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Klaviyo Integrations POS

POS Integration: Connect Your Point-Of-Sale To Klaviyo [No Code Required]

Looking for a simple, no-code way to integrate your POS with Klaviyo? Look no further. Bring all your online and in-store data into Klaviyo with Marsello.

Alice Cresswell

Content Strategy Manager

Want to bring all your in-store sales data into Klaviyo?

Want to connect all your bricks-and-mortar and eCommerce transactions to unique customer profiles?

Want to segment your customers by their behavior, no matter where they’re shopping with you?

Look no further.

Marsello’s omnichannel loyalty program is your solution. Marsello integrates with point-of-sale (POS) apps as well as your eCommerce apps, and syncs all that data into Klaviyo.

That means you get all your sales data in one place. Better yet, it’s all identifiable. So if your customers are shopping with you online and in-store, you can see a complete activity log of all their purchases.

That means more complete data, and more marketing precision.

Klaviyo Integration - How does it work - Banner

Why do I need to use a loyalty program?

A loyalty program is one of the only ways to de-anonymize in-person transactions.

Without it, your customers can come in and shop without identifying themselves. Which means you’ve got regulars you can’t talk to, unless you’re actually speaking to them in the store!

You can’t let them know about new products, you can’t email them discounts for their loyalty, you can’t tell how much they’re spending with you.

With a loyalty program, you know your customers. They're motivated to self-identify, because they earn points on each purchase. Using Marsello, they simply scan their loyalty code or give sales staff their mobile number. This attaches the customer to the sale, and syncs all the order details through to their profile in Klaviyo.

Plus, with Marsello, you get much more than just SKU and order data. You can see points balance, tier status, and repeat purchase rate in Klaviyo as well (and use these data points for segments and automations). This shows you how engaged your database is, and how incentivized they are to come back.

See how Marsello's POS + Klaviyo integration works
Book a call with an expert to connect your in-store and online sales data with Klaviyo.

Marsello Integrations

How does the Klaviyo POS integration prevent marketing misfires?

Marketing works best when it’s data-driven. But your automations won’t make any sense if they’re firing only on your eCommerce transactions.

If your customers get a consistent brand experience when they shop online, but they’re not getting the same experience when they go in-store, it’s incoherent and jarring.

For example, if Ronnie Regular gets a follow up email after he buys knitwear online, letting him know how to care for his new garment, that’s the experience he expects from his in-store purchases next winter too.

By seamlessly linking your sales channels with Klaviyo (via Marsello), you can leverage your in-store loyalty and order data. This enables you to craft more impactful campaigns through Klaviyo. You can segment, automate, and communicate with all the necessary information at your fingertips.

How does the Klaviyo POS integration work?

Simply connect your POS, eCommerce and Klaviyo accounts to Marsello. Marsello then links up your in-store loyalty and order details with Klaviyo customer profiles.

This makes Marsello your loyalty and sales hub, with all that customer data flowing through into Klaviyo for more efficient marketing.

With the Klaviyo and POS integration, you will:

Share customer details with Klaviyo profiles: Sync customer details into Klaviyo, making customer profiles juicier with relevant data.
Share customer events with your Klaviyo account: Set up events to automatically send timely and targeted emails based on what your customers are doing – like their shopping habits, loyalty actions, or feedback. These events happen fast, almost in real-time. Share events like in-store and online orders, loyalty actions, and feedback.
Send your loyalty and order data to Klaviyo: Sync POS and eCommerce loyalty data and orders to Klaviyo customer profiles instantly. This gives you the full picture of how customers spend. You'll get to know your customers better – their habits and how they like to shop.
Create offers and coupon codes for Klaviyo campaigns: Whip up discount codes that work both in-store and online for your campaigns. Load them up against specific customer profiles so folks can enjoy discounts wherever they shop.
Build detailed customer segments for Klaviyo campaigns: Take advantage of both in-store and online data to create special customer segments in Klaviyo. These custom audiences help you run more personalized campaigns that go beyond just your VIP list.

See Marsello's POS + Klaviyo integration in action
Book a call with an expert to connect your in-store and online sales data with Klaviyo.

“Having something that worked across both [online and in-store] channels was really important. Marsello gives us the tools on that front ... It makes it very easy to talk to our customer in just one voice”.

Will, Pace Athletic

What's possible with the POS + Klaviyo integration

Best integrations for klaviyo - retail

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.

And more! For a full list of what’s possible, visit the Help Center.

How to connect Klaviyo to your POS with Marsello

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

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

Under Select Access Level, select Full Access Key
Click Create. This will generate your new API key.
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

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

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

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

And that's it!

No code, just a simple, seamless integration that only takes a minute.

See Marsello and Klaviyo in action with your business
Book a call with an expert to try Klaviyo and Marsello together.

Next read: 5 Klaviyo Integrations Every Retailer Should Be Using

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Loyalty Marketing

6 Tips for creating a point system for rewards

READ The ultimate goal with a loyalty points system is to leverage customer loyalty & grow your business. Learn how to create rewards your customers will love.

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The ultimate goal with a reward points system is to motivate customer behavior that grows your business. However, it is also a good way to build brand loyalty and reward your most loyal customers.

The Pareto Principle (also known as the Law of the Vital Few) states that 80% of all sales come from just 20% of your customers and that 20% are usually loyal, returning customers.

Creating a rewards program lets you focus on that valuable 20%!

If you have ever wondered

What a reward points system is,
How to set up a simple rewards program for loyal customers, and
How you can increase your revenue with a loyalty program

Then you are in the right place.

Marsello-Rewards-Point-System

What is a reward points system?

According to Shopify, rewarding points is the most common type of customer loyalty program. A reward points system is an incentivization strategy that increases spending through earning in-store points or credits.

Customers earn points on their account when they purchase. They can then redeem points the next time they shop or use them for other freebies and perks. Some loyalty programs also let customers accumulate points and move from a “regular” member to a “VIP” member in a tiered program.

Evermore Toys is a great example of a simple points rewards system. Their mission is to create high-quality toys for their customers, and they implemented an elegant customer loyalty program that increased their revenue by 738.87%.

Customers earn 1 point for every $1 they spend; when they reach 100 points they get $10 off their next purchase. Evermore Toys saw a 95% per month increase in loyalty points over a one-year period, showing that you don’t need a complicated loyalty program to get results.

Evermore Toys Points Reward System explainer page from their website

6 tips for designing a points reward system for your business

To implement a reward points system for customers, there are a few key systems you need. Your business and your customers are unique. 44% of consumers aren’t happy with rewards programs because the bonuses feel “irrelevant”. So it’s worth a bit of creative strategy!

The most successful loyalty programs are specific to your brand community and are extremely customer-focused.

Related: 7 Steps To Building A Profitable Loyalty & Rewards Program

1. Identify the main goals of your customer loyalty program

Obviously, your loyalty points system benefits your revenue potential. However, you can do so much more with it! So the first step to a successful points system is to identify what you want to achieve with it.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

- - Do you want to build brand loyalty by creating a unique community?
  - Do you want to reward your MOST loyal customers by creating a tiered reward system?
  - Do you want to delight customers with unexpected surprises?
  - Do you want to encourage more spending or points accumulation?
  - Do you want people to share your business on social media or get people to refer their friends?
  - Are you going to run “points promotions” to encourage higher spending in sales?

All loyalty programs motivate particular behaviors. When you are starting out it is best to choose just one or two goals so that you can track their progress and then build from there.

Download the free CLV Calculator
Most retailers use loyalty programs to increase the average lifespan and value of a customer. Use Marsello's free calculator to quickly estimate your average CLV.

2. Determine how customers will earn the rewards

Next, you will need to determine HOW customers actually get rewards.

You might want to keep it simple like the Evermore Toys example above. They spend a dollar, they earn a point. There’s nothing wrong with avoiding complications.

Loyalty programs also offer points for customer behavior such as

- - Sharing on social media
  - Earning freebies on your birthday
  - Giving product reviews
  - Referring a friend

Take Our Bralette Club as an example. Their loyalty program members can earn points when they make a purchase, for every friend they refer, for Tweeting about the brand, and even just for getting a year older on their birthday.

Our Bralette Clubs loyalty widget on a light pink banner

Other models include tiered rewards systems. This is where members can move from regular member to VIP status once they cross a spend threshold. VIP customers could have benefits such as Double Points (every dollar is 2 points) or other bonuses like automatic free shipping.

You will also need to consider online versus in-person shopping. Can customers earn and spend points no matter where they shop with you? Using a points reward software like Marsello makes loyalty programs completely seamless across eCommerce and POS.

3. Determine how these rewards will be awarded to the customers

Once customers have earned their points, it’s time to reward them! Do you have a system for how they can claim points?

Firstly it is important to have a login for members where they can easily see their points program total. Seamless integration with your eCommerce checkout and POS is critical for a successful loyalty program. Don’t make your customers work for it!

Next, identify the timeline. Can they redeem points as soon as they earn them? Will they receive a coupon or code for their next purchase? Will you send them something for free?

Lastly, consider what form their rewards will be in. It doesn’t just have to be points they can spend in-store.

Here are a few ways you could reward your customers in a points program:

- - Offer secret sales for people with a certain number of points
  - Collaborate with other businesses to do giveaways with similar products
  - Give away freebies when they buy multiple items
  - Do live in-person events for your most loyal customers
  - Offer other bonuses like free shipping or first access to new products
  - Set up an affiliate program where they can make actual money for referring new customers

Nigerian shoe brand bCODE has an outstanding loyalty program strategy. When they first launched their online rewards, they created a double-point promotion as well as a spend threshold.

The bCODE's points promotion email campaign

With their email marketing and social media campaign, they encouraged increased sales, loyalty program sign-ups, reward redemptions, and more! They also encouraged bCode customers to sign-up by sending an email campaign that detailed how shoppers could sign up to the newly expanded loyalty program and earn points in the lead-up to the weekend’s promotion.

With a 94% increase in loyalty points spent, you know they are rewarding loyalty right!

4. Identify the value of your rewards

If customers earn points-per-dollar, you will need to identify the value of your rewards. You can categorize rewards from low to high value based on how loyal customers are.

Will they get a discount voucher? Do their points add up to free shipping? Can they move up a membership level if they reach a spend threshold?

If you have a tiered loyalty program, the value of the rewards can go up with each level.

For example, a first-tier member could earn points that add up to a discount voucher. A second-tier member could earn double points. A third tier, VIP member could have free shipping, triple points, and access to exclusive events.

Remember, your most loyal customers bring in the most amount of revenue. It is worth going above and beyond to improve their experience with higher value rewards.

Look at outdoor apparel & footwear brand Merrell NZ. As soon as you sign up for their rewards program you can start moving up the tiers. Their silver and gold tier members enjoy generous discounts when they earn a certain number of points. Merrell NZ makes it simple for members to earn points with amazing rewards and a simple loyalty program widget.

Merrell NZ's VIP tiered loyalty program online widget

5. Associate a name/brand to your loyalty program

No matter how amazing your product is, you are facing a huge amount of competition. Your customers are probably being asked to join a huge number of other loyalty programs.

To make your customer reward system stand out, we recommend branding it.

How can you make your loyal customers feel like they are part of a special community? This is where customer experience comes into play for modern business. It’s not enough to simply sell to your customers. Associating a brand name with your loyalty program makes you memorable.

For example, Marsello user Our Bralette Club has a membership loyalty program called the Peach Party. Peach Party members enjoy generous discounts and free products, and most importantly the branded name makes them feel part of the club!

6. Promote your rewards point program

Finally, you need a system for promoting your points reward program. You can’t reward customers if they don’t know it exists! Don’t be afraid to promote it everywhere online and in stores.

This isn’t just for new customers or new business. When Evermore Toys rebranded, they used a clever email marketing campaign to encourage existing loyalty members to engage with the newly branded store and earn more rewards.

Evermore Toys' loyalty program announcement email on a bright yellow banner

We have a few tips for promoting your rewards system online:

- - Let people register for an account at the checkout and remind them to sign in
  - Have a banner on your website telling people about the benefits of becoming a member and earning points
  - Let customers know on your social media platforms
  - Use an omnichannel marketing platform that combines your reward system online with your POS
  - Automate your email marketing strategy to communicate effectively with new and existing members- you need to promote at the right times to ensure high engagement!

Your loyalty program is all about serving your customers even more. Shout its benefits from the rooftops!

Final words

A reward points system is an effective way to increase your revenue. It rewards your most valuable customers and goes beyond a transactional relationship. By branding your loyalty club, designing an easy-to-follow system, and promoting it for every new and returning customer, you will see incredible ROI on your rewards program.

If you are looking for the easiest way to set up a loyalty program for your eCommerce or in-person store, you’ve already found it. Marsello makes it simple to set up, market and run a successful point system for rewards. Start rewarding your customers with Marsello!

Loyalty Marketing Retention Marketing

Rewards and Promotions: Treat Your Customers on Their Birthday

READ How do you know it’s worthwhile to reward customers for milestones like their birthday? Read on to learn more about marketing with rewards and promotions.

As it turns out, there are very good reasons for you to treat your customers on their birthday. A study by Vibes found that 77% of mobile consumers state that receiving surprise points, exclusive messages, and birthday/anniversary content "would have a major impact on their brand loyalty."

Birthday campaigns also tend to perform better. Research by Experian revealed that compared with promotional emails, birthday messages:

- - have a 481% higher transaction rate
  - generate 342% more revenue
  - have a 179% higher unique click rate
  - See an 89% higher open rate.

These numbers tell us that birthday email campaigns can be a huge treat – for both customers and brands. So, it’s worth investing the time and effort to make your birthday initiatives shine. Read on for ideas and tips on how to do just that.

What are the benefits of birthday rewards for your business?

The biggest benefit of birthday rewards programs is that they are a win-win strategy. They put the focus on the buyer experience which benefits your best customers while simultaneously increasing revenue and loyalty.

There are several key reasons why birthday rewards should be part of your overall loyalty program strategy:

- - Firstly, birthday rewards programs increase customer loyalty. 84% of customers opt to stay with a brand that surprises them and takes a customer-centric approach. Who doesn’t like being spoiled on their birthday!
  - Secondly, loyalty programs (that include things like birthday surprises) are proven to improve customer retention rates. Even a small increase of 5% in retention can boost profits by a whopping 25-95%.
  - Lastly, you can gather personalized data on your best customers. This allows you to personalize customer experiences and again improve loyalty.

By adding birthday rewards to an existing loyalty program, you can personalize customer experiences, gather data on what campaigns are resonating with which customers, and re-target loyal customers who redeem rewards.

Free Download: 5-Minute Campaign Strategy Guide.
Make every campaign count. Every good marketing campaign starts with strategy - but it does not need to be rocket science! If you stick to what’s important, your campaign strategy can be both simple and effective.

How to prevent birthday rewards abuse

You might be asking “what if people sign up to our birthday points program with a fake birthday?”.

We have three suggestions to help stop birthday rewards point abuse.

1. 1. Apply a “cooling-off” period when people sign up to your loyalty program, i.e. don’t let people put in a birthday date that is within the first month (“What a coincidence, my birthday is TOMORROW!”). This will deter people who want “quick points” or instant freebies and then disappear.
  2. If you are using a points system, make it less than the points they receive for making an actual purchase while still being valuable.
  3. For birthday programs where you give out a freebie, make it a surprise! Don’t explicitly say what free item they will receive before they sign up. That way people will be less likely to sign up for that one specific item and you can still treat your loyal members.

Ultimately, there will always be people who want to take advantage of free points. The benefits you get from creating positive customer experiences for your loyalty club members will almost always outweigh the potential for rewards abuse.

Examples of Birthday Rewards Campaigns

When you do it right, birthday rewards campaigns can improve customer retention, loyalty, and engagement. Whether it’s sending specialty coupons, giving out freebies, or something a little more creative, these examples hit the nail on the head.

Send a one-off special discount and build excitement

This one can seem to be a low-hanging fruit of birthday rewards, however, special discounts are known to yield quick results and valuable data when implemented correctly. If you’re new to birthday campaigns, consider starting things off with a special discount that shoppers can use on the month of their birthday.

It’s simple, straightforward, and easy to test. Just make sure to create unique promo codes for each celebrant, so you can track who’s redeeming your offers.

Offer free products on special occasions

Alternatively, you can opt to give shoppers a freebie on their special day. Some examples of brands that offer birthday freebies include Starbucks and Sephora. In fact, birthday freebies are growing increasingly common. Australian burger joint Hello Harry’s openly offers their customers a free birthday burger… with a small caveat that protects the business – the birthday burgers are free up to the value of $12.

Freebies are a great option if you want to encourage your customers to try your products or if you have samples and surplus stock to give away.

Offer creative rewards to encourage engagement

Here’s the not-so-great reality of loyalty or rewards programs: while many consumers sign up for them, not everyone participates in all the programs they join.

A 2018 survey found that almost "two-thirds of respondents actively engage with less than half the loyalty programs to which they are members.” The survey found that only 18% actively engage with all their rewards programs.

If your loyalty or rewards program is suffering from low engagement rates, consider incorporating birthday rewards to stir things up. When implemented correctly, this tactic can fuel engagement among your members and put your brand back on their radar.

Anna Beck, a Shopify Plus-powered Jewelry store with multiple resellers and stores, has done a great job at subtly incorporating birthday rewards into their loyalty program to incentivize customers but not create so much buzz that they risk sign-ups for just that reason.

Members of the program automatically get 20 points on their birthday, but with 100 points for creating a profile and 25 for completing their profile information, it’s easy to see how customers quickly earn enough points to reap the rewards.

Since they started using Marsello, Anna Beck has experienced a 728.33% increase in revenue, directly attributable to their loyalty program. And even better, they’ve developed a really thorough understanding of their customer database and how to convert them into loyal customers. They had this to say about developing their loyalty program with Marsello:

“Through the data, we’ve found that we have incredibly loyal customers. Once they make their second purchase, they are highly likely to be lifelong customers. Marsello allows us to easily reward those loyal customers for sticking around, it was a no-brainer. Anna Beck has only been an online retail brand for a handful of years, and a loyalty program was the natural next step.”

Another great example comes from Smack Bang, a Wellington-based pet products specialist is one brand that's using a powerful loyalty program to its advantage. With a 100% engagement rate and 6x ROI, the addition of loyalty marketing to SmackBang's all-over marketing tech stack really helps them to capture customers' attention time and time again.

Smack-Bang-Earn-Options

Loyalty members earn points for actions such as creating a profile, referring a friend, reviewing products, making purchases, and engaging on social media. And the benefits include % discounts off as well as first-looks at product releases.

The Smack Bang team makes sure to keep their loyalty program members up to date with emails regarding product releases, business updates, sales, events, and more! By keeping regular contact with their customers, they set the expectation that the more loyal a customer is, the better deals they’ll get. And we love that SB lives up to this expectation!

Create a sense of mystery and surprise your customers

Want to keep shoppers on their toes or still trying to figure out which reward type is the best option? Consider offering a range of rewards and surprises that your customers can enjoy on their birthday month.

That’s what the lingerie retailer ThirdLove is doing. Members of their ‘Hooked’ loyalty program get an annual free birthday gift, which remains a surprise until the customer's special day. According to the company's website:

“We’re not ones to spoil a surprise! While we won’t tell exactly what they are, they’ll change regularly and might be a freebie, a discount, or a little something special just for you.”

Surprise freebies are a wonderful way to keep your customers excited, but our tip? Don’t be tempted to fall into the trap of ‘pawning off’ your hard-to-sell stock on these customers. Make sure your birthday freebies are worth the hype and keep shoppers wanting more.

Celebrate your business’s birthday and say thanks to your customers

A nice twist to the concept of birthday rewards is to celebrate your brand’s birthday. This is a good way to mark an important milestone, and it gives you the opportunity to thank customers – both new and old.

Bare Wholefoods, a Sydney-based cafe, did just that when they celebrated their 4th birthday.

Bare-Wholefoods-Birthday-Email-Discount-Code

To mark the occasion, Bare Wholefoods sent a pre-birthday email to their customers, which included a $10 discount code along with a sincere message of appreciation. The result? The small but mighty campaign saw a 6.59% conversion rate!

By celebrating their own birthday, Rough & Bare was also able to show appreciation to the customers that keep them going – and this is such a powerful message in the wake of significant changes brought about by COVID-19.

Tips for implementing birthday rewards

We’ve talked about the different types of birthday rewards you can offer; now let’s discuss how you can take your campaigns to the next level. If you’re looking to start or further optimize your birthday rewards initiatives, follow these best practices to ensure that your efforts hit the mark:

Integrate birthday perks with your loyalty or rewards program

While it’s certainly possible to offer birthday rewards to non-loyalty program members, your campaigns will perform far better if they’re incorporated into your loyalty program.

Roping birthday rewards into your loyalty program enables you to build data-rich customer profiles. Having your shoppers’ purchase histories, shopping activities, and birthdays in one place means that you have a clear view of who each customer is. That, in turn, can enable you to improve and personalize their shopping experiences even more.

LEGO Certified Stores South Africa has done this to great success!

Screen Shot 2022-02-16 at 11.07.43 AM

By awarding customers points on their birthdays and for purchases, LEGO creates a feeling of scarcity but customers also quickly rack up the points with each purchase. This means that when customers earn a reward, it feels all the sweeter!

Automate your campaigns

Keeping track of everyone’s birthdays and setting up individual messages isn’t just tedious, it’s impossible as your business grows. Campaign automation is not only a remarkable time-saver – automation as a whole (along with personalization) has actually been pinpointed as the future of marketing.

Thankfully, Marsello has done the hard work for you and already has a number of pre-made automated flows that are easy to review and enable. One of these automated flows includes a Birthday Flow which automatically triggers an email sequence to engage customers on their birthday month. This pre-designed email series is populated with an offer of a small discount and is already tied to your customer database, so there’s no need to manually configure the campaign.

Just take a look at this example from Nigerian shoe retailer bCODE:

Marsello-Email-Automation-Happy-Birthday-Flow-The-BCode

Notice that they’ve given their customers a lovely surprise by automatically adding 5 points to their account to celebrate! We love that this campaign stands out, has a compelling subject line, and gives customers value right away.

In fact, all of Marsello’s automated campaigns are designed to be easily enabled in just a few clicks. Learn more about Marsello’s marketing automation functionality or start a free trial and explore yourself.

Test your offers

While we can certainly recommend birthday rewards and ideas, ultimately, the performance of your birthday promotions will depend on your specific store and customer base. That’s why it’s important that you test and analyze different birthday promotions to see what works best for your business.

As mentioned above, coming up with unique promo codes makes it easier to monitor the performance of your offers, as well as the customers who are redeeming their rewards.

In fact, the NZ arm of international sporting goods specialists Merrell are pros are testing all of their marketing. They had this to say when we spoke to them about their Marsello-powered marketing.

“Marsello offers automations, loyalty, rewards, email campaign segmentation, SMS. All the tools that we knew we wanted to test in stages as our eCommerce and business grows. Step 1 was swapping from [our old provider] to using Marsello’s email marketing campaigns. Step 2, we’re using marketing automation. Step 3, it’s loyalty!”

It was essential to the team to find an all-in-one tool that they could use to build their marketing functionality while also testing each and every change. And that didn’t stop when it came to building their loyalty program and testing their promotional offers!

One way you can use birthday rewards to understand your customer engagement patterns is to test which different promo types (e.g., free shipping vs. 20% off vs. $5 off) your customer responds well too. Then, it’s easy to apply similar logic to any other promotions and offers that you create in the future!

Integrate SMS marketing

While email is still the most popular channel for sending birthday promos and rewards, SMS is rapidly gaining steam – and it won’t slow down anytime soon. Industry experts are predicting SMS marketing to grow by 52% by 2023.

As such, if you’re thinking about using SMS marketing, customer birthdays present the perfect opportunity to touch base. Consumers will likely be checking their phones for birthday greetings, and having a timely text from your brand could serve as a pleasant surprise.

Just remember, SMS marketing comes with a few rules to keep in mind and not every merchant is eligible. To make sure you’re doing everything right, check out our help center on SMS compliance.

Final words

Birthdays can be a real treat not just for your customers, but for your brand, as well. So, take the time to create campaigns that make your customers feel appreciated on their special day.

Need help doing just that? Check out Marsello’s customer loyalty features and discover how you can engage each customer on their birthday and beyond.

Make sure to check out our comprehensive loyalty guide to ensure your loyalty marketing is up to date in all areas.

Marketing Automation Retention Marketing Retail Marketing

5 Ways to Measure Retail Customer Lifetime Value

READ How much are each of your customers worth to you and how much should you invest in each of them? Learn how to calculate your customers' lifetime value.

The saying “You have to spend to make money,” is quite true in the world of retail. As a store owner, you often have to invest in marketing and advertising to acquire new customers and generate revenue. The question is, exactly how much should you spend on customer acquisition to ensure that your efforts are worth it?

To answer that, you need to calculate your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Sometimes referred to as Lifetime Value (LTV), this metric is the amount of revenue or profit that your business stands to generate from each customer during their lifetime. So, if your CLV is $50, then that tells you that it shouldn't cost more than $50 to acquire each new customer.

There are a number of formulas for computing CLV, and the right method will depend on your business model, customer behavior, and available data, among other things.

To help you figure out the right CLV calculation method for your business, we’ve put together some of the most common CLV methods used by eCommerce merchants. Check them out and see which one is the best fit for your business.

Download the free CLV Calculator
Use Marsello's free calculator to quickly estimate your average CLV.

1. Use the simple CLV formula.

The no-frills way to compute your CLV is to subtract the cost to acquire and serve customers from the revenue that you’ve earned from them. To do this, use the formula:

LTV = Lifetime Customer Revenue – Lifetime Customer Costs

So, if you earned $200 from a customer over their lifetime and you spent $140 acquiring and serving that customer, then their lifetime value is $60.

Since CLV is often defined as the profit you’ve earned from your customers, then it technically makes sense to subtract your customer costs from your revenue. That said, this takes a very simplistic view of CLV, and it becomes problematic when you’re calculating the CLV of entire customer groups or segments.

That’s because this formula doesn’t take into account the fact that not all your customers spend the same amount at your store. Not to mention, shoppers don’t all stay active within the same time period i.e., certain customers are active for 2+ years, while others just purchase once and then become dormant.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to use more complex CLV calculations to ensure that you’re able to factor in different customer variables.

And that brings us to our next formula...

2. Determine CLV based on customer revenue distribution

Another way to calculate your customer lifetime value is to look at how revenue is distributed across your customer base. You can do this by benchmarking customer spending in your business and then grouping your customers based on those spending thresholds.

Let’s say that spending in your company typically falls into the following buckets:

Customers who spend $25
Customers who spend $50
Customers who spend $75
Customers who spend $100

The next thing you need to do is to figure out how many customers fall into each bucket. So you might list them as follows:

No. of customers	Revenue
98	$25
80	$50
102	$75
68	$100

You’ll want to sum up the lifetime value of all your customers using the formula

(# of customers 1 x revenue) + (# of customers 2 x revenue) + (# of customers 3 x revenue) & so on

So the example above would be:

(98 x 25) + (80 x 50) + (102 x 75) + (68 x 100) = 20,900

You can divide that amount by your total number of customers to get the CLV

= 20,900 / 348 = $60.05

This is a good calculation to use especially if your basket sizes vary from one customer to the next. As The Balance explains, this CLV formula accounts for the fact that “some customers may be one-time or occasional buyers, versus the regular purchasers on the other end of the scale who have a higher LTV and generate the most profits.”

3. Multiply customer value by average customer lifespan

This CLV calculation is the one recommend by Shopify. What’s great about it is that it factors in a number of variables, including average order values, purchase frequency, and customer lifespan.

This method uses the formula:

Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan = Customer Lifetime Value

Let’s break down what each of these components means.

To determine Customer Value, multiply your Average Order Value (AOV) by Purchase Frequency. You can find your AOV by dividing your Total Sales by the Number of Orders.

Meanwhile, to determine Purchase Frequency, divide the Number of Orders you have gotten over a certain time period (say 1 year) by the Number of Customers you have within that same time period.

Once you know your AOV and Purchase Frequency, multiply those figures and you’ll get your Customer Value.

Next, let’s talk about the Average Customer Lifespan. This figure pertains to the length of time that a customer is active. You may need to examine your purchase history to figure this out, though some experts say that 1-3 years is a good estimate.

Once you’ve determined your Average Customer Lifespan, you can go back to the formula above, Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan to find your CLV.

Total sales + No. of orders = Average Order Value

No. of orders (1 year) + No. of customers (1 year) = Purchase Frequency

Average order value x Purchase frequency = Customer Value

4. Multiply lifetime value by profit margin

Another way to approach CLV is by multiplying Lifetime Value by Profit Margin. According to Clever Tap, this method takes your expenses into consideration so you're able to figure out the net value that you get from each customer.

Lifetime value x Profit margin = Customer Lifetime Value

The formula for this method is: Lifetime Value x Profit Margin, wherein Lifetime Value is Average Order Value multiplied by the Number of Transactions, which is then multiplied by Average Customer Lifespan.

Average order value x Number of transactions x
Average customer lifespan = Lifetime Value

Lifetime value x Profit margin = Customer Lifetime Value

Once you have that, then simply multiply the Lifetime Value by your Profit Margin – i.e., Lifetime Value × Profit Margin to find your CLV.

Download the free CLV Calculator
Use Marsello's free calculator to quickly estimate your average CLV.

5. Let your marketing software do it for you

Calculating customer lifetime value can be a complex task, which is why it’s often better to use software when figuring your business’ CLV.

A growing number of marketing platforms (including Marsello) can now use artificial intelligence to accurately calculate your CLV. These solutions do this by analyzing your customers’ purchase behavior in your business (as well as in stores similar to yours) to determine their lifespan and the amount of value that you can gain from them.

Even better, AI marketing solutions even let you compare your CLV with your industry’s average. For example, since Marsello can analyze shopping trends across multiple industries, we can figure out the average lifespan values of stores in specific verticals, and then surface those insights for you. That, in turn, can give you valuable knowledge of how your business measures up and helps you improve your marketing and advertising efforts.

Knowing your CLV is a must!

Regardless of how you decide to calculate your customer lifetime value, it’s essential that you do it regularly. CLV can help you make important decisions including, how much to spend on customer acquisition, which channels to invest in, and how to provide even more value to shoppers.

That’s why if you haven’t done so yet, now is the time to figure out your CLV ASAP. And if you need help doing that, feel free to get in touch.

Measure your CLV with Marsello

Plan and schedule social posts, email & SMS campaigns, and automations. Run loyalty and referral campaigns. Track and measure the impact of all your marketing on revenue.

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Shopify Marketing Tips

7 Best Loyalty Apps for Shopify in 2024

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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...

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?

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 $135 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.

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-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.

Shopify Marketing Tips

11 Best Shopify Apps to Grow Your Store in 2023

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With thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store, it can be overwhelming to pick the one that's right for your business. Here are the 11 best Shopify apps...

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 2023.

Keeper—Recover Abandoned Carts
Shopify Flow
Marsello: Loyalty, Email & SMS
Loop Returns & Exchanges
PageFly Landing Page Builder
Stamped Product Reviews & UGC
Booster: Page Speed Optimizer
Appstle Subscriptions
Peek! Better Replay & Survey
Easyship - All in one Shipping
Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS

11 Best Shopify Apps to Grow Your eCommerce Store in 2023.

1. Keeper—Recover Abandoned Carts

keeper-abandoned-carts-shopify-app

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

flow-shopify-app

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 $100/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.”

Recommended app for Shopify stores
Drive repeat sales with a loyalty program that works in-store and online.

4. Loop Returns & Exchanges

loop-returns-shopify-app

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

pagefly-shopify-app

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

stamped-product-reviews-shopify-app

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!”

7. Booster: Page Speed Optimizer

booster-page-speed-optimizer-shopify-app

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

appstle-subscriptions-shopify-app

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

klaviyo-shopify-app-recommendation

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:

What challenges am I facing as a Shopify business?
What specific tools do I need to address my problems?
What does my ideal state look like, and will this app help me get there?
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

Recommended marketing app for Shopify
Drive repeat sales with a loyalty program that works in-store and online. Marsello has everything you need to grow your store's revenue.

Shopify Product Recommendations Loyalty Marketing Shopify Plus Shopify Flow Google Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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 automation – delight 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 lists – Use 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.

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.

Shopify COVID-19 Omnichannel Retail Retail Marketing

26 Shopify Apps for Retailer’s Grappling with COVID-19

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Post-COVID-19 retail means adapting to a changing online retail landscape. Check out our selection of apps that could help to streamline your business.

Marsello gradient over a Shopify logo. 26 Shopify apps for retailesr grappling with COVID-19

Steering your business through the COVID-19 pandemic means adapting to a changing online retail landscape. With many businesses going through a temporary slowdown, it’s more important than ever to give your Shopify customers the optimum shopping experience they deserve. View these useful apps that are designed to streamline your business operations.

Sales and Marketing

Many people have temporarily cut back on online purchases, so it’s crucial to attract Internet shoppers who are searching for quality products. That’s where top-notch sales and marketing apps can make the difference.

Marsello

Marsello can help you develop a customer loyalty program that lets you reward customer behaviors that benefit your business. You can also streamline and uplevel your marketing initiatives with automated, customizable email, promotional campaigns, and highly effective SMS text messaging service.

Benefits for Your Business

In the retail business realm, having a steady stream of loyal customers who purchase from you again and again is like hitting the jackpot. Marsello can help you achieve that by powering an attractive loyalty program plus automating your marketing and customer communications. That way, you can focus on growing your business and serving shoppers better.

Gift Box Free Gift Motivator

This handy app encourages your customers to spend a little more and receive an enticing freebie. You design the free gift framework, and the gifts automatically appear in your customer’s cart when they meet the free gift criteria.

Benefits for Your Business

Customers are often willing to spend a little more to get a free gift, which helps to increase your business’ Average Order Volume (AOV). Offering a free gift with purchase can help to build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.

Spin-a-Sale

The popular Spin-a-Sale app demonstrates retail gamification at its best. When a visitor enters their email address, this interactive pop-up displays a spinning prize wheel that settles on a random, one-time discount. Visitors can use those discounts on your eCommerce site.

Benefits for Your Business

Visitors are likely to stay engaged with your emails and prize wheels, helping to boost your email signup rate and build customer loyalty. And, discount-laden shoppers are more likely to jump on your eCommerce site and make a purchase. This app easily adds subscribers to your Shopify customer list and automated email integrations.

Yotpo

This customer-themed eCommerce marketing platform enables you to easily collect favorable customer reviews and referrals, plus photos and videos. Yotpo’s powerful marketing tools can spur on-the-fence visitors to become enthusiastic customers.

Benefits for Your Business

Favorable customer reviews and referrals attract new customers who already have a positive impression of your business. Showcasing customer videos and photos on your website helps to strengthen your customer relationships and build customer loyalty.

Financials

Tracking your online business’ financial indicators is especially crucial right now, so arm your business with solid financial apps. Here are some suggestions.

Quickbooks Sync by Bold

This workhorse app automatically syncs your Shopify orders into your Quickbooks Online program. Data for expenses, payouts, and fees also migrate into your accounting program.

Benefits for Your Business

You won’t have to manually enter your Shopify data into your Quickbooks Online program. This system efficiency enables you to quickly obtain a Shopify financial status report.

XERO logo

Xero by OneSaas

OneSaas targets workflows that start with a specific transaction. When you create a quote, an order, an invoice, or a receipt, you only have to enter that data once. OneSaas shares that data so it’s available to all functions in that sequence.

Benefits for Your Business

Xero by OneSaas can free up your time for other higher-value tasks. And, because time is definitely money, you’ll spend less time on mundane tasks that don’t enhance your bottom line.

TaxJar Sales Tax Automation

All businesses are required to pay sales tax to their respective state and local governments. The hardworking TaxJar Sales Tax Automation app maintains daily sales tax balances due for all your selling platforms’ sales. Plus, TaxJar automatically submits your business’ tax forms before their due dates.

Benefits for Your Business

TaxJar Sales Tax Automation makes time-consuming manual sales tax calculation a thing of the past. Save valuable time crunching the numbers, and be confident that TaxJar is on top of sales tax payments for every applicable state. TaxJar submits the sales tax report to all required state and local government tax offices.

SimplyCost ‑ Profit Tracking

Tracking your business’ expenses and profit is important, but you don’t want to spend excessive amounts of time getting the answers you need. SimplyCost – Profit Tracking automatically calculates your store’s profit after considering all recurring and one-time expenses associated with your sales.

Benefits for Your Business

SimplyCost – Profit Tracking helps you save time by effortlessly calculating your store’s profits. By generating fast custom reports, you can gauge your store’s performance and determine your most profitable products. This valuable data will help you to execute better business decisions.

Social Media

Wide-ranging “stay at home” orders are keeping potential customers within their homes for weeks on end. With viewers constantly browsing their social feeds, smart retailers are executing compelling social media initiatives that will ideally translate into completed sales.

WhatsApp Chat

For eCommerce retailers, smooth order communication and processing are key to completed orders. Toward that end, the WhatsApp Chat + Abandoned Cart app provides fast customer support and order functionality. To minimize abandoned cart problems, the Abandoned Cart Recovery app sends messages that include discount codes to help complete sales.

Benefits for Your Business

Beyond WhatsApp’s eCommerce order functionality, this is a hugely popular communications platform. By blending it into your eCommerce online retail operation, you’ll gain added credibility with social media-savvy customers.

Instagram Influencer Marketing

In the realm of social media powerhouses, Instagram influencers carry a lot of clout. The Instagram Influencer Marketing app’s Carro program lists all the influencers that appear on your store’s customer, follower, and email subscriber lists. After Carro facilitates your collaboration with an influencer, you’ll be able to communicate with and supply products to them.

Benefits for Your Business

When used properly, Instagram Influencer Marketing can widen your reach on social networks. By cultivating a long-term relationship with Instagram influencers, you have highly credible allies who will help to promote your brand.

Facebook Messenger Marketing

If you’re looking for an additional marketing medium, Facebook Messenger is an increasingly popular choice. In fact, Messenger boasts an impressive 80%+ message open rate. With that optimistic backdrop, you can use the platform to generate more engagement. But do it soon before the space gets too crowded!

Benefits for Your Business

Why leverage Facebook Messenger Marketing? Chances are, you’ll reach customers and prospects while they’re browsing through their favorite Facebook channels. It’s simple, in this relaxed and familiar setting, customers may be more receptive to your marketing messages, so it’s a great opportunity to try and reach them.

Instafeed – Instagram Feed

Instafeed lets you boost your store’s online presence by adding crisp, new Instagram content. Images and videos are welcome, and you won’t need coding skills to complete this fast, easy installation.

Benefits for Your Business

Adding Instagram content to your store will encourage browsers to enjoy the photos and videos. When visitors stay longer, they’re more likely to explore your store’s offerings and purchase products.

Analytics

As a retailer, you need to know exactly what’s working (and what isn’t working). You also want to pinpoint your revenue sources, and learn about emerging financial problems, so you can make smarter business decisions.

Hotjar Install

Hotjar views your site from your visitors’ perspective and analyzes each aspect of those interactions. Note: The Hotjar Install (Unofficial) app isn’t affiliated with Hotjar. You’ll need a Hotjar account to implement this app.

Benefits for Your Business

Hotjar will carefully analyze your store’s instant feedback, feedback polls, form analysis, surveys, and conversion funnels drop-offs, among other metrics. Using that data, you can determine what is (and isn’t) working so you can make adjustments to improve site effectiveness.

Conversific

Conversific has funneled varied Google Analytics data and eCommerce metrics into one powerful app. Even better, Conversific has distilled those mountains of data into 10+ action-oriented reports.

Benefits for Your Business

With just a few clicks, you can view your gross profit, profit margins, and other reports that support profit growth and conversion. Doing so will allow you to get a steer on how your business is doing and you’ll get a good picture of your profitability and market position.

Glew: Multichannel Analytics

You don’t have time to hunt through your inventory, marketing, sales, shipping, and other functions to get the analytics data you need. Enter Glew, a multichannel analytics app that gathers all your eCommerce tools in one place. View your data via customized dashboards that enable segmentation and filtering.

Benefits for Your Business

Glew’s analytics solutions can identify your most valuable customers. Analytics results also help you to determine how (and when) to invest in channels with the best ROI potential, and develop other strategies to improve your bottom line.

Customer Service

Providing excellent customer service can set you apart from your competitors, and can help to build long-term customer loyalty. Armed with the right tools, you’ll be well equipped to provide your customers with customer service they’ll rave about.

Messenger Channel

While customers interact with your store’s Facebook Page, they can also buy products from your online Messenger store. If shoppers have questions, you can address them in Messenger. You’ll be able to fulfill Messenger-based orders through Shopify and track your Facebook sales through your Analytics pages.

Benefits for Your Business

When customers order products while chatting on Facebook Messenger, you receive that sales revenue. At the same time, you’re engaging with customers, which boosts your profile and encourages relationship building and long-term loyalty.

HelpCenter

You want to provide good customer service, but spending time on emails and live chats is time-consuming. Instead, the Help Center app posts frequently asked questions on a searchable Help Center Page. Customize the page to match your brand, and offer services in varied languages.

Benefits for Your Business

By serving your customers via the Help Center app, you’ll provide valuable details on your store and its offerings. You’ll spend much less time answering questions, enabling you to focus on helping your business grow.

Tidio Live Chat

Tidio Live Chat gathers your email, live chat, and Messenger channels together in one location. The Live Chat function utilizes intelligent bots that jump on abandoned cart issues and often save the sale via live chats and discounts. In fact, studies have shown that live chats can increase sales by 40 percent. Tidio Live Chat is available in multiple languages.

Benefits for Your Business

Tidio Live Chat is an invisible partner who never sleeps. By interacting with customers on your behalf, you’ll see increased sales and fewer abandoned carts. You’ll also enjoy easy access to your email and Messenger channels in one location.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Depending on your budget, you may need to reduce paid advertising in the short term. As a result, you’ll need to work extra hard to drive organic traffic.

SEO Image Optimizer – Auto SEO

Recognize the value of SEO-optimized images, but don’t have the time or expertise to handle these tasks yourself? With a one-click installation, the SEO Image Optimizer – Auto SEO app monitors and optimizes your store daily to comply with Google’s best image search practices.

Benefits for Your Business

This hardworking app will automatically optimize your images to comply with Google’s best image search criteria. As a result, you’ll be favorably positioned in Google’s search rankings.

Plug in SEO

The one-stop, Plug in SEO app fixes existing SEO issues with your Shopify store. The app also optimizes your blog, adds valuable keyword tools, and performs updates as search engines change their algorithms.

Benefits for Your Business

Your improved SEO position will drive more organic traffic to your store. Better-optimized SEO also helps to improve your search engine rankings.

SEO Manager

This value-packed SEO package includes varied tools, and real-time feedback, designed to help your store rank better in search engines. SEO Manager also identifies and automatically repairs your website’s broken links.

Benefits for Your Business

SEO Manager helps you to improve your search engine rankings. In turn, your store enhances its online visibility and will likely see increased traffic to your eCommerce store.

Inventory Management & Order Fulfillment

With more people shopping online, efficient order processing has become extremely important. Ecommerce merchants need an order fulfillment system that handles all transaction aspects. Brick-and-mortar stores need a proven tool that helps them to manage their curbside pickups and delivery orders.

Shippo

Processing orders through several sales channels can be a laborious process. Shippo syncs your channels so you can manage your orders on a single platform. You can also generate discounted shipping levels, efficiently track your shipments, and update your customers.

Benefits for Your Business

Shippo’s time-saving order processing and tracking app saves time and reduces your frustration factor. This all-in-one solution reduces duplication of effort, giving you more time for higher-value tasks.

ShippingEasy

If you regularly ship via the United States Postal Service (or USPS), the ShippingEasy app can save you money on domestic and international shipping costs. You’ll receive a free Postal Service postage account, plus discounted rates on all services. ShippingEasy also supports delivery to APO/FPO/DPO locations.

Plus, you can print labels in batches, avoiding laborious one-at-a-time printing tasks. As an added bonus, ShippingEasy boasts an award-winning support team.

Benefits for Your Business

ShippingEasy’s discounted USPS shipping rates will certainly save you money, and the savings will increase with your processed volume. Printing labels in batches will also save valuable time.

Stocky

Managing your store’s inventory is a balancing act. You don’t want to run out of popular products, but you also don’t want to tie up too much money in inventory. Stocky enables you to manage your purchase orders from one location, and you’ll quickly learn when it’s time to replenish stock. Use Stocky’s data to evaluate inventory and make decisions accordingly.

Benefits for Your Business

By giving you an accurate inventory snapshot, Stocky helps you to avoid spending your hard-earned cash on excessive stock. When an item reaches the “Replenish Now” level, you’ll get an immediate alert. This timely data makes it much easier to gauge your ongoing inventory needs.

Store Pickup + Delivery

Retailers of all sizes can benefit from having store pickup and delivery options, so this app is a game-changer. Store Pickup + Delivery, you can implement local delivery and curbside pickup, while keeping your shipping calendar clean and up-to-date.

Benefits for Your Business

Utilizing the curbside pick-up method saves you money on picking, packaging, and shipping costs. Local product delivery is a desirable concierge service. Social-distancing customers will appreciate these options for receiving their products with minimal risk. By offering these choices, you’ll help to build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.

Now Back In Stock

This handy app tells your customers when their desired out-of-stock items are now available for purchase. Send alerts via email or SMS text messaging, and customize the messages to reflect your store’s brand.

Benefits for Your Business

Because the customer already wants to purchase a “Now Back in Stock” item, you’ll likely generate a sale. By obtaining the customer’s email and mobile contact information, you can add the customer to upcoming marketing campaigns. You’ll also promote customer loyalty by offering this desirable service.

Your turn

Now we’d love to hear from you. Which Shopify apps are invaluable to your store during these times? Let us know in the comments.

Shopify Omnichannel Retail Retail Marketing

13 Shopify Apps to Take Your Retail Store to the Next Level

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Shopify has a growing marketplace of apps and solutions that can boost your business' revenue and reach. Read about our top picks for 2020 and beyond.

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, allowing merchants to create an online store in just a few steps. In addition to giving eCommerce and brick-and-mortar store owners all the tools they need to build, launch and grow their business, Shopify also has a growing marketplace of apps and solutions that can extend the capabilities of the platform. With the developments of Coronavirus (COVID-19), now is the perfect time to be analyzing which apps will help you to master the management of an omnichannel store.

To date, the Shopify’s app store offers upward of 2,400 apps to its users, and on average, 33,000 are downloaded each month.

But not all apps are created equally, and with 2,000+ to browse, it can be challenging to find which app is going to get the best results for your business.

So, we've saved you the hassle of browsing thousands of solutions and identified the 13 best Shopify apps to get you through marketing, analytics, accounting, staffing, merchandising, and much more.

1. Marsello

When it comes to loyalty marketing and automation for your Shopify store, look no further than Marsello.

Our app equips you with powerful tools that can help you run delightful marketing campaigns across physical and digital channels. Want to set up a loyalty program that seamlessly works online and offline? We got you covered. Need to send targeted messages via email and SMS? You can do that too!

Marsello also puts the power of AI at your fingertips. The platform uses customer segmentation to organise and track customers based on their shopping behavior (i.e., purchase history, recent interactions, etc.), helping you to run the right campaigns at the right time.

2. Kiri - Helpdesk and Helpcenter

eCommerce support is critical to keeping customers on your site, engaged with your brand, and moving through to purchase. Kiri assists with just this through the use of artificial intelligence.

Kiri allows store owners with an eCommerce site to increase their profits and customer satisfaction with automatic replies, intelligent sorting, and assessing the customer value and risk, so support staff know which conversations to prioritize.

3. Smart Wishlist

Wishlists enable customers to identify and store items they like. Smart Wishlist helps merchants to make this process as smooth as possible, even before customers have registered or logged into your site.

Smart Wishlist is a simple tool that gives customers the ability to add to their wishlist in just one click, no sign-in needed, and no coding required from merchants.

4. Tagalys

The Tagalys Personalized Recommendations app for Shopify allows you to tailor the product categories and recommendations shown on your website, based on the interest of the user as well as what’s trending.

Tagalys lets you create data-driven product listings and recommendations, so your website displays products that shoppers are most likely to buy. Product recommendations on your online store, in turn, keeps customers on your site and helps to increase conversions and revenue.

5. Easyship

Shipping is a crucial piece of the eCommerce business puzzle, and finding the right shipping solution can help businesses to save drastically – both their time and money.

The Easyship app for Shopify gives merchants access to low shipping costs all over the world. With more economical shipping costs offered to customers, the barrier of freight is removed, paving the way to increased conversions and more repeat purchases, not to mention cost savings for both sides.

6. SEO Booster

Being seen online is the primary battle in building a customer base. To be seen, your eCommerce site needs to be search engine optimized and to be optimized, you either need an in-house team, or you need systems working to support you.

SEO Booster by Secomapp helps eCommerce sites to boost their SEO with no prior SEO skills required. With a number of automatic functions, tools, and insight features, the SEO Booster app helps your site to set up SEO like a pro.

7. SEO App ‑ Setup Optizen

We've said it already: SEO is critical to getting seen online. But, thankfully, there are many ways that eCommerce businesses can improve their SEO, and SEO App - Setup Optizen is one handy app to help you do just that.

SEO App ‑ Setup Optizen by EcomXSEO allows merchants to add content below product grids on collection pages, which boosts the relevance of the page, making it more SEO friendly and thus better ranking. With the SEO App ‑ Setup Optizen app for Shopify, you can include more internal links and heading tags, bringing validity to improve product page rankings.

10. Bulk Products Editor

Editing product information in bulk can be a nightmare, no matter whether it's tens of items or thousands. To counter this, SpurIT developed Bulk Products Editor for Shopify users to streamline the process and make it possible to edit in bulk from one page.

Through the app, merchants can edit product and variant details in bulk, with just a couple clicks, all from the same page. This could be bulk tags, vendor details, product titles and descriptions, SEO information, or bulk price changes.

9. Staffy

With smoother staff management, retail store owners and managers can focus less on admin and focus more on important work – such as growing your online and offline sales, keeping your customers happy, and strategizing where to take your business.

To that end, Staffy is a Shopify app that helps you stay on top of employee management, scheduling, and payroll. With quick and easy shift scheduling, salary calculation systems, payment integrations, and team communication tools, Staffy is an all-rounder system for sites managing staff.

Staffy is a platform that is made to ensure teamwork productivity and payroll in Shopify. It's designed for merchants that rely on remote teams, physical employees, and/or POS store retail employees. Staffy's time tracking capabilities ensure that employees are working during business hours, no matter if they're at home, or at your fulfillment center. Staffy also comes with in-depth integrations to provide key features and insights such as custom made reports, one-click payroll, project management tools and more - all while being fully integrated with your Shopify system.

- Harel Ishay, CEO at Staffy

10. Matcha

They say content is king, but unfortunately, it can also be tough to measure, and many eCommerce businesses have historically struggled to learn what content is converting.

With Matcha for Shopify, merchants can see exactly what content their customers respond to and what impact this content has on their revenue. With these insights, Matcha also assists merchants in creating content strategies with conversion, not just engagement, in mind.

11. PriceWhiz

Applying changes to products can have a significant impact on how they sell, and this can be particularly difficult to track. PriceWhiz gives Shopify merchants an app to easily measure these changes by setting goals that measure how long it takes to sell an item against how long you want it to take to sell.

With better measurement, eCommerce owners can make smarter decisions through experimentation, rather than guesswork, with a full report on the number of orders from each product line within the goal time.

12. Conversific ‑ Store Analytics

Analytics tools are what makes the Internet go round and allows eCommerce businesses to get ahead of their competitors. For Shopify sites, Conversific ‑ Store Analytics is the analytics tool of choice, bringing up actionable analytics and reports so that merchants can make sense of and harness their data.

With no need to develop technical skills, merchants can optimize for traffic and conversion, access benchmarking and insights tools, and master Google Analytics to boost their online sales.

13. Product Questions and Answers

The modern consumer is a research savvy, internet literate individual with a penchant for seeking answers to hunt down the best deal. Answering questions all day, however, is time-consuming for merchants or customer service teams; hence Product Questions and Answers become so valuable.

With this free app on Shopify, eCommerce site owners can create product-specific FAQ sections on various product pages. Not only does this answer consumer questions, but it also helps with SEO and product questions and answers.

The biggest benefit [of Product Questions and Answers ] is it helps merchants maintain the FAQ page for each product on their respective product pages. Plus, questions and answers are rendered via In Page HTML and via JS rendering. This helps Search Engines read the content of the pages more efficiently.

- Amit P Jivani, CEO at Simprosys InfoMedia

Bringing it all together

Retail success requires you have a strong presence on both physical and digital channels. If you’re a brick-and-mortar store looking to go online, then installing some of these apps from the get-go will help you kick off on the right foot. Already have an online store? These apps will optimize it further so you can take it to new heights!

Shopify Email Marketing Retail Marketing

Mailchimp for Shopify: Getting through the eCommerce break-up of 2019

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If you’re a Shopify retailer who previously used Mailchimp, you’re probably trying to find an email marketing solution. Learn about your options here.

You’ve likely heard about the statement released by Shopify. On May 12, 2019, it was announced that Mailchimp would no longer have native integration with Shopify due to poor merchant experience as a direct result of Mailchimp’s refusal to respect Shopify’s Partner Program Agreement.

If you’re a Shopify eCommerce marketer who uses Mailchimp, you’re probably thinking about what to do now. There are two options: look for an alternative, or use a third party to sync Shopify to Mailchimp. Let’s explore them both:

Looking for a Mailchimp Alternative

If you had been using Mailchimp to automate emails triggered by customers’ shopping behavior in your Shopify store, the good news is – there are alternatives. When it comes to email automation, some Email Service Providers (ESP) are more powerful than others, some are easier to set up than others, and some have better reporting than others. Here’s a helpful comparison of the leading alternatives.

If you’ve already gone through the process of setting all this up in Mailchimp, you’re probably dreading having to do it all over again. The good news is, using an app like Marsello, everything is ready to go and defaulted with best-practice email flow settings and triggers, and pre-designed templates. All you have to do is add your business’ logo and turn each email flow on, or you can customize the designs and settings to suit your brand. You can do everything you could do with Mailchimp Automation (and more with easier to set-up product recommendations, Shopify discounts, and segmentation):

Encourage new customers to shop again. To make a great first impression and bring new customers back to your store again, say thanks with a First-Time Email.

Look after your best customers. Automate an email flow that encourages your best customers to keep shopping. If product recommendations in the first email don’t motivate a purchase, automatically follow them up with an exclusive discount just for them.

Build loyal relationships on customers’ birthdays. A cheerful ‘Happy Birthday’ message or offer designed to delight your customers will get them shopping again, and help move them to more desirable segments.

Win back At Risk customers. Bring back at-risk customers with an automated email flow designed to win them back. If product recommendations in the first email doesn’t motivate a purchase, automatically follow up with a limited-time discount email.

Recover abandoned carts. Automate great-looking abandoned cart emails to be sent when your customers don’t complete a purchase and leave items in their cart. Go the extra mile and pull through product images from their cart and a button to take them back to complete their order.

Send one-off email campaigns. Update your customers with on-brand, creative, and easily built one-off email campaigns. Send and schedule newsletters, promotions, or new stock emails to your entire database or to a certain customer segment with just a few clicks.

So how do you make the switch? All you need to do is install Marsello on the Shopify App store with a 14-day free trial (no payment details required). Marsello has been built for Shopify, so all of your customers will automatically sync. Still have questions about migrating from Mailchimp? We’ve put together a helpful page of FAQs on making the switch.

Still can’t decide what to do? Ask our marketing experts for help.

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Guide to Getting Your First Key Sales in 2022

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In this blog, learn how to generate quality leads for your first key sales and turn new customers into life-long brand advocates.

In retail, momentum is one of the best ways to generate your first key sales.

Getting momentum and customers early on not only puts money in the bank (so you can re-invest in your growth), but it gives you the motivation to keep going.

So, how exactly can you drive your initial sales? We’ve put together 10 ideas to help you gain paying customers as you kick-off, as well as important sales KPIs and keys to building an effective sales process in your new retail biz.

Top sales KPIs to track your progress

Tracking sales KPIs is the only way to know if you are making progress in your retail business. The sooner you start tracking your progress, the sooner you will see trends in key metrics such as customer loyalty, churn rate, and how it costs to bring in a new customer.

Below are some of the best sales KPIs you should include in your analytics.

Customer Loyalty

Your loyal customers Repeat customers spend 33% more than other customers, so it is worth focusing your marketing efforts on them specifically.

Loyalty can be measured through:

- - Net Promoter Scores (NPS), i.e. how likely they are to recommend your brand to someone you know
  - Customer Loyalty Index surveys
  - Returning customer analytics
  - Loyalty programs and points redemption (customer loyalty platforms like Marsello track this for you!)

If you can build customer loyalty from the very first sale, they will help you build momentum as you grow.

Customer Lifetime Value

The Customer Lifetime Value KPI is how much your business can reasonably expect from a single customer. You can use this to identify your best customer segments and therefore where to focus your marketing budget.

Companies that prioritize customer experience have profits 60% higher on average than those that don’t. This emphasizes the need for ongoing customer relationships and long-term investment. Loyalty is not a once-off marketing tactic.

Customer Churn Rate

Another sales KPI is your Customer Churn Rate. A high churn rate indicates that although someone has signed up, they are not sticking around. It is measured by

For retail, KPIs that go alongside churn rates are

- - Customer loyalty and NPS scores
  - Retention and returning customers (do customers make one purchase and never come back?)
  - Loyalty program redemption (are customers engaged with your brand’s rewards?)

Customer Acquisition Price

Customer acquisition price measures how much it costs your business to bring in a new customer. The lower this number, the more efficient your marketing and sales process.

Ideally, you want your average purchase order per customer to be much higher than the cost of acquiring them. This is why you should focus on customer loyalty just as much as marketing.

Average Order Value

The Average Order Value is calculated by dividing the total revenue by the number of orders placed. Tracking average order value doesn’t just give you insight into customer behavior. It also correlates with a stronger profit margin.

Using upsells, rewards points, and bonuses like free shipping thresholds are all ways that you can incentivize higher average order values when you start out.

Key elements for an effective sales process from the start

No matter what you’re selling, there are a few proven factors for success in sales. These steps integrate into any sales process, whether that is through website copy, market positioning, social media, or email marketing.

Identify customer needs clearly

Before you can make your first sale (or any sale), you need to know if your product serves your ideal customers.

This is done in the planning stage of your business. Ask questions about your product like:

- - Do you have a unique value proposition?
  - Have you done the market research? Is this something people ACTUALLY want or need?
  - Who are your competitors? What are their measures of success?
  - Why do people NEED or CRAVE your product?
  - Have you done a test run to see if there is demand before investing everything in a product?

Putting in the effort to clearly identify your customers’ needs will set you up for success with your first few sales.

Build Rapport

Prior to launching and getting sales, it is important to start building a rapport with potential customers. 68% of customers leave a brand because they feel like you are indifferent to them. Building rapport and community is crucial!

One way you can create ongoing rapport with your potential customers is to build a loyalty program. Effective loyalty programs can help build hype and a sense of belonging for your customers which all contribute to more sales.

A good example of a loyalty program community is Our Bralette Club. They have a loyalty program that not only resulted in a 278% increase in revenue generated from program members alone but also creates a fun, inclusive community for their “Peach Party” members.

Present a solution

When you boil it down, sales and business are just identifying problems and solving them for people. Whether that's showing customers how to build their spring wardrobe, selling the highest quality dog treats on the market, or helping people get into hiking by giving great boot recommendations.

Your marketing, visual assets, storefront, and website copy should all emphasize why your product solves their exact needs.

Close the deal

Once you have done your market research, started building rapport, and have a product people want, the most important step is to actually make the sale!

We have a few tips to help increase your chances of closing the deal:

- - Make your website as user-friendly as possible - According to a study by eMarketer, the only thing online shoppers like more than customer reward coupons is a quick and easy checkout process. 83% of shoppers marked this as their top priority for loyalty.
  - Set up abandoned cart emails- People get distracted, people change their mind mid-payment- increase your chances of making the sale by setting up automated email campaigns for abandoned carts.
  - Start collecting customer data - Set up a loyalty campaign that rewards loyal customers and gets them to sign in. This will help with retargeting and building relationships.
  - Create an omnichannel marketing campaign - omnichannel marketing campaigns allow you personalize and target specific groups to increase your chance of converting them to sales.
  - Sweeten the deal - How can you convert interested shoppers to paying customers? To make those first sales, consider sweetening the deal with rewards points for people who sign up and spend thresholds for things like free shipping.

Create upselling opportunities

Businesses with higher Average Order Values have higher profit margins. That’s just simple math! Creating upselling opportunities is a great way to increase the amount a customer spends in a single transaction.

Examples of upselling opportunities you could try out are:

- - Free Shipping - Let customers know how close they are to a free shipping spend threshold
  - Free Items - Give customers a free (exclusive!) gift if they spend a certain amount
  - Loyalty Points - Set up a program that lets customers earn loyalty points and rewards for every dollar they spend which they can exchange for other products or exclusive experiences
  - Similar Products - Give targeted recommendations for items usually brought together
  - Discount Bundles - Group together similar products and offer a limited time discount to buy multiple items.

10 marketing ideas to help you get your first sales

Ready to make your first key sales and get that momentum going in your new retail business? Whether you’re selling online, in person, or both, these marketing ideas will get you started.

Start marketing before you launch your products

Aim to build your audience even before you officially launch your business. You can do this by creating a website or social media account, and then posting high-value content that appeals to your target audience. You could also join relevant groups or forums and start connecting with their members.

Doing so benefits you in a couple of ways. For starters, finding an audience prior to creating your product or business enables you to validate your ideas and determine if there’s a strong demand for your offerings.

What’s more, building an audience early on paves the way for a stronger launch. If you already have an email list or existing social media followers, then you can unveil your products to an audience who already knows who you are, and are thus more likely to buy from you.

Andrew Alexander, the owner of FindaBusinessIdea.com, put this strategy to work in his own business and has seen tremendous results.

“In 2011, I was making posts on niche forums, Facebook groups, and other niche websites [...] Three years later when I released a program of mine… I already had people who were familiar with my name and what I wrote about, so the content I put out there (before I even had a product) allowed me to get my first $1,200 in sales within the first few weeks of launching my business.”

2. Be clear about your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to getting your first sales is standing out in the marketplace. If your company is brand new, it can be difficult to win over shoppers, particularly if you’re selling something that people can buy elsewhere.

An effective way to get around this is to identify your unique value proposition and then market to a specific niche that would benefit from your UVP. Doing so enables you to be more targeted with your messaging and positioning, which then allows you to cut through the noise, so you’re speaking directly to your niche.

Jonathan Prichard, the CEO and Founder of MattressInsider.com says that finding his business' UPV and niche helped keep his business from sinking.

“When I began my mattress company, I almost went bankrupt selling the same thing every other mattress company in America sold, which made it difficult to stick out. Luckily, I found the custom mattress size niche and was able to reposition the business before we went under,” he shared.

Jonathan’s key advice is to showcase your UPV in compelling ways.

“It’s a no-brainer that this is going to make you stand out from the crowd to draw people in for your initial sales. If you don’t stand out in the market you’re entering, you’re not going to get those sales that will keep you afloat, thriving and motivated.”

3. Tap into your existing network

Your current network could hold the key to unlocking more momentum in your business. If you haven’t done so yet, start reaching out to your friends, family, and existing supporters to see if they can help spread the word or send shoppers your way.

This step doesn’t have to be complicated. As Kathleen Cutler of Bespoke Commerce notes, you can get going with just a pen and paper.

“Write down your most connected friends and family who've bought from you in the past. Email them directly to ask who they might know who'd be interested in your eCommerce shop. Follow up with the referral leads directly with highly targeted and personalized communication.”

4. Create an engaging storefront (both online and in-person)

As a retail business, your storefront can either drive traffic and sales or send people packing. This is why it’s important to keep your window displays attractive and enticing. Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind:

- - Always have fresh merchandise and themes – See to it that your storefront keeps up with seasonal trends. Update your displays every week or two with new merchandise to give customers reasons to check out your store.
  - Keep elements at eye level – Decide on the products or elements that you want to draw attention to, and then position those key components at eye level. This ensures that people will immediately see the most important elements of your displays.
  - Avoid clutter – Overcrowded displays can cheapen the look and feel of your merchandise. Prevent that by keeping your display clean and uncluttered. The objective is to use your best products to attract customers, and encourage discovery while they’re inside your shop.

Here's a great example of a display following the above best practices. Created by Smack Bang, the window display incorporates clear links to the brand colors and aesthetic (which match the online store) and showcases Smack Bang's outstanding pet products by cleverly displaying them at various levels.

They've even added links to their store and socials with window decals which is a clever way to encourage social media engagement – something they reward with their customer loyalty program.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Smack Bang (@smackbangstore)

For eCommerce stores, your homepage is the online equivalent of a window display, and the same design principles apply. Be sure to showcase your seasonal products and new arrivals, and avoid cluttering up the page with unnecessary information.

Anna Beck, a Shopify Plus-powered jewelry retailer, has mastered a well-branded, visually appealing online user experience. Their online store is always tastefully-designed with a beautiful homepage banner featuring their high-quality product photography.

Anna Beck's online store with three ornate gold rings featured in a full-width product photo under the fold.

With their logo at the top of the page, a simple set of navigation options, and clear but unobtrusive banners, Anna Beck's online store feels inviting and enjoyable to explore – something that's essential for 'E-tail' success.

5. Collaborate with other companies

Consider tapping into the audiences of other retailers and brands. Identify non-competing companies that share your target customers and see if you can team up with them. Collaboration between brands and retailers is becoming an increasingly popular strategy, particularly when it comes to eCommerce companies teaming up with physical retailers.

Case in point: Australian women's ethical surf brand Salt Gypsy. Salt Gypsy started as an eCommerce store specializing in women's surfwear (swimwear that meets the needs of surfers). While Salt Gypsy has a bricks-and-mortar location, they've been able to grow their brand and make waves into new areas by branching out into technical surf equipment – namely, surfboards!

Now, numerous stores in Australia and locations around the world have teamed up with Salt Gypsy to sell their merchandise – and their boards (designed specifically for female surfers) are flying off the racks! Sometimes, the Salt Gypsy team gets a chance to pop into one of these locations like they did at Byron Bay surf store, Surfection.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Salt Mavens (@saltgypsy)

And the Surfection team is quick to cross-promote Salt Gypsy too! It's exactly this kind of co-marketing that creates life-long customers from just one sale!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Surfection Byron Bay (@surfectionbyron)

6. Team up with influencers

Research shows that 92% of consumers trust influencers more than traditional celebrity endorsements, which means that building relationships with the right individuals can pay off for your brand.

If it makes sense for your business, start identifying social influencers who can amplify your messages. Use tools such as Peg, Reachbird, and Scrunch to find the right people and create outreach campaigns.

You can engage influencers through a number of ways, including:

- - Free products
  - Content collaborations
  - Sponsored posts

For best results, throw in a special offer or discount that influencers can promote to their followers. That’s what Lokus Nutrition did when they ran their influencer campaign.

“We targeted Instagram users with audiences that matched our desired customer. We reached out to them directly and engaged an Influencer Marketing Agency to help,” explained Paul Miller, president at Lokus Nutrition. “We [then] offered a 10% discount code for our Instagram influencers to use in their posts.

7. Tap into relevant groups and websites

In addition to sending freebies or discounts to influencers, see if you can apply the same strategy when reaching out to websites and social media groups.

According to Paul, they also reached out to Facebook groups whose members matched their target market and offered a discount for all group members.

The Lokus Nutrition team also reached out to websites that were coming up with gift guides, and sent those sites free products to sample, review, and include in their guides.

Consider doing something similar in your business. Identify groups, forums, or websites that are frequented by your target audience, and then explore partnership opportunities with them.

8. Encourage referrals

Create momentum and drive additional sales by encouraging your current customer base to refer your brand to their network. To streamline this process, use a referral program that makes it easy to track referrals and rewards.

Carolina Lifestyle, a women's clothing retailer, implements this strategy quite well through their customer loyalty program. Carolina Lifestyle's referral program instantly rewards their customers with 100 loyalty points (the equivalent of $10 off in-store) for every friend who successfully makes a purchase.

The program not only attracts new shoppers, but it lets the brand reward their existing customers, which builds goodwill and brand loyalty in the process.

Marsello lets you automate the referral process with instant unique URLs for different social media platforms, email, and SMS, then reward customers for successfully referring their friends who complete a purchase.

9. Consider third-party online marketplaces

It’s worth considering if marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay are good sales channels for your brand. These websites reach hundreds of millions of users daily, so with the right marketplace strategy, you can drive additional sales.

Each website is different, but here are a few general pointers for how to succeed in online marketplaces:

- Craft compelling listings – Make your product listings as compelling as possible by using attractive images and rich media that showcase your items from various angles. You should also craft unique and compelling copy to effectively communicate the features and benefits of your items.
- Optimize your listings for search – You want your products to show up on relevant searches, so optimize your listings by incorporating targeted keywords in your titles and descriptions. Just remember not to overdo it! The key is to write for people, not bots.
- Build up a strong seller reputation – Marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay strongly favor sellers with high ratings and reviews. So, strive to build a stellar reputation by selling high-quality products at fair prices, and by providing excellent customer service.

10. Win back lost sales

Are shoppers leaving your website without completing their purchases? Don’t let those potential key sales slip away. Implement abandoned cart email campaigns to remind shoppers about the items left in their basket.

Take a leaf out of OnceWas’ playbook. Whenever someone adds an item to their cart but leaves without completing the sale, OnceWas' Marsello-powered marketing triggers an automated email flow to give the customer the opportunity to finish their purchase and even throws in the added incentive of a 10% discount.

Marsello-OnceWas-Abandoned-Cart-Email-Flow

Automated win-back flows are just one of the many ways you can implement automation into your marketing to help you get more and more sales and scale your business. Book a demo with one of our team to learn more about marketing automation and all the other features available with Marsello.

Final words

Gaining your first key sales may seem daunting, especially if you’re just starting out, but it’s completely doable! With a bit of resourcefulness and creativity, you can start winning over those initial customers and obtain the momentum you need to keep going.

Need a hand tracking sales KPIs, automating your marketing campaigns, and building engaging loyalty programs to keep those sales rolling in? Marsello is the all-in-one retail platform to help you start, grow, and scale with ease.

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How does the Klaviyo POS integration prevent marketing misfires?

How does the Klaviyo POS integration work?

What's possible with the POS + Klaviyo integration

POS and eCommerce orders

Loyalty activities

Feedback responses

How to connect Klaviyo to your POS with Marsello

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What is a reward points system?

6 tips for designing a points reward system for your business

1. Identify the main goals of your customer loyalty program

2. Determine how customers will earn the rewards

3. Determine how these rewards will be awarded to the customers

4. Identify the value of your rewards

5. Associate a name/brand to your loyalty program

6. Promote your rewards point program

Final words

What are the benefits of birthday rewards for your business?

How to prevent birthday rewards abuse

Examples of Birthday Rewards Campaigns

Send a one-off special discount and build excitement

Offer free products on special occasions

Offer creative rewards to encourage engagement

Celebrate your business’s birthday and say thanks to your customers

Tips for implementing birthday rewards

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Integrate SMS marketing

Final words

1. Use the simple CLV formula.

LTV = Lifetime Customer Revenue – Lifetime Customer Costs

2. Determine CLV based on customer revenue distribution

(# of customers 1 x revenue) + (# of customers 2 x revenue) + (# of customers 3 x revenue) & so on

3. Multiply customer value by average customer lifespan

Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan = Customer Lifetime Value

Total sales + No. of orders = Average Order Value

No. of orders (1 year) + No. of customers (1 year) = Purchase Frequency

Average order value x Purchase frequency = Customer Value

4. Multiply lifetime value by profit margin

Lifetime value x Profit margin = Customer Lifetime Value

Average order value x Number of transactions x Average customer lifespan = Lifetime Value

Lifetime value x Profit margin = Customer Lifetime Value

5. Let your marketing software do it for you

Knowing your CLV is a must!

Measure your CLV with Marsello

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