Loyalty programs are a great way to increase customer retention. But managing a loyalty program, if done manually, takes a lot of time and effort.
Related: Loyalty Program Email Examples
Thankfully, a new wave of loyalty program apps for Shopify makes managing loyalty programs for your online store easy. The perfect loyalty program app has most, if not all, of these features:
- Integrates with your ESP and SMS platform
- System for referrals, points and rewards
- Robust reporting
- Awesome customer support
Here are the five best loyalty program apps for Shopify in 2022.
1. Smile.io
Picking the top spot on this list was no easy task, but we decided to give it to Smile.io. Not only is Smile.io packed full of features, but they also offer best-in-class support, as evident in their nearly 5,000 ratings.
With Smile.io, you can easily set up a customizable points system that rewards customers for taking actions like signing up for an email list, making a purchase or referring a friend. From there, customers can use those points for discounts, free shipping or whatever else you choose. Plus, Smile easily Integrates with Shopify POS, Judge.me, Klaviyo, Gorgias and Mailchimp.
At the end of the day, Smile.io is a great option for larger stores that are looking for a reliable solution with outstanding customer support.
The biggest downside is that you’ll have to upgrade to their Growth plan at $199/month if you want to harness its full capabilities.
2. Yotpo Loyalty and Rewards
Close behind Smile, we have Yotpo Loyalty & Rewards. Yotpo is well known for its reviews app, and the loyalty program app is just as strong. If you’re already using another Yotpo app, we recommend choosing their Loyalty & Rewards app because the user interfaces are very similar (meaning you’ll figure it out quickly) and they integrate seamlessly. Integrations include Klaviyo, ReCharge, Gorgias and SMSbump.
The free version is a good starting point for small stores, but if your store gets a lot of orders and traffic, you could pay upwards of $250/month.
3. Growave: Loyalty, Wishlist +3
Growave doesn’t have as many reviews as Smile or Yotpo, but it is still a very popular and reliable option. In addition, Growave offers more than the typical loyalty program app–you can also allow customers to build wishlists and collect reviews. The wishlist feature is very powerful, especially when you integrate it into your existing lifecycle marketing toolkit. For example, you could set up automated journeys when someone adds an item to their wishlist (similar to an abandoned cart).
There is no free version (they do offer a free trial) of Growave, but you can get started with this all-in=one solution for as little as $9/month.
4 . Rivo: Rewards, Loyalty Program
Rivo is our #1 recommendation if you are looking for a free option. The free tier allows for 250 monthly orders and unlimited loyalty program members. According to other reviewers, Rivo’s customer support is fantastic, and the platform is more straightforward than some of its competitors. We haven’t spent a ton of time with Rivo, but if you’re a small store with an even smaller budget, we think Rivo is worth a try.
5. Loyalty, rewards & referrals by Loyalty Lion
We’ll admit, there is a notable gap between our top choices and the rest of our list–but that doesn’t mean apps like Loyalty Lion aren’t worth a try, especially if you aren’t ready to pay for a service. The most attractive aspect of Loyalty Lion is that the free plan is quite robust.
Unfortunately, recent reviewers have had issues with customer support and cancelling their plans, which is why Loyalty Lion has moved down on our list.
Other option: BON: Rewards, Loyalty Program
BON is not as full-featured as other options on this list, but it’s the only option that is entirely free, which earns it a spot on our list. But BEWARE, BON is a very new app, and many reviewers have run into bugs, making the platform unusable. Due to these concerns, we can no longer recommend this app (but this will change if they address these bugs).
