Title: Why Do Ecommerce Stores Need Loyalty Program Apps

‍

Slug: loyalty-program-apps

‍

Meta description: Discover how loyalty program apps boost repeat purchases, increases brand loyalty, and reduces acquisition costs. Explore the key features of the best loyalty app with examples for inspiration!

Loyalty Program Apps: The Key to Ecommerce Success

Picture this: A customer just bought a product from your ecommerce store. Now, instead of sending a generic confirmation email, they get a thank-you note with loyalty points notification for their next purchase, a sneak peek of upcoming sales, or a special discount on their next order. 

It’s bound to make them happy, right? Going this extra mile will also ensure that they come back to buy more products from your store, boosting retention and revenue. 

For ecommerce stores, creating such lasting connections through loyalty programs is an ideal way to stay ahead of the curve. That’s where loyalty program apps can help you. 

In today’s blog, we discuss how an effective loyalty tool can help you create incentive programs for your valuable customers. 

Why are loyalty programs important for ecommerce stores?

Loyalty programs aren’t an add-on to your brand anymore — it is necessary to keep the customers hooked to your ecommerce store. In fact, reports show that 70% of US consumers between the age of 26 to 40 intend to participate in a loyalty program. 

The bottom line is, loyalty programs are effective, and customers love them.

Here are five reasons why you should integrate loyalty programs into your ecommerce store:

1. Increases repeat purchases

Reports note that 75% of customers receiving incentives encourage them to make another purchase. This shows that receiving incentives isn’t a passive experience for customers. In fact, it drives further action. This is the trait loyalty programs tap into. 

Earning points for every qualifying purchase and getting to redeem them on your next shopping spree makes the customer feel like they are getting more value for their money.

Tiered programs offer a sense of achievement as well. It encourages customers to keep buying products to reach milestones — because the higher the tier, the better the rewards!

2. Boosts AOV and CLV

Loyalty programs often offer extra points or rewards for reaching a certain spending threshold in a single transaction.

This incentivizes customers to add more products to the cart, increasing average order value (AOV). For example, a pop-up showing “Spend $50 more and earn double points!” can nudge the customer to explore and buy more products in one session. 

You can also cross-sell and up-sell through your loyalty program by offering points for buying similar higher-end items or bigger size products. This also increases the ticket size, boosting their AOV and their CLV (customer lifetime value). 

3. Enhances customer experience and word-of-mouth

74% of consumers believe that feeling understood and appreciated by brands is important for building loyalty. When a customer gets exclusive and personalized benefits through your loyalty program, they feel heard and valued. 

Reaching the "VIP status" in their favorite online store's loyalty program, early access to seasonal sale, exclusive discounts on their favorite products, etc enhances their experience.

It shows that the brand understands their needs and desires, creating a lasting emotional connection. They start gushing about your brand to their peers, improving brand visibility and customer acquisition. This in turn also improves brand loyalty and customer retention.

4. Improves retention 

Acquiring new customers is much more expensive than retaining the existing ones. You need to run innovative marketing campaigns, advertising, and add referral programs to attract new customers, which can be quite hefty on your pocket. 

Engaging the existing customer base is far easier and cheaper. They already know your brand. All they need is a little nudge to keep buying from you — and loyalty programs are the ideal tool for that. 

Loyalty points for every purchase motivates customers to come back to your store to redeem the points. They are less likely to deflect to competitors, reducing churn and increasing revenue. 

5. Builds competitive advantage

Loyalty programs enrich your understanding of customer’s purchasing behavior. This empowers you to personalize rewards and tweak your program to the finest detail, creating a competitive advantage. 

Why do you need loyalty program apps to run your program?

We have already established why a loyalty program is necessary to stay ahead of the competition, boost customer retention, and increase revenue of your ecommerce store.

But here's why you need a dedicated app to maximize your initiative’s potential:

Streamlines your efforts

Gone are the days of manually tracking points, issuing rewards, and managing enrollments. With a loyalty app, you get:

• Easy point tracking: Every time a customer makes a purchase, their points are automatically updated.
• Instant rewards: Once customers reach a reward milestone, the app instantly credits their prize without any intervention from your end.
• Simple enrollment: New customers can join your loyalty program quickly with just a few taps on their phone.

Loyalty apps come with automations, eliminating error-prone manual processes. It ensures your program data is always up-to-date. It frees up your team’s time, letting them focus on what really matters – creating exceptional customer experiences.

For example, EQUIVA, a company selling all things equestrian, has an "EQUIVA Friends" program. Their app automatically credits "Hearts" for every euro spent, whether in-store or online. This seamless process keeps customers engaged without adding extra work for the staff.

Helps you create personalized shopping experience

According to a McKinsey report 71% of customers expect personalization from brands and 76% get frustrated if it's absent. So, you can’t expect to impress customers with generic loyalty rewards. 

Opting for loyalty apps solves this problem. They equip you to deliver hyper-personalized experiences through

• Tailored rewards: You can tap into the easily-accessible purchase history data and offer customized rewards buyers truly appreciate
• Personalized messages: The organized customer data lets you tailor marketing communication and product recommendations
• Easy content updates: You can update your loyalty program’s content based on changing customer needs and behavioral pattern on your ecommerce store

Effective loyalty apps also integrate with CRM tools and other sales and marketing tech stack, letting you personalize each interaction on your loyalty program perfectly suited for individual customer preferences. 

For example, Pampers—an American brand for baby products—has linked their Parents app with their Rewards loyalty program. 

It lets them scan QR codes or manually enter product codes from Pampers products to collect points, track usage patterns, and personalize rewards that resonate with parents' specific needs.

Enhances customer engagement through gamification

Adding a generic loyalty page to your website only creates a passive point-collection system — and it’s not enough to grab the attention of the modern customers. You have to create an experience engaging enough to keep them coming back for more. 

A loyalty program app can help you here by letting you gamify your program. 

• You can add in weekly or monthly challenges to seasonal or holiday themed interactions, to keep the program fresh and engaging
• You can award badges like “Highest Spender of the Month”, or “Star of the Community” to create a sense of achievement, driving more engagement
• Additionally, you can also make these badges shareable through loyalty apps

These strategies will boost a community feeling amongst your loyal customers and help spread the word about your brand.

Gaining valuable insights 

Every tap, swipe, and purchase within your app gives you access to a wealth of customer data, including:

• Spot purchase trends: Try to understand - which products are more popular, which aren't and why? What time of the year or month do people shop the most and how often?
• Customer preferences: You need to try and understand - which offers and rewards your customers love most? What content piques their interest? 
• Behavioral data: Understand their engagement patterns on your ecommerce store. This isn't a purchasing trend which will help you find out your start and not-so-popular products. This data will help you segment your customers based on their individual preferences.

Try to understand how they interact with your app and brand over time? What kind of products do they usually buy? Do they mostly buy during a sale? 

These insights allow you to refine your program, marketing strategies, and even your product offerings regularly to meet changing customer needs. 

How to find the right loyalty program app

When choosing a loyalty program app for your ecommerce store, look for one that offers a set of features tailored to your business needs. This will enable you to not only attract new customers but also encourage repeat visits.

Consider looking for the following key features:

1. User-friendliness

Ease of use and simplicity is crucial to integrate any technology in your operations. So, your loyalty app should be a breeze to navigate, both for your team and your customers. It should make them feel welcome and at ease from the moment they open the app to the end of their purchasing journey. 

Here are some tips to ensure this: 

• Build a sleek, intuitive interface that puts loyalty programs front and center
• Your app should guide users effortlessly through the sign-up process
• There should be prominent call-to-action buttons
• Remember, every extra tap or confusing menu is a potential exit point for your users. So, make sure it follows a logical flow

2. Customizability

As we discussed before, personalization is crucial to impress today's choosy customers. So, the loyalty platform you choose should be able to adapt to the unique needs of different businesses.

You should be able to add, improve, and modify features based on user feedback. This way, your loyalty app can evolve alongside changing customer preferences. 

Your chosen platform should also let you align the loyalty app with your brand style guide. This ensures that your individual brand identity shines through the loyalty app, improving recognition. 

3. Seamless integrations

Going back and forth between your loyalty app and other analytical and sales tools wastes time and frustrates your team. So always go for loyalty tools that seamlessly integrate with other ecommerce tools and platforms such as your email or SMS marketing software or CRM platforms.

Such synchronization ensures that all your customer data gets stored in a centralized dashboard that's easy to monitor. This way, your team can make adjustments to the loyalty program according to changing customer needs and market trends. 

4. Powerful data analytics

Constant improvements are necessary to hold onto your customers’ loyalty. To ensure these improvements are spot on, you need data — and your loyalty program app should be able to get you an entire repository of it. 

Look for a platform that tracks metrics like participant numbers and distributed rewards, average basket value and shopping frequency of loyalty program members. These insights will show you what's resonating with your customers and optimize their retention strategies accordingly.

5. Good customer support

While integrating a new tool, you are bound to face some challenges. Even the most intuitive platforms can have issues once in a while, be it for your team or for your customers. And that's when you'll need a good support team to help you solve the problem.

If their support is slow, your loyalty program gets derailed, harming your reputation. That's why you need a vendor who has a team ready to guide your staff through the roadblocks. 

Find a loyalty program tool that offers 24/7 support and chatbots. You should be able to reach out to their support team through calls and emails as well. Go through third-party reviews to gauge their customer support efficiency. 

Checklist for creating the best loyalty program for ecommerce 

If we have convinced you about creating a loyalty program app for your brand, let us streamline things a little more for you. 

Before you dive in, ensure you're ticking all the right boxes, like:

Business goals

Align your loyalty program with your core objectives. Whether it's increasing repeat purchases, boosting average order value, or enhancing customer engagement, your chosen app should be a powerful tool to achieve these aims. So, clearly define what success looks like for your business and select a program that can deliver on those metrics.

Budget considerations

If you run a small business, budget can be a constraint. So, it's necessary to audit your budget and find a middle ground so that the customer gets the best value without you having to drain your resources. 

Even if you have a considerably small budget, loyalty programs aren't all about fancy or expensive rewards. The key is to make the incentives meaningful and the journey engaging. If done right, a small discount code, a personalized voucher, or even early-bird access to sale can make your customers feel valuable. 

Customer demographics

Your loyalty program should resonate with your specific customer base and for this, having a core grasp on your customer demographics is crucial. For example, A program that appeals to tech-savvy millennials might not work for traditional shoppers. 

Therefore, tailor your choice to match the habits and desires of your target audience for maximum customer satisfaction and engagement. Outline detailed customer personas and design loyalty program journeys accordingly. 

Best loyalty program app 

Sorting through multiple loyalty program apps, trying to find the one which will fit your needs is tiring. Especially because with so many options available you'll mostly end up overwhelming yourself if you don't know what to look for.

Your loyalty program app should be robust, reliable, and customizable as per your businesses unique needs without having to break your head. 

Rivo lets you do just that. You can tailor your loyalty program to fit your brand image seamlessly. From points and store credits to VIP tires and custom rewards, you can personalize every aspect to keep your customers coming back for more.

Some other key features that Rivo offers are:

• We help you set up a special page for your loyalty program and add points information throughout your site, like on product pages and with a floating button
• Our tool works with point-of-sale (POS) systems, so your customers can earn and use points when they shop in-store, making their experience smooth whether they shop online or offline
• You can also send personalized emails for different loyalty activities, such as reminding customers about points that are about to expire
• You can track important details like how well your loyalty program is doing and which rewards programs are most popular. This information helps you see what’s working and where you can improve.
• Rivo is made just for Shopify, so you get the latest Shopify features. This ensures a smooth and enjoyable experience for your customers

Paul White, Senior Manager of Digital & ecommerce at Emi Jay, says Rivo seamlessly imported their existing rewards, and enhanced customer engagement.

Image source:Rivo

Here are some brands that have successfully partnered with Rivo to launch a loyalty program that boosted their customer retention rates and sales significantly. These prove that with the right strategy, you can turn one-time shoppers into die-hard fans. Let's take a look at them for your inspiration:

Emi Jay

Emi Jay, a fast-growing influencer-driven brand specializing in hair accessories, had built a strong social media presence and community. However, they faced a challenge in turning their online engagement into customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

They partnered with Rivo to create a loyalty program that would resonate with their young, fashion-forward audience and encourage repeat purchases.

Emi Jay launched "Sparkle Rewards" with Rivo:

• 1 "sparkle" earned for every dollar spent
• Fully customizable, beautifully designed loyalty page
• Rewards redeemable for coupons on future orders

Also, Rivo's automated email system played a crucial role in Emi Jay's success. It allowed them to send personalized communications to reward members, keeping them engaged and encouraging repeat purchases. The additional sales generated by Rewards Members demonstrate how Rivo's successful loyalty program helped Emi Jay monetize their engaged social media following.

The results?

• Over 4,000 sign-ups to the loyalty program
• 10% additional sales generated from Rewards Members

Way of Wade

Sportswear brand Way of Wade had a strong product line but still faced challenges in customer retention and engagement. They needed to strengthen their connection with customers and find an innovative approach to reward their top spenders.

With Rivo, Way of Wade was able to create a solution that encouraged customers to increase their spending. It included:

• A "Hall of Fame" concept to gamify the experience
• Priority access to limited releases for top-tier members
• A tiered rewards system with exclusive perks

The tiered system, powered by Rivo's technology, enabled Way of Wade to offer increasingly valuable rewards as customers moved up the ranks. It gave their buyers a sense of belonging and encouraged them to spend more and reach higher tiers. The results?

• 12% of the customer base signed up in less than a month
• 78% of program-generated sales came from retention revenue

Want the same benefits for your ecommerce store? Opt for Rivo’s fully customizable loyalty platform. Our tool integrates seamlessly onto your Shopify storefront and lets you create points program, store credit program and VIP Tiers program that can go live within hours.

Plus, Rivo offers a 7-day free trial. You can cancel anytime with just one click, and you won't be charged if you uninstall during your trial period. It's a great way to test drive all the features and see if Rivo is the right fit for your business.

Conclusion 

With the rising costs of acquiring new customers, you as a business owner, need to focus on increasing the value of the customers you already have. And customer loyalty program apps are the perfect solution that boosts engagement and drives long-term growth.

These platforms help you make the most of your existing customers, giving you a competitive edge and fueling your business growth. Plus, it's easy to set up and manage, so you can see big results without investing too much time or money.

Ready to boost your customer loyalty and watch your business thrive? Book a demo with Rivo today and transform your ecommerce brand into a customer-centric business that retains buyers and maximizes profits. 

‍