For your eCommerce business to grow and stand out from the competition, and to provide the best service possible, you should plan the best loyalty program you can offer.

For many years, priority has been given to attracting new leads, putting the quantity of the customers over their quality. It seemed that success only translated into registrations or getting the first purchase; but was it really the best approach?
It is clear that the trend is changing, and more and more brands are jumping on the bandwagon of loyalty programs.

A loyalty program is what differentiates you from the competition. Create a close relationship with your customers so that they remember your brand and come back frequently. While it may seem simple, it is actually that little switch that makes a successful business boom! nWe want happy customers; customers who are happy to buy from us and customers who are happy to stay.

In this article, you’ll learn what a loyalty program is, and how it can help your business. Let’s dive in!

What is a Customer Loyalty Program?

A customer loyalty program is a marketing tactic. Companies use it to encourage repeat customers to buy more by offering them certain benefits and rewards. These benefits can range from discounts or free products to any other benefit that is valuable to customers. The best loyalty program to reward customers accomplishes three basic marketing goals and objectives:

• Improve customer loyalty and lifetime value
• Increase profits and recurring revenue (by selling, up-selling, and cross-selling more products or services to existing customers)
• Define an ideal customer profile by capturing customer data and purchasing behaviors

Why Is It Necessary to Plan the Best Loyalty Program for Your Store?

Customers can disappear if they have a bad experience, even if it is only once.
On a 2022 Customer Loyalty Survey run by PWC, about half of the attendants (55%) claimed that they would leave a brand after having multiple unpleasant experiences.

It sort of goes without saying; doesn’t it? The results that may surprise you is that 8% of the attendants said it would only take them one bad experience to leave the brand once and for all. Is losing that many customers due to a single bad experience worth it to you? And it isn’t necessarily about BAD experiences. 32% of attendants even stated that they’ll say goodbye to a business if they provided inconsistent experiences!

For businesses, loyalty strategies can be a great way to increase customer retention and boost sales. It can be risky to ignore the necessity of planning for the best loyalty programs and may lead to customers shopping elsewhere or not being as loyal to your business.

And as your good, true, and loyal friends, that’s why we believe you should consider taking the time to evaluate your loyalty program options and consider implementing one that is tailored to your customers’ needs. You’ll do great!

5 Benefits of Customer Loyalty Programs

Well, that’s enough warning about the risks of not presenting your best loyalty program. Here’s to the bright side!

1. Long-term Success

In the e-commerce market, creating a loyal customer base is key to ensuring a steady stream of revenue and long-term success. Customers are more likely to buy from a business after receiving discounts, free shipping, inclusive access, etc. This can increase sales and profit margins with repeated purchases.

2. Customer profile

One of the primary benefits of a loyalty program is that it allows businesses to understand their customer’s behaviors and preferences. Through the best loyalty programs, businesses can collect data from their customers to gain insights into their purchasing patterns, demographics, and preferences. This allows businesses to tailor their marketing strategies and product offerings to better meet their customers’ needs.

3. Improved buyer-seller relationships

Loyalty programs have been found to have a positive effect on customers’ emotional connection to a brand. Customers who feel like a brand values them and their needs are more likely to remain in touch with the brand and make repeat purchases. The best loyalty programs are going to find you customers that are going to stick with you through the ups and downs of your business journey; something you simply can’t miss!

4. Raised brand awareness

One of the main advantages of loyalty programs is that they can help increase brand awareness. By offering rewards for purchases, customers become more aware of your brand’s perks and capabilities. They will also be more likely to talk about their experiences with the loyalty program, which will create a positive buzz about your brand. (never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth!)

5. Cost-saving operations

As a business owner, it’s important to find ways to save money and maximize your bottom line. And as odd as it may sound, loyalty programs can act as cost-saving operations. You need to look at your reward system (discounts, free shipping,…) as a long-term investment. By rewarding customers for their loyalty, you can increase customer retention, which helps to reduce customer acquisition costs. Additionally, the best loyalty programs can help to increase customer lifetime value, as customers are more likely to spend more on each purchase they make.

Subscriptions: Loyalty Programs That Work!

The fact that you have read this far in the article means that you understand the importance of customer loyalty and that you want to learn how to gain customers who will stay with your business!

Let us give you a perfect shortcut: subscriptions! By launching a subscription plan on your store, you’re going to give your customer a chance to level up. All the things you need to have the best loyalty program are covered by subscription services. They’re the best possible choice among the options, especially if you’re running an online store on Shopify.

Here are some reasons why:

• Ongoing connection

  Subscription-selling plans are a great way to create an ongoing relationship with customers. Customers can easily manage their subscriptions and access exclusive offers, while businesses can keep track of customers and ensure they are getting the best deals. This helps create a strong bond between customers and businesses and encourages customers to keep coming back.

• Automated process

  In order to run a subscription service on Shopify, you can always rely on the Shopify apps. Subify, as your subscription-management tool, helps simplify your business processes and make them more efficient. You can easily manage customer orders, track sales, and automate billing. This reduces the amount of time and budget needed to manage customer accounts and allows you to focus on other aspects of your business.

• Planning ahead

  Subscription-selling plans allow you to create a recurring revenue stream for your business and that’s why they’re one of the best loyalty programs you can think of.
  Why? By using Subify, you will be able to view all of your sales histories and gain analytical insight into your monthly revenue. This can help you plan your budget, predict future sales, and make more informed decisions about expanding your product offerings.

• Ease of use & flexibility

  Consider a beauty box subscription that sends cosmetic gift boxes to their most loyal customers, or a coffee subscription business that makes the shipping free for those who order more than one coffee bag each month. How likely are they to lose a customer?

  People are diverse, and running a subscription business with Subify allows you to cater to everyone’s needs more easily.

  Subscription services provide customers with a more flexible way of accessing products and services. Through Subify’s app panel, you can add subscriptions to as many products as you’d like and give them discounts. Customers can choose the plan that best suits their needs with an easy-to-use UX and automation (basically through a few clicks).

• A very affordable team!

Subscription isn’t all about recurring revenue. It’s actually a playground that allows you to go for fun, creative, and outstanding tactics.

That’s why Subify has chosen to go far beyond automation. With Subify:

• • You can always reach a technical support team, for any questions or requests that you may have.
  • You can get in touch with a team of experts to receive a demo, step-by-step instructions, personal coaching (tailored to your business), and marketing guidance.
  • Subify designers will be more than happy to create a subscription landing page for you! Go for the best loyalty program by dedicating a landing page to your subscription products and providing all the details your customers need for comparison, and purchase!
  • The product team at Subify is more than open to listening to your needs in full detail. You can always reach the Subify team with a unique feature you need for your business; they’ll evaluate the feature, tell you about the requirements, and develop the feature for you, if possible!

In order to implement the best loyalty program, will relieve you of your need for account managers, marketers, designers, and even developers!