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How can LoyaltyLion help a growing Shopify store?

Statistics show that over 50% of your revenue is generated from your top 20% most loyal customers, proving that there is nothing more essential for a brand than holding on to their clients and persuading them to order with them again and again. The importance of creating an incentive for buyers to ensure they are loyal to your brand is, therefore, a necessity. However, with so many influencing factors from competitors, this can be easier said than done. This is where LoyaltyLion comes in.

What does LoyaltyLion do?

The main focus of LoyaltyLion is to make the customer feel valued rather than just another number, by analysing what’s important to an individual. The customer is given the opportunity to build up points based on their loyalty, which can be then used to claim rewards. Rewards can vary from specific discount codes, physical products or even donations to charities of their choice. LoyaltyLion uses A/B testing to test multiple scenarios to ensure that the best possible process is found for the individual and that they are benefiting from the maximum amount of spend from them. LoyaltyLion has already successfully set up over 5,000 programs with Shopify merchants. In summary, LoyaltyLion:

1. Uses loyalty points to encourage repeat purchase from customers
2. Award them just for performing any activity on the store
3. Allow easy access to their rewards via their online loyalty program
4. Reward customers for leaving reviews or social media posts about the store
5. Focus marketing strategies on valuable customers by sending specific one-to-one emails to them

How to setup LoyaltyLion on a Shopify store

There are 5 steps to setting up LoyaltyLion on your existing Shopify store, as outlined below:

1. Select the ways in which you would like your customers to be able to earn points.
   
   This is done by setting up ‘Activity Rules’, whereby once the customer performs an activity which meets the standards set up in the rule, they automatically receive loyalty points. For example, you may want to try and gain new customers to your store. In order to do so, you could reward them with points just for creating an account, and then further points with their first purchase. This is done by creating an ‘activity rule’ for what the customer has done and the number of points they should get for this, ie. a rule to say they have created an account and this gives 100 points.
   
   
2. Choose which rewards are available for them.
   
   This could be anything you think is relevant to your customer base - perhaps money off vouchers, or free shipping. We would recommend offering an initial reward after their first purchase has been made and then give continued achievable rewards thereafter so that your customer is incentivised to keep returning. These are set up by going to the ‘manage’ tab on your LoyaltyLion account, and then ‘create a new reward’ and tick which is applicable to your business.
   
   
3. Set up referrals.
   
   A new customer is four times more likely to buy a product if it has been recommended to them by a friend, so it is beneficial to set up a referral scheme on your Shopify Store. This can be set up to automatically send the ‘friend’ an invite to the store, with a voucher to use in-store or online, and once this has been redeemed the ‘referrer’ will be rewarded with points on their account.
   
   
4. Customise your program.
   
   Your Loyalty Lion programme can be easily designed to fit in with your brand so that this is easily recognisable to your customers. This can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, so no need to worry if your skillset is not in development. LoyaltyLion gives access to HTML/CSS editor where you can then design your loyalty program. This is unique to you - so you can fully customise the page by changing the wording, style, logo and icons so that it is relevant to your Shopify Store.
   
   
5. Turn on loyalty emails.
   
   Research shows that 38% of loyalty program members don’t realise the rewards gained from their points, and a further 57% don’t know their points balance. LoyaltyLion can be set up to send regular and tailor-made emails to customers so that they are aware of their rewards. These can be customised to fit in with your brand so that they’re immediately recognisable to your customers.

Free Plan Onboarding from LoyaltyLion on Vimeo.

How does LoyaltyLion help Shopify merchants with retention, loyalty, and sales?

To increase your customer retention, it’s advisable to set up marketing campaigns regularly, for example creating a campaign to offer double points for a certain timeframe. It’s also imperative to explain how to set up the loyalty program and the benefit of it to your customers - we would suggest by creating a landing page or adding a section on your help page. To maintain sales, LoyaltyLion impresses on their clients to create a structured paid and non-paid marketing plan for example via social media or a pop-up on the landing page of your store.

To be specific, the team at Blend recommends using paid Facebook ad campaigns to drive sales in a number of ways.

Retention - Exporting LoyaltyLion data on customers by tier level and the number of points is a great way to increase retention. By exporting data into a CSV file and then creating a custom audience in Facebook Ads Manager, this audience can then be used to create targeted Facebook ads to encourage purchases from existing loyalty scheme members.

New sign-ups - By exporting member data from LoyaltyLion into a CSV file, a Lookalike audience can then be created. By doing so, a new audience based on the demographics of the existing loyalty scheme members and can then be used to drive sign-ups and sales.

How does LoyaltyLion integrate with other key Shopify apps?

LoyaltyLion has also benefited from building established relationships with some of the other industry-leading Shopify partners. Their relationship with Gorgias, Recharge and Klaviyo, to name a few, gives a smooth customer journey to the visitor to your Shopify store. Here at Blend, we’ve seen great value in the integration between LoyaltyLion and ReCharge. Specifically, this allows you to offer rewards to customers that have a subscription to your Shopify store. You can even create an ‘exclusive’ group to these subscribers by offering additional discounts that are only available to them.

What is the pricing for LoyaltyLion?

LoyaltyLion has three payment bands, whereby you can pick the one that is most relevant to your needs. Their packages all offer unlimited members and various platform features, which are outlined on their website https://loyaltylion.com/pricing. Their packages consist of the ‘small business’ package which is $159 per month, which includes 800 maximum orders, the ‘classic’ which is $399 per month, for 2000 maximum orders and the ‘advanced’ which is $699 per month for 4000 maximum orders.

Is LoyaltyLion a good investment for a Shopify store?

Well, their clients certainly think so. They have a whole range of positive reviews from their customers, who have been delighted with the service offered. ‘100% Pure’ saw an increase in revenue of $244k from referrals, and a 3x increase in purchase frequency. ‘Pulse Boutique’ had a 39% increase in repeat purchases and a 19% increase in their AOV.

Here at Blend Commerce, we worked with a leading apparel and lifestyle brand to implement a loyalty program with LoyaltyLion. The key objective of the project was to increase the returning customer rate and develop a core USP to drive new sales in the business. After just 3 months of implementation, the brand saw an initial ROI of 321%, which we believe will only grow as the scheme becomes more established.

Next steps with LoyaltyLion and Blend

Here at Blend Commerce, we help our clients to retain and grow their business effectively by creating growth partnerships, where we are in constant contact with them to discuss how they can promote their long term sales. As one of our strategic partners, we work closely with LoyaltyLion to understand their retention needs and implement programs that focus on growing their business.

If you’d like to find out more about how Blend and LoyaltyLion can help your Shopify store grow, reach out by hitting the button below: