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7 Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify [2023]

Choosing the best loyalty program app for your Shopify store isn't easy. In this blog, we review the 7 Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify, and how they can...

Max Crosse

Content Strategy Manager

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 2023?

marsello-loyalty-marketing-tools

1. Marsello [Top pick ✨]


Marsello helps you drive sales and reward regulars with a loyalty and referral program that works 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 $100 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

Recommended Loyalty App for Shopify
Marsello helps you launch a world-class loyalty program that engages your customers and drives sales, no matter how they shop. Create rewards, points, VIP tiers, and more with ease.

Start Free Trial

 

2. Smile.io

smile-loyalty-tools

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-loyalty-program

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-loyalty-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-loyalty-dashboard

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-program-and-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-gift-card-app

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.

Recommended Loyalty App for Shopify

Marsello helps you launch a world-class loyalty program that engages your customers and drives sales, no matter how they shop. Create rewards, points, VIP tiers, and more with ease.

Start Free Trial

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    What’s new for Marsello x Shopify retailers in 2022?

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    From Shopify Theme Extensions and Google reviews to a new and improved user experience, we wrap up the biggest changes to Marsello for Shopify users.

    Retailers need to know the tech they invest in will meet their needs and help their businesses grow while also adapting to current trends. In response to changing customer shopping trends, 2021 saw more retailers than ever move into the eCommerce space, and the importance of creating a cohesive shopping experience across in-store and online locations was highlighted again and again. To master this, retailers have needed faster websites, smarter tools, and better connectivity between their different store types.

    To meet the growing needs of omnichannel retailers, Shopify released several exciting changes in the last 12 months – from Themes 2.0 to Shopify Flow. To build on these additions and create more and more marketing opportunities for Marsello x Shopify retailers, we released several complementary features that are helping retailers make the most of their retail toolkit.

    Let’s dive in and discover Marsello’s latest features and biggest updates for Shopify users.

    What features has Marsello released for Shopify users?

     

    The last year saw the development of several stand-out features, and many of these were designed specifically for Shopify powered-retailers looking to grow their business with smart marketing. 

    Introducing Marsello’s  biggest releases of 2021 and a sneak peek of what’s to come very soon:


    Shopify Theme Extension – Product Recommendations:

    The announcement of Themes 2.0 at the Shopify Unite 2021 conference was a cause for a flurry of excitement. With some sources calling it Shopify’s biggest investment in their platform to date, Themes 2.0 opened up a world of opportunities for retailers looking to create their perfect online store, edit and customize themes, and prioritize user experience. 

    To meet the needs of fast-growing retailers who need smart, data-driven marketing tools, we developed a product recommendations extension for Shopify Themes 2.0 users. With this tool, users can add personalized product recommendations to their eCommerce store to encourage bigger cart sizes, improve customers’ online purchase experience, and help customers find products they’ll love.

    Product recommendations built into eCommerce store themes makes it easy to create a seamless experience for customers


    Marsello’s product recommendations are powered by our purpose-built, data-driven product recommendations engine that recommends products based on buyer behavior and purchase history. And the potential doesn’t stop with data-driven recommendations either. Retailers can also select specific products to implant into the recommendations block and encourage sales of specific products. 

    Learn more about our Shopify Theme extension – Product recommendations.

     

    Marketing Extensions:

    Shopify’s extensions feature allows merchants to integrate tools and apps into their Shopify admin almost as if they were in-built. There are countless options to choose from merchandising to stock management; however, none would allow you to create loyalty points campaigns designed to multiply customers’ loyalty points on purchases automatically – this is where Marsello’s Marketing Extension for Shopify comes in.

    Shopify Marketing Extensions users can now create points campaigns in their Shopify admin with the Marsello marketing extension, reducing steps to creating and managing loyalty points campaigns that boost customer loyalty. For example, to increase customers’ motivation to make purchases, you can easily create campaigns where customers earn double loyalty points during a set promotional period directly from the Shopify admin. 

    It's easy to create Marsello-powered loyalty points promotional campaigns directly from within the Shopify admin


    Loyalty points promotion campaigns are a great tool to help promote and encourage engagement with your store's loyalty program.  You not only give customers an extra reason to shop and increase their cart size, but points campaigns are a great alternative to running a sale or discount and help your customers to feel appreciated and respected.


    Marsello’s Shopify Flow connector:

    2021 was a big year for marketing automation – in fact, one study found that 51% of companies were reportedly moved to or were already using marketing automation in some way by 2021. This increased demand for automated marketing capabilities saw the perfect opportunity for Shopify to release Shopify Flows for their Shopify Plus users - in our opinion, one of the most exciting features released in 2021. 

    To help Shopify Flow users tie their loyalty program to customer activities, we released a Shopify Flow connector designed to augment the potential for loyalty marketing. Customers can now earn loyalty points for actions like leaving Google or social media reviews, purchasing specific products, or even purchasing at a particular store location through carefully crafted flows and triggers. 

    Give points and tag a customer directly after an order is fulfilled with Marsello & Shopify Flow


    Learn more about Marsello’s Shopify Flows connector in our launch blog.


    Learn more


    Google Reviews:

    Do you request Google Business reviews from your customers? Do you manage and respond to the reviews left about your business? 

    Google Reviews are integral to helping business owners improve their Google ranking and appear higher in search results, which, in turn, plays a huge role in influencing customers’ purchasing decisions.

    To help you collect, manage and respond to reviews, we’ve developed a Marsello-powered Google Reviews marketing feature. A soon-to-be-released addition to the Marsello toolkit, consider this your sneak preview into our latest tool for retailers who want to increase their presence through local SEO and Google recommendations. 

    The Google Reviews feature from Marsello make managing and acquiring new Google Reviews easy

    Marsello’s Google Reviews feature will make it easy to automate the review process and create a consistent flow of quality reviews that increase online visibility and help to acquire new customers. 

    With email and SMS automations built into your Marsello admin, it’s easy to promote and generate Google reviews as soon as a customer makes a purchase (when their experience is fresh in their minds). You can then easily track, manage and respond to reviews directly from your Marsello admin. Subscribe to our blog and emails to stay up to date with each new release as it happens.

    Subscribe


    What’s changed for the Marsello platform?

    One of Marsello’s biggest updates within the last year has been to implement a new look and feel for our existing app. Since June 2021, we’ve been launching a variety of improvements to the Marsello admin to save you time and make your life easier. With a cleaner design and faster tech, new-look Marsello will now launch universally in April 2022, and we can’t wait to hear what you think.

    New Look Marsello provides a faster, more responsive user experience.

    Can't wait? Get access to new-look Marsello now. 

    Try New-look Marsello

     

    How can Shopify merchants make the most of their Marsello marketing?

     

    Hopefully, you're familiar with Marsello’s core features. If not, let’s recap quickly with just a few bullet points:

        • Customer loyalty marketing – use a branded loyalty program, automated notification emails, varied reward types, and achievable earn options to garner customer support and engagement. And you can build customer relationships that span a lifetime with VIP tiers that segment your loyal customers based on their purchase history. Learn more here.  

        • Marketing automationdelight customers by communicating with them how they’d prefer. With Marsello’s email & SMS campaigns, you can create one-off campaigns from scratch or choose from a library of professionally designed email campaigns developed to get results. And once you’ve sent your campaigns, it’s easy to monitor their success, create new campaigns, or even boost your original with a new subject line for those who didn’t open the first. Learn more here.  
        • Email & SMS campaigns – delight customers by communicating with them in the way they’d prefer. With Marsello’s email & SMS campaigns, you can create one-off campaigns from scratch, or you can choose from a library of professionally designed email campaigns developed to get results. And once you’ve sent your campaigns, it’s easy to monitor their success, create new campaigns, or even boost your original with a new subject line for those who didn’t open the first. Learn more here

        • Marketing listsUse forms, landing pages, and marketing opt-ins to grow your customer database and your return on investment. You create marketing opportunities with new customers by capturing customer information at your POS and eCommerce site. Marsello also automatically segments your customers based on their shopping history, making it easy for you to leverage your customer database and target specific customer groups through email, SMS, or even Facebook ad targeting. Learn more here.  

        • Feedback surveys – Gather customer feedback to understand their shopping experiences and create memorable shopping experiences that they adore. By adding feedback surveys to your communications (for example, a points-earned email that is sent when a customer has just made a purchase), you get confidential, real-time insight into what it’s like to shop at your store. Monitor your growth, see how your business improves, and celebrate your success by measuring customer satisfaction and feedback. Learn more here

    And Marsello has much more to offer our Shopify users too – just think of the combination of possibilities! What if you were to create a custom Shopify Flow that rewarded your customers with loyalty points when they leave a 4-5 star review? Or, if customers shopped during an annual secret sale, you could reward points to purchases over a set price! Get creative and start delighting your customers in all-new ways with all new experiences. 


    Get in touch with our team to learn about Marsello’s full product offering for Shopify.

    Get in contact

    Final words


    The last two years have seen tremendous growth for retail and eCommerce technologies – and that growth doesn't seem to be slowing down. That's why meeting the growing needs of retailers in the retail and eCommerce market is at the forefront of platform and tech providers like Shopify (and Marsello). 

    To help our Shopify-powered retailers achieve their goals, grow their business, and stay ahead of the competition, we needed to continue to innovate with Shopify's product offering in mind. And we don't plan on stopping in 2022. 

    From automated campaigns and complete customization to set-and-forget style flows and fully integrated customer loyalty programs, the future is looking bright for Marsello x Shopify retailers. Book a demo today to grow your business with Marsello.

    Book a demo

     

    How to Use Product Recommendations for Shopify POS!

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    Using Product Recommendations (by Marsello) with your Shopify POS is an easy way to master cross-selling, up-selling, and smart marketing.

    Personalized product recommendations are a powerful marketing tool that is capable of increasing sales conversions by 10-30%. With data-driven AI that compares the customer’s data to shoppers like them, Product Recommendations make it easy for your staff to cross-sell and up-sell products that your customers will love.

    In a recent study published by cmo.com, 66% of participants said that campaign content that didn’t have a personalized element (like personalized product recommendations) would discourage them from making a purchase. And the same goes for in-store! Being able to recommend products to your customers that they’re likely to enjoy is a valuable sales skill; combine that with the customers’ shopping data and you’ve got a winning recipe for increased sales both in-store and online. And with Marsello’s Product Recommendations feature built for Shopify POS, mastering the cross-sell is as personally accurate to each customer as it is simple to use. 

    Marsello's AI looks at the products added to the sale when a customer has come to purchase items. The AI instantly populates recommendations based on what similar customers have frequently bought in conjunction with the same products your customer is buying. Combined with Marsello's all-in-one marketing app, you'll be able to increase repeat purchase rates with a custom loyalty program that runs on auto-pilot on Shopify POS and eCommerce, as well as drive sales with product recommendations in POS, email marketing, and more.

    Curious how Product Recommendations can work in-store? Let’s take a look!

     

    How to Use Product Recommendations for Shopify POS


    So how does it work in-store? When a customer is ready to make a purchase, you simply need to add their products to your Shopify POS as you would normally. Once the items are added, you’re free to start recommending similar products. And it’s so easy! Just watch the short video below to learn how!

     

    A GIF that showcases Marsello’s Product Recommendations for Shopify POS in action. The window is of a Shopify POS tablet screen with the step-by-step process of using Marsello’s Product Recommendations once a sale is almost through check-out.


    As you can see, you simply need to select the tab titled “Marsello | Loyalty Marketing” and then you’ll see a list of recommended products that can easily be added to the sale if your customer is interested. For more information on getting Product Recommendations for Shopify POS set up in your store, check out our Help Centre article that breaks down all the necessary steps.

     

    Why Product Recommendations?


    Although we see them all the time with email marketing, Marsello’s Product Recommendations for Shopify POS is a groundbreaking feature that you’ll find nowhere else! It’s vital that retailers are able to give customers valuable intel into the products on offer that they may not otherwise know about, and Product Recommendations makes this simple while also being informed by real-time shopping data.

    We know from countless studies that adding personalization such as recommending stock and encouraging sales with promotional offers can not only increase sales conversions, but also increase click rates, open rates, customer referral rates, and order values! Now, let’s translate that to in-store behaviors!

    Look at click rates and open rates as an increase in the number of customers who are visiting your store time and time again, browsing your products, and maybe even bringing their friends with them. If your staff are able to up the customer-service-ante by effortlessly recommending products to customers that they’ll actually enjoy, your customers aren’t just going to feel like you’re pushing products on them, instead, they will feel seen, catered to, and appreciated. 

    As our friends at Shopify put it, “effective cross-selling techniques can improve revenue per customer by 65% or more, and 80% of buyers prefer to buy from brands that personalize the purchase experience”. Read more here.

     

    Final Words


    Whether you’re looking to up-sell or cross-sell your products, or you want to shift old stock and increase customer loyalty, Product Recommendations for Shopify POS will help you to not only meet your sales goals but also satisfy your customers and grow your business. And it’s so easy to use!

    With Marsello’s AI, Product recommendations are a powerful, data-driven tool that any brick-and-mortar or omnichannel retailer should add to their business. The best part? Marsello’s AI Product recommendations gets smarter and smarter with every purchase! If you’d like to get started, check out our Help Center article to learn how to add Product Recommendations to your Shopify POS.

    Check out our wide range of features and upgrade for complete access to Marsello’s features.

    If you’d like to learn more about the all-new Shopify POS, please sign up here.

     

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