How our loyalty platform helps reward existing customers

Rewards can and do build customers’ loyalty, and most merchants now appreciate how valuable that loyalty can be. The action of rewarding customers seems simple, and it should mean customers become loyal to your brand. But, rewards programs are widely misunderstood and often misapplied as they are often treated as promotional giveaways or monthly specials. 

Giving rewards as part of your loyalty program reduces that to an extent. But you need to design your rewards to build loyalty rather than expect loyalty from customers just for being rewarded.

Building and implementing the right rewards, as part of a larger loyalty strategy, for your customers and brand accelerates the loyalty life cycle. This means customers who are not loyal can become loyal more quickly.

There are many ways to reward customers but the most effective ways reflect your brand values and differentiate you from your competitors.

Let’s cover the types of rewards that you’d expect from your loyalty platform provider. Also, check whether your plan qualifies for more advanced reward features.

Giving rewards

Make sure you have a basic reward because customers expect it, your competitors already have it, and so should you.

• Money off voucher – this is the most popular reward. Research states 71% of consumers decide to join a loyalty program because of money off discount every purchase. This reward gives your customer a set money off discount
• Percentage discounts – a simple reward that most customers have come to expect from stores. It gives your customer a percentage discount, based on their basket total
• Free shipping – nowadays this reward is everywhere, from mega brands to mom & pop shops. Reward your customers with free shipping
• Product discount voucher – manage your inventory, excess stock and low selling products without giving it away. This reward gives you the option to give a special discount for a certain product
• Free product (voucher) – a nice and easy way to make customers feel special and at the same time get rid of excess stock, out of season or low selling products that are costing you more in storage costs. This reward is a product voucher so it can be added to checkout without anything else in the cart

Advanced rewards

• Custom Reward – move away from discount related rewards by creating a reward that is unique to your brand and its values

• Subscription rewards – if you are integrated with our technology partner, Recharge, surprise customers by activating a money off or percentage off subscription reward

• [Shopify Plus] Gift cards – setting gift cards as a reward will allow you to award points when customers use their gift card. Points will not be awarded for the gift card value but value of customer’s own money used in the purchase

Redeem rewards

Giving customers the right rewards and different ways to earn rewards is only half the battle. Getting them to redeem is the vital next step, as redeeming customers have 164% higher annual spend than customers who are not members of a loyalty program. Increase redemption by making rewards easy to redeem throughout your customer journey. 

• [Shopify] Free product (seamless) – also known as ‘buy with points’, Seamless Free Product (SFP) improves user-experience by adding the product directly to the cart for $0 with only one click – no voucher required. It’s a Shopify-only reward which allows certain products to be bought using points.

• [Shopify Plus] In-cart product rewards – customers can check out with no fuss – no voucher codes or gift cards needed. Provides a seamless method for your customers to redeem their points for a product and have it added to the cart automatically. This is particularly useful if customers forget to visit your loyalty page to redeem their rewards, as they’re reminded at checkout.

• Rewards component in the cart – make sure customers don’t forget they have rewards available. To visualise customer rewards in your cart, simply copy the codes and paste them in your cart liquid. You can also use simple CSS to customise rewards and keep them on-brand.

• [Shopify Plus] Point slider – at checkout, give customers a more interactive way to understand and redeem points. They can redeem some or their entire points balance.

Visit our Help Centre to learn more and optimise your loyalty program to supercharge your customer retention strategy.