewarding them with points and incentives for each purchase or interaction they have with your brand.

A well-designed loyalty program goes beyond superficial benefits and genuinely enhances the customer experience. It gives your customers a reason to spend more and shop with you more frequently. The best part is that it can be automated to reward them for activity that grows your brand, like making a purchase, referring a friend, or sharing your profile on social media.

These incentives not only keep your customers engaged but also help your business thrive, driving repeat purchases, winning new business, and cultivating long-term relationships with your brand. 

How to Create a Loyalty Program in 2024

Decide what you want to achieve with your loyalty program

For most retailers, the ultimate goal of a loyalty program is to increase repeat business and promote activity that grows your customer base and brand, however, it's crucial to tailor your loyalty program to your specific needs.

Here are some specific goals you might want to achieve with your loyalty program. Keep in mind that every business is different so it’s worth reflecting on what your overall business goals are.

1. Increase customer retention: Perhaps your repeat purchases rate is low, and you don’t often see the same customers coming back.
2. Build your customer database: Gather more valuable customer data to inform your marketing strategy and increase brand engagement.
3. Generate more sales: Increase repeat purchases and provide customers with incentives to spend more per transaction with your brand.
4. Word-of-mouth marketing: Encourage your customers to spread the word by offering incentives for referrals, growing your database, and increasing your brand awareness.
5. Reduced marketing costs: 80% of all sales come from 20% of your customers, and it’s much cheaper to target your existing customers than to attract new ones.
6. Competitive advantage: Stand out from your competition by adding value to your customer experience. Give customers a reason to choose your brand first.

Remember, specific objectives will vary based on your business needs and market situation. It’s essential to define clear goals for your loyalty program so you can measure performance and know what works.

Determine the type of loyalty program you want to launch

There are many types of loyalty programs available to you, each with its benefits and tailored to different business models. Here are some common types:

1. Points system for rewards: Customers earn points for every dollar they spend with your business, or for specific actions. These points can be redeemed for free products or other rewards.
2. Tiered loyalty programs: Customers can progress through various tiers based on their level of engagement. The higher the tier, the more significant or exclusive the reward.
3. Punch cards: Customers can receive punches or stamps for each purchase they make with you, with an exclusive reward or free product available after a certain amount.
4. Community-based incentives: Customers can earn points of rewards for activities that grow your brand, like sharing your profile on social media, liking you on Facebook, or successfully referring their friends to your store.

In 2024, we’ll see brands adopting a ‘hybrid’ loyalty program model combining various loyalty program types. The best loyalty software providers offer a range of customization options, helping you craft unique loyalty rewards that align with your business model and customers’ shopping habits.

Creating your loyalty program

Now that you’ve decided on what type of loyalty program you’ll launch, it’s time to dive into the creation process.

In this example, we’re going to focus on a comprehensive loyalty program setup.

But before you jump in, here are some key metrics you’ll need handy before you configure your reward settings.

Know your margins!

... And how much you're willing to give away. Here are some helpful metrics to have on hand 👉

Average purchase value

First, identify how much your average customer spends when they purchase at your store. This metric is crucial as it serves as the foundation for determining the number of loyalty points you should offer to your customers.

Average purchase frequency

Knowing how often customers purchase from your store is a critical part of configuring your loyalty program.

Say you decide to offer 1 point for every $1.00 spent and your first reward (in this case, 20% off) requires 250 points to unlock. That means a customer will need to spend $250 at your store before they can unlock this reward.

While it might initially seem like a substantial amount, consider this: if your average purchase frequency is once a week, and your average purchase value is around $125, your typical customer will gain access to this reward within 2 weeks. If this is the case, your rewards system is probably too generous and may be eating away at your margins.

Product margins

When you’re configuring your rewards, it’s important to know your product margins. Platforms like Marsello allow you to choose between percentage and fixed discounts (i.e. $20 off), giving you more flexibility to reward your customers the way you want.

Typically, we recommend using percentage-based rewards as they scale alongside your order total. Here’s why: If you opt for a fixed discount like $20 off, customers might find ways to abuse it, potentially impacting your profitability. Additionally, if your average purchase value is low, then customers may be forced to add to their cart to redeem the discount.

Percentage-based rewards scale naturally with the order total, creating a fair balance between your customer’s expectations and your company’s wallet.

Set up your points system

Designing your points system is the first step toward a successful loyalty program. Loyalty points encourage customers to engage with your brand by rewarding them with loyalty program points for purchases and other activities. Customers’ points can then be redeemed for discounts, free products, or other rewards of your choosing.

Though there are countless ways for customers to earn loyalty points, here are some of the basic options:

• Making a purchase: Customers earn points for every purchase they make at your store.

💡 We recommend offering 1 point for every $1.00 spent to keep things simple.

• Creating an account: Encourage customers to kick-start their earnings with points when they create a new account. This is a great way of increasing your customer database.
• Completing their profile: Reward customers points for providing their personal details, like birthday, gender, and mobile number. This helps you build an information-rich database.
• Say Happy Birthday: Personalize your loyalty experience by enabling the Happy Birthday points option. Surprise your customers on their special day.
• Product reviews: Encourage customers to review your products.
• Acting sustainably: Reward customers for acting sustainably. I.e. bringing a reusable shopping bag when they shop with you.
• Liking on social media: Grow your social media following by gifting points to customers who engage with your brand online (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter).
• Sharing on social media: Incentivize customers to spread the word about your store.
• Refer a friend: Kick-start your referral program by rewarding customers when their referred friend makes their first purchase.

Beauty in simplicity - How ALPHA60 keeps their loyalty
program as simple as possible.

"We try not to complicate it too much and add different things in, and that really works for us. I think it’s because it’s simple for people. It’s easy for customers to understand.”

Kelvin, Brand Manager

Configure your rewards and VIP tiers

Now that your customers have the means to earn points, it’s time to map out your rewards ladder and VIP tier structure.

When editing your rewards, it’s essential to strike a balance. If your rewards are too easy to unlock, customers may unlock them too quickly, leaving them with nothing to work towards. On the other hand, if you set the bar too high, customers might lose interest.

The key is to establish a logical and well-structured progression that ensures customers feel like they’re advancing towards greater rewards with each interaction. This keeps them motivated and engaged throughout their journey with your brand.

Rewards

To illustrate, let’s take a look at a hypothetical brand, Opal Essence.

At Opal Essence, members earn 1 point for every $1 spent at their store.

• • Average purchase value: $100.00
  • Average purchase frequency: 3 months

The key to your rewards ladder is to make them realistic and attainable, without giving too much value away. For example:

• • 10% off - 200 points to redeem
  • 15% off - 400 points to redeem
  • 20% off - 600 points to redeem

In this case, with customers spending an average of $100 per purchase, they would need to make two purchases to unlock their first reward. And so on… four purchases for the 15% discount, and six to unlock the 20% discount.

This rewards setup creates a logical sense of progression for customers, making them feel like they’re working towards substantial perks with each visit to your store. Not only does it drive repeat sales, but it also fosters brand loyalty and increases customer lifetime value.

While percentage-based discounts are the easiest to implement, there are various other reward options to choose from. Here are 5 common types of rewards:

• Percentage (%) off rewards: storewide, on a specific item, or on specific collections
• Fixed value ($) off rewards: storewide, on a specific item, or on specific collections
• Free shipping
• Free product(s)
• Spend threshold rewards: Requires a minimum purchase value to redeem

Learn more

VIP Tiers

A VIP program elevates your loyalty strategy by making your best customers feel special. With VIP tiers, you can offer additional benefits to those who reach higher tiers, such as exclusive rewards, free shipping, early access to sales, VIP events, and faster points earning.

Consider how the VIP tiers align with your overall business strategy. For example, if you sell high-end fashion products and are launching a new collection, granting VIPs early access to new product lines creates an aura of exclusivity. This makes them feel like valued insiders.

Here are some VIP perks ideas you could implement:

• Faster points-earning: Silver Tier customers earn 2 points for every $1 spent, and Gold Tier customers earn 3 points for every $1 spent.

• Exclusive rewards: Offer unique rewards to your VIP customers, making them feel valued and understood.

• Blanket discounts: VIP tier customers enjoy ongoing discounts for every purchase they make from your store, such as 10% off.
• Free shipping: Ship products out to your VIPs free of charge to thank them for their ongoing support. This makes them feel appreciated and encourages them to stick around.

VIP tiers not only boost customer loyalty but also create loyal advocates who will spread the word about your brand.

💡 Pro-tip: Utilizing VIP tiers and customer lists enables you to craft highly personalized email and SMS campaigns. Perhaps you’re hosting a VIP-only event, or want to offer exclusive styling services, VIP tiers, and segmentation lists can help you tailor your marketing to cater to your most loyal customers.

Promote your loyalty program

Before you enable your loyalty program, take a moment to review your settings and ensure that your points, rewards, and VIP tiers are configured correctly. This is the perfect time to revisit your business goals and check that your program aligns with your business strategy and overall direction.

With your loyalty program ready to go live, it’s time to spread the word. Send a captivating loyalty program announcement email to share the exciting news with your customers. This announcement can serve as your invitation to customers, encouraging them to shop again and engage with your new loyalty program.

💡 Pro-tip: To build excitement for your loyalty program, consider sending an email a few weeks before the official launch, teasing the upcoming loyalty perks and getting customers excited about what’s to come.

Final words

Loyalty programs aren’t just about giving away discounts; they’re a highly strategic tool that helps you drive repeat sales and build long-term relationships with your customers. Done right, a loyalty program fosters a community of loyal advocates, expanding your brand’s reach and ultimately increasing your bottom line.

If you’re looking to create a loyalty program for your business, Marsello makes it easy to set up, launch, and promote your loyalty program with ease.

Create your loyalty program with Marsello

Bonus tips

Embrace an omnichannel approach

Building a successful loyalty program begins with understanding your customers’ needs. An omnichannel loyalty program is one of the best ways to engage and reward your customers, no matter how they shop with you. Customer loyalty platforms like Marsello enable you to run your loyalty program seamlessly across both in-store and online channels, ensuring customers can access the benefits of your program, regardless of their shopping preferences.

Learn more

Measure your performance and optimize

Remember, the job’s not finished once your loyalty program is live. By monitoring your loyalty reporting and customer activity, you can uncover insights to inform your future marketing and loyalty program optimization. Regular optimization will ensure that your loyalty program continues to evolve, providing the best experience for your customers.

Have fun with it

Creating a loyalty program can be an exciting journey that helps you understand and connect with your customers on a deeper level. It’s a chance to get creative and celebrate your brand’s unique selling points. So, while you’re planning your loyalty program, don’t forget to have fun with it.

Good luck with your loyalty program creation!

Next read:  How to create a points system for rewards

Customer retention isn’t easy. Between your eCommerce and physical stores, social media, and various other touchpoints, customers can slip through the cracks.

Shopify’s loyalty program apps make it easy to engage your customers with personalized rewards and incentives and ensure they stick around for the long term. But with so many loyalty apps to choose from, how do you know which one is right for your business?

In this article, we’ll review the 7 Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify and how they can increase customer retention and boost sales for your store.

What are the best loyalty apps for Shopify in 2024?

1. Marsello (Top pick ✨)

Marsello helps you reward customers with loyalty and marketing tools that work in-store and online. With Marsello, you can customize the appearance of your program to match the look and feel of your brand. It’s easy to set up rewards, discounts, points, VIP tiers, and more to gamify your customers’ shopping experience and encourage them to spend more.

Marsello’s key point of difference is the ability to run your loyalty program seamlessly across your Shopify eCommerce and POS channels. This simplifies customer loyalty management and allows for a more seamless customer loyalty experience.

Marsello’s loyalty tools also connect with its all-in-one marketing automation tools, helping you run more effective campaigns, from email to SMS, reviews, and more.

Here are some popular ways to use Marsello:

• • Customize and launch a loyalty program that works in-store and online
  • Reward customers with personalized rewards, points, VIP tiers, and more
  • Sync sales from eCommerce and POS and link them to unique customer profiles
  • Use your customer insights to run smarter, personalized marketing campaigns
  • Manage all of your marketing from one app, email, SMS, automations, and more

Pricing

Marsello offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start from $125 USD/month, and are based on your customer database size and the number of eCommerce and POS sites connected.

What merchants think about Marsello

Merchants enjoy using Marsello for its user-friendly interface and powerful loyalty features. Marsello merchants have seen a boost in sales through its loyalty and rewards program, email, and SMS marketing features. Marsello’s marketing automation tools and cost-effectiveness are also highlighted, along with its responsive customer service team.

Install on Shopify

2. Smile.io

Smile.io offers easy-to-use loyalty and rewards tools to help you engage your shoppers, and turn first-time customers into forever customers. Over 125 million shoppers earn points through Smile. 

With Smile, you can create your own loyalty and rewards program that increases sales and repeat purchases, saves on acquisition costs, and boosts brand loyalty. The best part is that creating a loyalty program with Smile only takes a few minutes—with no coding required.

Smile offers simple management of your customers and loyalty data, and if you need help, you’re supported 24/7 by a team of loyalty experts to answer your questions.

Here are some popular ways to use Smile:

• • Customize your loyalty widget and rewards launcher to match your brand aesthetic
  • Encourage repeat sales by allowing customers to earn points and rewards
  • Connect Smile with your email, review, and customer service apps
  • Nudge customers to continue shopping by reminding them of their points and rewards

Pricing

Smile is free to install. Their free plan allows up to 200 monthly orders and gives you access to all the basic loyalty features, including a points and referrals program, basic brand customization, default reward emails, and an analytics overview.

What merchants think about Smile.io

Shopify store owners appreciate this app for its easy setup and seamless integration with Shopify. Smile is praised for its loyalty points system, customizable rewards options, and VIP program features. Smile’s free plan is a good entry point for new businesses looking to increase customer loyalty. The free version is robust and easy to use.

3. LoyaltyLion

LoyaltyLion helps Shopify brands boost retention and increase customer engagement with a loyalty program that goes beyond points and rewards.

The popular loyalty app helps you incentivize brand engagement and motivate repeat purchases by offering loyalty points and rewards to customers who engage with your business.

Here are some popular ways to use LoyaltyLion:

• • Reward positive onsite behavior with customizable points and gifts
  • Increase brand advocacy by rewarding customer referrals
  • Deliver points and rewards through email and on-store notifications
  • Tailor how your loyalty program appears on your Shopify eCommerce site
  • Integrate with email providers, subscription partners, reward platforms, and more

Pricing

LoyaltyLion offers a free plan that gives you access to basic loyalty features, unlimited members, and up to 800 monthly orders. Paid plans start from $156 USD/month.

What merchants think about LoyaltyLion

Merchants highly recommend LoyaltyLion due to its seamless integration, customizable features, and user-friendly interface. LoyaltyLion is praised for its exceptional customer service, and merchants appreciate the app’s detailed analytics, and easy migration from other loyalty apps.

4. Joy: Loyalty & Rewards Program

Joy is a user-friendly loyalty solution designed to keep your customers around with advanced loyalty programs and rewards features. It’s designed to help Shopify stores effectively convert their shoppers into loyal customers with the help of rewarding points.

The app has a variety of features that allow store owners to manage the earning and spending of loyalty points flexibly. All of Joy’s loyalty features come in a user-friendly and no-code-required platform that’s supported by 24/7 customer support.

Here are some popular ways to use Joy:

• • Reward customers for signing up, placing orders, leaving reviews, and more
  • Manage your customer tiers, points, and missions with export and import data
  • Run campaigns with built-in email notifications and automations
  • Leverage your store’s point-of-sale data to run more effective loyalty campaigns
  • Engage your customers without slowing down your shop’s loading speeds

Pricing

Joy offers a free plan, limited to 250 orders per month. You can enable points-earning options for customers who sign up and place an order. Paid plans start from $29 USD/month.

What merchants think about Joy

Merchants love Joy for its diverse loyalty features such as rewards programs and referral options, and low impact on your shop’s loading speeds. The customer service team is highly praised, and merchants find the pricing reasonable and appreciate its integration with POS. The tool is regarded as a valuable tool for growing a store’s database and social following.

5. Yotpo: Loyalty & Rewards

Yotpo’s eCommerce retention marketing platform helps Shopify brands drive repeat sales with connected solutions for loyalty, email, SMS, reviews, and more. With Yotpo, you can build a customizable, retention-driving loyalty program that offers more than just rewards.

Yotpo’s agile loyalty tools empower store owners to launch a loyalty program quickly and iterate endlessly — with no developer work required. The platform’s out-of-the-box campaigns help you drive repeat sales from the get-go.

Here are some popular ways to use Yotpo:

• • Customize, launch, and manage your loyalty program with no coding required
  • Monitor your loyalty and referral program data, from ROI to customer LTV, and more
  • Increase repeat sales and customer engagement with diverse rewards and tiers
  • Create a seamless marketing experience by integrating Yotpo’s marketing products

Pricing

Yotpo is free to install, with a free plan available to stores with fewer than 100 monthly orders. Paid plans start from $199 USD/month and provide your customers with more ways to earn.

What merchants think about Yotpo

Yotpo is highly recommended for its seamless Shopify integration. The platform helps users effortlessly boost business with features like email reminders for points-earning, and reward redemption options. The customer service, especially the live chat is appreciated, and the app’s customization capabilities are also appreciated.

6. Stamped Loyalty & Referrals

Stamped Loyalty helps Shopify brands maximize customer loyalty with a customized loyalty program, VIP tiers, and referrals. The platform works as a stand-alone product, but can also be integrated with Stamped’s integration reviews and ratings product to create a full suite of customer tools.

Stamped helps brands deliver immediate value to their customers through a personalized loyalty experience. Their platform helps you increase average order value and maximize customer lifetime value through AI-powered points and rewards, VIP tiers, and referral solutions.

Here are some popular ways to use Stamped:

• • Drive engagement with points-based campaigns that motivate customers to shop
  • Reward and incentivize customers to share your brand with their friends
  • Deliver a fully customized on-brand loyalty program and experience
  • Create exciting VIP tiers and perks to recognize your best customers

Stamped Pricing

Stamped offers a free plan. Paid plans start from $59 USD/month, however, by signing up for Stamped’s 12-month plan, you can save 17% off your subscription costs.

What merchants think about Stamped

Merchants love using Stamped for its intuitive loyalty integration with Shopify, along with its advanced customization features and helpful customer support team. Despite some instances where glitches and shortages in real-time assistance occur, the overall sentiment remains positive, with Shopify store owners taking pleasure in migrating from other app alternatives.

7. Rise.ai

Rise is the go-to gift cards and store credits app for Shopify stores. The app is designed to manage all your brand’s re-engagement activity, from gift cards to referrals, rewards, and refund management.

Rise helps you establish an intuitive rewards program with flexible, automated store credit flows that strengthen your customer relationships and increase customer lifetime value.

Rise’s customer service team is excellent and has proven to go above and beyond to help customers get the most out of their products and deliver success.

Here are some popular ways to use Rise.ai

• • Trigger and create store credit rewards based on customer activity
  • Issue gift card refunds and offer store credit for returns
  • Launch a loyalty program that encourages store credit accumulation
  • Remind customers of their gift cards with scheduling and sending options

Pricing

Rise’s starter plan starts from $19.99 USD/month and gives you access to essential store credit and gift card features, limited to 100 monthly store orders.

What merchants think about Rise.ai

Merchants appreciate the app for its gift cards, rewards programs, and store credit issuance. The app has high customizability and works seamlessly with Shopify and Klaviyo, helping you run more effective campaigns. The app has been instrumental for many Shopify stores wanting to increase sales and attraction, with its gift card scheduling and automation tools being a stand-out feature.

So, which loyalty app should I install?

Shopify’s loyalty apps make it easy for store owners to engage customers and drive long-term brand loyalty.

The best loyalty programs are ones that make customers feel seen and valued, regardless of how they shop. In this context, Marsello’s seamless integration with Shopify eCommerce and POS allows store owners to nurture customers and manage loyalty and order data across multiple channels.

By centralizing your in-store and online customer data, you can get a complete view of your customers, helping you optimize your loyalty program and run more targeted and timely campaigns that drive sales for your Shopify store.

Marsello has integrated with Klaviyo to create the ultimate customer marketing platform.

In the fast-paced world of retail and eCommerce, one constant remains: your customers. However, in today’s highly competitive retail environment, customers are inundated with irrelevant promotional emails, making it harder than ever to cut through the clutter and get them shopping.

By connecting Marsello to Klaviyo, you can harness your in-store loyalty and order data to create detailed segments and run more effective campaigns in Klaviyo.

Let’s explore the integration in more detail.

What is Klaviyo?

Klaviyo is a unified customer marketing platform designed to help engage customers and drive sales with email campaigns, SMS, and more. It’s one of the few email marketing services designed specifically for eCommerce, and with an impressive database of over 110,000 paying customers, it’s no wonder brands choose Klaviyo to manage their campaigns.

Here are a few benefits Klaviyo has to offer:

• Segment your database using historical data and real-time behaviors for targeting
• Build coupon codes for automated flows and campaigns
• Use built-in templates and automated emails for simple workflow management
• Accurate reporting and attribution for each campaign and channel

Not using Klaviyo? Discover more about its features and benefits here

What is the Klaviyo loyalty integration?

The Marsello and Klaviyo integration combines Klaviyo's advanced email marketing features with Marsello's omnichannel loyalty software to create the ultimate marketing platform.

Marsello’s point of sale data is the key factor here, syncing in-store loyalty and order data to Klaviyo customer profiles in real-time, empowering your team to personalize your marketing with the latest insights from both your eCommerce and POS channels.

Why connect Klaviyo to your Marsello account?

Because Klaviyo does not integrate directly with POS systems, you’re only using a fraction of the customer data that’s available to you.

When you integrate Marsello with Klaviyo, you can bridge the gap between your POS and eCommerce data, providing you with valuable insights into customer purchase history, spending behavior, and preferences. This connection enables you to centralize your customer data and create a more seamless omnichannel shopping experience.

“We have many customers that shop with us in both channels and expect a seamless loyalty and marketing experience.”

Hayley Greenstein, Managing Director at LEGO® Certified Stores

How do Marsello and Klaviyo work together?

Marsello's customer loyalty and order data gets synced to Klaviyo in real-time. This enriches Klaviyo customer profiles with omnichannel insights, enabling better segmentation for more effective, tailored marketing campaigns.

Here’s what you can do with Marsello and Klaviyo connected:

• Push customer properties to Klaviyo profiles: Sync customer properties into Klaviyo, enriching customer profiles with relevant data.
• Sync customer events to your Klaviyo account: Use events to automate timely and targeted emails based on your customer shopping behavior, loyalty engagement, or feedback responses. These events are dynamic and sent to Klaviyo in as close to real-time as possible. Sync events like POS and eCommerce orders, loyalty activities, and feedback responses.
• Sync your loyalty and order data into Klaviyo: Seamlessly transfer POS and eCommerce loyalty and order data to Klaviyo customer profiles in real time for a complete view of customer spending behaviors. Understand who your customers are, and how they like to shop.
• Create omnichannel offers and coupon codes to use in Klaviyo campaigns: Generate omnichannel discount codes for your campaigns and automatically load them against specific customer profiles. Give customers the flexibility to redeem their coupons in-store or online.
• Create more detailed customer segments for campaigns in Klaviyo: Utilize your in-store and online data to create targeted customer segments and workflows in Klaviyo. Harness your segments to run more personalized campaigns that go way beyond your VIP database.

Diving deeper into event sets

When you connect Marsello and Klaviyo, you unlock a treasure trove of valuable loyalty and order data such as purchase site, order total, product selections, and more.

Let’s learn more about the specific data sets that get synced to your Klaviyo profiles.

POS and eCommerce orders

By syncing your POS and eCommerce order events into Klaviyo, you can create a 360-degree view of your customers’ spending behavior with your business. With this data, you can create targeted segments and automations based on in-store and online orders, enabling further personalization of your email marketing efforts.

Loyalty activities

Using Marsello’s loyalty program, you can encourage customers to return by rewarding them with loyalty points for each purchase they make. Sync loyalty events into Klaviyo to create custom segments and automations based on loyalty program engagement, then use customers’ loyalty profile information to further personalized your marketing efforts. For example, when a customer claims a coupon but hasn’t redeemed it, you could send a follow-up email that recommends products and encourages them to shop.

Feedback responses

Finally, using Marsello’s customer feedback features enable you to measure customer satisfaction with their shopping experience, helping you keep track of what you’re doing well and how you can improve. Sync feedback responses to Klaviyo to help measure customer sentiment. Create segments and automate follow-up emails to help nurture customer relationships with your brand.

Learn how to use Marsello properties and events in Klaviyo

How to connect Klaviyo to your Marsello account

Now that you know how Marsello’s loyalty and order data can empower your email marketing campaigns, here's how to enable the Klaviyo integration within Marsello.

In your Klaviyo account, you will need to generate a new API key with Full Access to Profiles. 

To create an API in Klaviyo

1. Navigate to API keys under your profile settings
2. Enter “Marsello” as your Private API Key Name

1. Under Select Access Level, select Full Access Key
2. Click Create. This will generate your new API key.
3. Copy this key and keep it ready to paste into your Marsello add-on settings.

If you haven’t already created a Klaviyo account, you can do so here.

How to enable the Klaviyo integration in Marsello

1. First, log in to your Marsello account
2. In your Marsello admin, navigate to Integrations > Add-ons
3. Find Klaviyo in the list of add-ons and click Connect

1. Under ‘Klaviyo API Key’ paste your Marsello API key, or follow these instructions to create one.

1. Click Save. Your Marsello & Klaviyo accounts will now be connected.

Final words

Integrating Marsello and Klaviyo creates a more cohesive customer marketing experience, unlocking new levels of customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

This powerful integration brings together the best of both platforms, combining Marsello’s in-store POS data with Klaviyo's advanced customer marketing tools to help you understand your customers and increase engagement with highly-personalized marketing campaigns.

Now that you know how Marsello’s POS data can enrich your Klaviyo campaigns, it’s time to try it for yourself!

Next read: 5 Klaviyo Integrations Every Retailer Should Be Using

The Shopify App Store holds the key to transforming your operations and unlocking revenue growth for your business. But, with thousands of apps to choose from, it can be overwhelming to choose which apps are the right fit for your store.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of the 11 best Shopify apps to grow your business in 2024.

1. Keeper—Recover Abandoned Carts
2. Shopify Flow
3. Marsello: Loyalty, Email & SMS
4. Loop Returns & Exchanges
5. PageFly Landing Page Builder
6. Stamped Product Reviews & UGC
7. Booster: Page Speed Optimizer
8. Appstle Subscriptions
9. Peek! Better Replay & Survey
10. Easyship - All in one Shipping
11. Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS

11 Best Shopify Apps to Grow Your eCommerce Store in 2024.

1. Keeper—Recover Abandoned Carts

According to the Baymard Institute, the average abandoned cart rate in 2022 was 69.99%. That means that for every 100 people that visit your online store, almost 70 of them will never make it to checkout—that’s a lot of potential revenue you’re missing out on. 

Keeper is a one-click install Shopify app designed to recover abandoned carts and increase your store’s revenue automatically in the background. When customers log in across multiple devices they will find their abandoned shopping cart waiting for them, ready to complete their order. This makes it easy for them to pick up where they left off, resulting in more sales for your Shopify store.

Key benefits:

• Automatically prompt users to complete their orders.
• Remember customers’ shopping carts across their devices.
• Merge previously abandoned carts with current ones and drive more sales.
• Reduce your abandoned cart rates and drive more sales.

Pricing: Free

Shopify Review | CHIC 414 Boutique

“SO helpful for regaining sales and reminding our clients that they have abandoned their shopping carts. We have definitely seen an increase in our sales.”

2. Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow helps automate processes that solve unique challenges eCommerce store owners face. With Flow, you can easily build custom workflows to solve specific challenges and tasks that would otherwise burn precious time and resources.

Flow is a powerful but simple automation tool. You can quickly customize unique triggers and conditions to create advanced workflows that run on autopilot, all without needing prior developer knowledge. 

Key Benefits:

• Create custom workflows and automate processes to streamline your operations
• Save time by turning repetitive, time-consuming tasks into automatic workflows
• Simple to set up: Automate workflows in a few clicks and get back to business

Pricing: Free

Shopify Review | Landyachtz Skateboards

“In my opinion Flow is the single most valuable aspect of Shopify Plus! The biggest limitation of Flow is your imagination and the things I've been able to automate have been game-changers for our operations. One aspect I never expected was how effective Flow is in helping me build safety nets and redundancies for problems that would go unseen without it. Probably my favourite app.”

3. Marsello

Marsello is a seamless loyalty and marketing platform that helps Shopify brands drive repeat sales and engage customers, no matter how they shop. It offers a variety of marketing features, including loyalty programs, email and SMS campaigns, automations, social media management, and more.

One of Marsello's key strengths is its omnichannel loyalty solution, which allows Shopify brands to run a seamless loyalty program across their eCommerce and brick-and-mortar channels—simplifying your customer loyalty management and improving customer experience.

The platform's eCommerce and POS connection helps brands unify their customer data, making it easy to understand how your customers shop, and providing powerful data that can be used to run more effective marketing campaigns.

Key benefits:

• Run a seamless loyalty program across your in-store and online channels.
• Save money on subscription fees by consolidating all your apps into one.
• Get a complete view of your customer, and harness that data for smarter campaigns.
• Incentivize customers to come back more frequently, and spend more when they visit.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $135/month

Customer Review | LEGO® Certified Stores

“Marsello made the most sense as it offers a single loyalty program that extends to customers online and in-store. We have many customers that shop with us in both channels and expect a seamless loyalty and marketing experience.”

4. Loop Returns & Exchanges

Loop is a returns app that aims to simplify and automate returns, exchanges, and store credit processes for brands. With the global economy facing a potential recession in 2023, retaining customers and cutting costs are more important than ever.

With Loop, you can analyse your customer interactions from a cost-saving lens, helping you to identify opportunities for revenue retention, and nurturing your customers through their most fragile interactions with your store. Control how and when returns get approved, optimize costs, prevent losses of returned products and retain more revenue with ease.

Key benefits:

• Retain customers through fragile interactions with your brand and optimize costs.
• Save time and automatically control how and when returns and exchanges get approved.
• Reduce refunds and negative reviews, and drive repeat purchases from happy customers.
  
  

Pricing: Paid plans start from $59/month.

Shopify Review | Mediclio

“Love that this app continues to keep customers and merchants comfort in mind. They continue to vamp up the features so that returns and exchanges process can run as smoothly as possible…”

5. PageFly Landing Page Builder

Running a successful eCommerce store requires regularly creating and optimizing landing pages that help turn traffic into revenue. With PageFly, you can drag and drop your way to high-converting landing pages that engage shoppers and grow revenue for your business.

PageFly helps bring your website pages to life with intuitive page-building features and pre-made elements that help you design your storefront how you want it. With its user-friendly interface and pre-built elements, it offers a convenient solution for new Shopify store owners looking to improve their performance.

Key benefits:

• Simple drag-and-drop landing page builders that help create pages that convert.
• Build landing pages with or without code.
• Suitable to build pages of any type and on any device.
  
  

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $24/month.

Shopify Review | The Sustainable Watch Company

“Really easy to use, similar to the Shopify page builder. Really knowledgeable, helpful support and after-sales service.”

6. Stamped Product Reviews & UGC

When a customer has a positive interaction with your brand they’re more likely to tell other people about you.

With Stamped, you can encourage customers to leave reviews after positive experiences with your brand, then use those reviews to improve your online reputation and stand out from the crowd.

Key benefits:

• Collect and showcase product reviews to build trust and transparency.
• Improve your website’s SEO and Google Shopping rankings.
• Gain deeper insights into what your customers think about your service.
• Use reviews to promote your business and drive more sales via your store.
  
  

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $25/month.

Shopify Customer Review, Seed Cycle Brand

“Stamped Product Reviews is a great app if you want a more minimalist and stylish review app. Their support and technology upgrades are great also!”

Page load speeds are everything when it comes to conversion. According to Hubspot, website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% which each additional second of load time. 

Booster helps your eCommerce stores prevent lost sales by making your Shopify store pages feel like they load almost instantly. With Booster, you can pre-load landing pages and increase your website performance without needing any code.

Key benefits:

• Improve your store’s load speeds on desktop and mobile.
• Reduce bounce rates and improve your chances of conversion with faster loading times.
• Pre-load landing pages in the background when a customer hovers over a website link.
  
  

Pricing: Free

Shopify Customer Review, Zael Findings

“Very friendly customer service quick to respond and if you are ever looking for a service to get a speed boost I highly recommend for you to check it out.”

8. Appstle Subscriptions

Subscription-based selling provides a consistent, predictable revenue stream from your best customers. If you're running a subscription-based business model, then Appstle Subscriptions is the perfect solution for managing orders and driving repeat purchases.

The app makes it easy to choose and manage subscriptions via the Shopify checkout page and encourages customers to spend more with personalized product offers, up-selling and product bundling. This helps increase customer engagement and provides reliable, recurring revenue.

Key benefits:

• Provide subscription plans for customers during their checkout process in Shopify.
• Allow customers to manage their subscriptions and skip, reschedule or edit deliveries.
• Drive consistent revenue from customers and up-sell personalized offers and bundles.

Pricing: Free to install. Paid plans start from $10/month.

Shopify Customer Review, Friendly Soap

“This app works like a dream. It’s really popular with our customers and the support team are very responsive and helpful. Highly recommend.”

9. Peek! Better Replay & Survey

Ever wonder why customers aren't converting on your website? If you do, then Better Replay can help. With free session recording and playback options, Better Replay allows you to observe how visitors interact with your site. 

Boasting a 4.7-star rating on the Shopify App Store, Better Replay eliminates the uncertainty of why your pages aren't converting, helping you enhance your user experience and increasing conversions.

Key benefits:

• Learn how your visitors interact with your website with session recordings.
• No more guesswork. See exactly why your landing pages aren’t converting to sales.
• Gain insights into customer behavior and improve your website conversions.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start from $29/month.

Shopify Customer Review, Smaller Living

“I recommend gaining knowledge of what leads to a bounce rate. You can review live sessions, and it shows where you are losing customers.”

10. Easyship - All in one Shipping

Online shoppers have extremely high expectations when it comes to shipping times and order management. According to a Retail Dive study, 62% of shoppers expect to receive their shipping orders to arrive in less than 3 days. 

Easyship is an all-in-one shipping management platform that helps Shopify businesses manage their shipping operations and save time and money. The app helps customers easily compare costs and delivery times with dynamic rates during the checkout process. It helps you create a tailored shopping experience and requires little effort so you can focus on growing your business.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start from $29/month.

Shopify Customer Review, Mokuyobi

“I use this app to help fulfill our orders efficiently. It has worked great in the 3+ months that I have been working where I currently am. So far I have not had any real issues with Easyship.”

11. Klaviyo

In the world of eCommerce and retail, customer relationships are everything. Klaviyo is a unified customer marketing platform that revolutionizes the way you connect with your customers, helping you build profitable relationships with intuitive features like email marketing, SMS, automations, forms, and reviews.

Klaviyo's intelligent marketing automation features make it easy to earn more revenue without resorting to ineffective batching and blasting. The well-known Shopify app delivers unmatched speed and time-to-value, empowering you with best-practice marketing templates that are ready to go live from the start.

Key benefits:

• Deliver tailored experiences to each customer, increasing the ROI of your email marketing.
• Save time and effort with automated workflows that nurture leads and engage customers.
• Leverage your customer data and analytics to make informed decisions that drive growth.

Did you know? You can integrate Klaviyo's advanced customer marketing features with Marsello's loyalty software to create advanced customer segments that can be leveraged to craft highly-personalized campaigns that engage customers and grow revenue.

Learn more about Klaviyo and Marsello's integration.

Pricing: Free to install. Paid plans start from $30/month.

Shopify Customer Review, Wingback

"Klaviyo provides vastly superior data on every customer, every automation, and every campaign, helping us make better decisions and drive greater ROI each month. The support guides are really comprehensive, their team is always quick to provide guidance and the platform is constantly improving."

So, which Shopify apps should I install?

Whether you're a new eCommerce entrepreneur or an established Shopify store owner, you'll want to take advantage of the many great apps the Shopify App Store has to offer. From all-in-one marketing solutions to shipping and customer service apps, Shopify has something for everyone.

But the truth is, there's no one-size-fits-all solution for Shopify stores. Each business is unique and faces its own set of challenges, but with the right app, you can overcome these challenges and achieve success.

Before you start your app store search, we suggest you take a moment to reflect on your business goals and needs. Ask yourself these simple questions:

1. What challenges am I facing as a Shopify business?
2. What specific tools do I need to address my problems?
3. What does my ideal state look like, and will this app help me get there?
4. Does this app have what I need, what is the cost, and am I willing to pay for it?

By answering these questions, you'll gain a clearer understanding of your business objectives, and it will become easy to choose the apps that align best with your goals.

Remember, with the right tools at your disposal, you'll be poised for success and ready to take your Shopify store to new heights. Best of luck with your app store search!

Next read: 7 Steps To A Profitable Loyalty & Rewards Program

For modern Shopify businesses, it’s easy to lose track of your customers - between all your different touchpoints, customers and marketing opportunities fall through the cracks, leaving you with missed sales and less-than-optimal customer retention.

By incorporating a suite of set-and-forget automations into your marketing strategy, you can reach the right customers at the right time, with the perfect offer to increase engagement and drive sales with zero ongoing maintenance.

What is marketing automation, and how does it work?

Marketing automation is the combination of technology and strategic marketing activity that runs on autopilot for your business. A good marketing automation platform (MAP) will enable you to automate repetitive tasks, like email marketing and loyalty programs, while building lasting relationships with your customers, increasing brand loyalty, and driving new and repeat purchases across all of your touchpoints.

For merchants who sell in-store and online, marketing automation works by following your customers throughout their journey and engaging with them based on pre-defined triggers. With most automation platforms, you can either choose from a selection of pre-built email flows that are designed to drive sales at key moments, or you can build your own from scratch.

5 automations that Shopify merchants should have enabled

1. Recover abandoned carts: Encourage customers to complete their checkout with a series of abandoned cart recovery emails. This acts as a friendly reminder for your customers to come back to your store and complete their purchases. Pro tip: If a customer doesn’t convert from the first email in the series, consider adding a discount or free shipping to incentivize the purchase.

2. Thank first-time customers: Say thanks to your customers after their first purchase with you. Make a great first impression, introduce them to your brand, and encourage them to keep coming back for more with product recommendations and exclusive offers.

3. Reward your best customers: Look after your best customers with an automated email workflow that thanks them for their loyalty and encourages them to shop again. Personalize your emails with product recommendations that align with your customers’ needs and purchase history. Make them feel like valued customers and that their loyalty matters.

4. Wish your customers a Happy Birthday: Make your customers feel appreciated on their special day. A cheerful Happy Birthday email will get them shopping and strengthen their relationship with your brand.

5. Win-back lapsed customers: Remind customers to come back to your store with an automated email that’s designed to win them back. Motivate repeat purchases discounts that are too good to ignore, and create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers.

Did you know that Marsello merchants who have more than one email automation enabled see an average of over 70x ROI for their marketing?

The advantages of marketing automation for omnichannel Shopify businesses

1. Save time while nurturing your customer relationships

With marketing automation, you can save yourself hours of work every week. Rather than wasting valuable time building one-off marketing campaigns, you can simply enable behavior-triggered marketing emails that run on autopilot and feel authentically engaging. 

2. Provide a personalized experience

Quit annoying your customers with irrelevant emails…. It’s frustrating and can impact your email open rates. Utilizing personalized messaging means that your customers are more likely to open your emails, engage with your content, and complete a purchase. Some simple examples of personalized messaging include; using customers’ names in your email headlines, suggesting products based on their purchase history, or promoting new collections that might interest them.

3. Build relationships and increase customer lifetime value

Acquiring new customers can be expensive. In fact, it’s around 5x more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to nurture your existing ones. So, rather than investing all your marketing dollars into attracting new customers, it’s worth redirecting some effort into improving your existing customers’ experience and building brand loyalty.

By automating your Shopify marketing, you can ensure your customers stay informed and engaged across every touchpoint. Whether it’s an update regarding their loyalty points status, an email that invites them back to the store with a discount, or a one-time offer, these timely and hyper-personalized messages all work together to grow your relationship with your customers and keep them interested.

4. Keep your brand front-and-center across all your marketing channels

Your customers are constantly moving between various marketing channels, from email and social media to your eCommerce website or your physical store, so being able to reach them automatically across all these touchpoints is critical to keeping your business top-of-mind. Marketing automation apps work overtime to nurture these relationships while you can focus on other areas of your Shopify business. Read 6 essential steps for omnichannel commerce.

5. Boost your in-store and online revenue, automatically

Implementing a set-and-forget marketing automation system enables you to bring in consistent ‘background’ revenue for your business. Once set up, it runs completely autonomously for you - Simply enable pre-built email workflows, or customize your own and watch your platform do the hard work for you. Deliver timely and personalized messages that reach your customers at exactly the right moment to encourage them to make a purchase. 

Ozzie Collectables have seen a 517% increase in revenue since enabling their automated marketing campaigns with Marsello. Learn more.

Final words

Creating a seamless, automated marketing experience is critical for growing revenue and building customer loyalty across both brick-and-mortar and Shopify eCommerce sites.

With marketing automation apps, you can send timely and targeted messages that encourage your customers to keep coming back for more, all while decreasing your personal workload and letting your focus on other areas of your business.

An all-in-one marketing platform harnesses your customer data to create a carefully curated and specific marketing experience that feels intentional to your customers. If your marketing automation provider has your back, the basics of these automations will be largely set up for you.

Did you know that Keep Cart is part of the Marsello ecosystem?

Keep Cart was purpose-built for omnichannel Shopify merchants to recover sales from abandoned shopping carts. But while Keep Cart has helped recover thousands of abandoned carts, many of you wanted to know - What else could I be doing?

That’s why we built Marsello - it’s the complete marketing solution for Shopify merchants who sell products in-store and online. Marsello has an entire suite of set-and-forget automations (including abandoned cart recovery emails) that bring in consistent, predictable revenue for your business. Learn more about Marsello’s features

With Marsello, everyone gets special treatment with a personal touch. Every customer is different, so each marketing feature is designed to guide them through different points in their journey with your brand - The ultimate goal? To move them from a one-time shopper to becoming a loyal customer that keeps coming back for more.

Ready to automate your marketing?