With so many Shopify loyalty program cost options, E-commerce entrepreneurs must ask: How much is a loyalty program in 2024? You’ll find the answers here.

In this post, we’ll examine cost-benefit analysis, Shopify loyalty program pricing variables, and how to navigate pricing and find the best option for your company. 

The Hidden Costs To Consider When Implementing A Shopify Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are a proven way to increase repeat business—65% of a company’s income comes from current customers—but they should be approached explicitly about the investment. Hidden charges may drastically influence your bottom line beyond setup fees or app subscriptions. 

We’ll go over some essential things to think about to make sure your loyalty program is worth the budget:

Marketing & Promotion To Drive Program Awareness

Did you know 38% of loyalty program participants don’t know their points’ value?

That’s why you need strategic marketing campaigns to educate them about features, rewards, and how to take part effectively.

However, don’t forget about the hidden costs of creating appealing marketing materials and conducting focused advertising campaigns. 

• Data acquisition (customer sentiment analysis, etc. ) and processing costs.
• Content creation costs.
• Targeted advertising costs.
• Email marketing fees.
• SMS Marketing Fees.

Thus, we suggest limiting OPM costs: Do not sign up right away for an expensive reward program with lots of features. Try a basic or free app to start. Check to evaluate how well it performs, and if required, expand depending on data and budget. 

Customer Support And Reward Fulfillment

We will examine two crucial aspects to think about while operating the rewards program: 

1. Customer Support

If your program’s complexity and anticipated request volume will dictate the number of individuals requiring assistance. To keep things running well with customers, you may have to bring on more help or have staff work longer hours.  

Also, training your customer support personnel to handle loyalty program queries may be necessary. Include these training fees in your program budget.

2. Reward Fulfillment

The benefits are what make loyalty programs work. Even though deals and coupons are tempting, keep in mind that getting these benefits costs money:

• Financial Impact: Free delivery, product discounts, and special offers all result in a direct financial cost for your company.
• Inventory Management: If you offer free or cheap things as a reward, make sure you have a good method for keeping track of your supplies.
• Logistics Considerations: If your incentives include actual things, consider shipping and handling charges. You might want to use a tiered system where people with bigger incentives may have to pay for shipping.

By carefully planning your reward system and taking shipping costs into account, you can make sure that your program offers prizes that people will want to win and that won’t break the bank. 

Ongoing Program Management And Optimization

Building on program awareness and ongoing promotion is crucial to keep members engaged. Here are some extra strategies to consider:

• Loyalty Program Integration:

Customers are more likely to participate and see the program’s value if it’s straightforward to integrate with your Shopify shop (for example, with clear messaging on product pages and quick point monitoring). 

However, depending on your chosen loyalty program app and its functionalities, this might involve extra transaction processing fees.

• Member Communication:

Members are more likely to use their awards if you keep in touch with them regularly through email marketing or focused messages.

There may be platform-specific costs for these ways of communicating, like email marketing fees, or they may need extra resources to make the material more interesting.

In the next part, we will go into further detail about the fees and look at customer loyalty program choices.

Breaking Down The Costs:  A Look At Shopify Loyalty Program Options

In this part, we’ll look more closely at the architecture of the different Shopify loyalty program cost options.  

Also, we’ll look at cost-influencing variables, test different app features, and assist you in choosing the best affordable option for your particular set of company requirements.

1. Shopify’s Built-In Loyalty Features: Free Tier And Paid Plans

The good news is that Shopify has a built-in loyalty program with basic functionality accessible on all tiers (Basic, Shopify, Advanced, and Shopify Plus). You can refer to paid Shopify plans below:

This free level lets you try out the reward program without committing too much immediately. It includes

• Reward Points.
• Tiered System (Optional).
• Rewards Redemption.

2. Third-Party Loyalty Program Apps: Subscription Fees and Transaction Costs

Most Shopify third-party loyalty applications have tiered subscriptions based on the following:

• Advanced incentive systems include point multipliers, gamification, referral programs, VIP levels, and email marketing platform integration. 
• Monthly Order Volume: Store sales affect certain app pricing. Pick a bundle that grows with your organization to prevent unnecessary expenses.
• Active Users: Some programs fee depending on active users if they have a large and growing membership.

Considering these features and membership prices, you may choose a third-party loyalty program app that will give your shop long-term value and ROI.

Five Popular Applications’ Shopify Loyalty Program Costs

The Shopify loyalty program costs of five well-known apps, Smile.io, BON Loyalty, Rivo, Growave, and Loyalty, are worth considering.

App Name	Pricing	Features	Integrations	Get App
Smile.io	Up to 200 orders/month.From Starter: $49/ month to Plus: $999/ month.	Points, Referral, Basic Branding, Analytics.	Shopify Flow, Shopify POS, Checkout, Shopify POS.Judge.me, Klaviyo, Gorgias, Mailchimp, Okendo.	TRY SMILE.IO NOW
BON: Loyalty Rewards Referrals	Free Forever.From basic: $25/ month to professional: $349 / month.	Points, Referrals, Basic Customization.	Shopify Flow, Shopify POS, Checkout.Fera Product Reviews.LAI Product Reviews.Judge.me Product Reviews.Headless – Hydrogen.PageFly Landing Page Builder.Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS.	GET BON LOYALTY NOW
Rivo: Loyalty & Referrals	Free (200 orders/month).From Scale -400 orders: $49/ month to Plus: $499/ month (Unlimited orders and no limits).	Most features in Free Plan, Branding, Emails.	Shopify Flow, Shopify POS, Checkout.Klaviyo, Gorgias, Mailchimp, Postscript, Attentive, Sendlane.	TRY RIVO LOYALTY NOW
Growave: Loyalty & Wishlist+	100 orders/month (500 total).From entry: $49/ month to plus: $399/ month.	Loyalty, Wishlist, Reviews, Basic Features.	Shopify Flow, Shopify POS, Checkout.Pagefly – LayoutHub. GemPages – Shopney. Klaviyo – Omnisend. Gorgias – Avada. PushOwl – Ampify.Postscript – Recharge.	INSTALL GROWAVE LOYALTY APP NOW
Loloyal: Loyalty and Referral	Free (50 orders/month).From Starter: $29 / month to Plus: $299/ month.	Best Free Plan Features, Points, Referrals, Basic Integrations.	Shopify Flow, Shopify POS.Judge.me.Trustoo.Fera Reviews.Pagefly, Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS, Willdesk: Live Chat & Helpdesk.	GET LOLOYALTY LOYALTY APP NOW

Read more: 5 Top Digital Loyalty Programs For Small Businesses.

3. Custom Loyalty Program Development: A High-Investment Option

Even while third-party applications provide many beneficial features, some companies may prefer a more personalized loyalty program experience. Creating personalized loyalty programs is the way to go.

• Development costs.
• Maintenance and updates.
• Hosting cost.

As expensive as it is upfront, custom programming is worth it for companies with unique requirements and the resources to meet them.

The right loyalty program tool depends on your budget, objectives, and personalization. You may maximize your incentive program’s ROI by evaluating Shopify’s built-in program, third-party applications, and custom development.

6 Key Factors To Consider When Choosing A Loyalty Program Solution

With so many options available, selecting the best one for your organization is critical to maximizing return on investment (ROI). Here are six important aspects to consider when choosing a Shopify reward program solution:

• Business size.
• Customer base.
• Engagement goals.
• Budgetary constraints.
• ROI expectations.
• Growth projections & scalability.

Based on these aspects, we’ll go into further detail in the next section about ways for optimizing your Shopify loyalty program costs.

3 Strategies To Optimize Shopify Loyalty Program Cost

Building a loyalty program on a budget is possible. Here are three important strategies to investigate based on the six traits we discussed earlier:

1. Utilize Free Plan Of Third-Party Loyalty Program Apps

For small enterprises, if your main objective is to start a simple rewards program, free programs from third-party applications may be suitable. It provides simple point systems and email marketing tools for testing incentive programs with little investment. 

As Shafqat Islam, Chief Marketing Officer at Optimizely, stated,

“No one likes wasting money, and marketing leaders have demonstrated that they spend far too often on tools that do not fully address their pain points.”

Based on the Third-Party Loyalty Program Apps section above, here’s an overview of which free trial loyalty programs could be right for your company: 

• If you want to use the free version with 250 order limits, the BON Loyalty App is perfect.

• If you have a small business with a modest order volume (less than 200 orders per month), the Loloyal and Rivo apps are ideal.

By considering these things and the restrictions on the free trial, you can pick the reward program that fits your wants and plans for the future.

Read more: 5 Low-Cost Customer Loyalty Programs For Small Businesses.

2. Prioritizing Cost-Effective App Integrations

According to “Confessions of a CMO: Uncovering Hidden Costs Impacting ROI,” 72% of marketing directors struggle with tool integration. That’s why you should choose features that function well together when picking a reward program app for your Shopify business.

Optimizing the cost-effectiveness of your Shopify loyalty program by establishing your loyalty program’s main features (e.g., builder page, points system, email marketing for promotions) that can help you avoid hidden expenses for adding services later.

For instance, if you currently use Klaviyo for email marketing, consider getting a loyalty program app that works with Klaviyo.

You may leverage your existing platform to provide customized loyalty program promotions instead of paying for a loyalty program email marketing service. 

3. Tracking Program Performance And Adjusting Strategies For ROI

Even if you have a limited budget, it is critical to analyze your loyalty program’s return on investment (ROI) regularly. This involves cost comparison of third-party loyalty program apps for Shopify (setup, customized development, and ongoing maintenance) against its improved revenue.

Do not give up if your first return on investment predictions are low. In order to assess and enhance performance, the majority of loyalty program applications provide data-driven decision-making. It might include:  

• Reward optimization: Changing your incentive system to encourage customer spending.
• Personalized communication: Customizing marketing and promotions for diverse consumer groups.
• Targeting high-value customers: Recognizing and rewarding regular consumers and high spenders to boost lifetime value

Growing your organization and program may require a long-term investment in a premium subscription with more features and integrations. This helps you manage expanding client numbers and program complexity, keeping your loyalty program viable. 

Read more: 5 Best Free vs Paid Shopify Loyalty Program Options.

Conclusion

This blog article answers the question, “How much does a Shopify loyalty program cost?”. Creating a Shopify loyalty program doesn’t have to be expensive. Depending on your company’s size, objectives, financial constraints, and growth forecasts, you can choose a program that yields a profitable return on investment.

BON Loyalty offers a free trial period, allowing you to explore its features and see how it might benefit your organization. 

Launch your free trial now to explore how referrals and loyalty rewards may boost sales and customer engagement!