Loyalty software allows businesses of all sizes to create sophisticated rewards programs that track purchases, recognize VIP customers, reward referrals, and deliver personalized incentives.
As shopper expectations for personalization, channel consistency, and emotional connection rise, customer loyalty becomes difficult to maintain. According to the Customer Loyalty Index by the customer service platform SAP, loyalty based on emotional bonds, personalization, and consistency rather than transactional benefits fell 5% between 2024 and 2025. It was the Index’s largest year-over-year decline.
Loyalty tools can help you launch, manage, and scale programs designed to build lasting customer relationships and encourage repeat purchases. In this guide, you’ll learn what loyalty software is and which platforms can help you automate your loyalty program and manage customer engagement at scale.
What is loyalty software?
Loyalty software solutions are platforms that help you create, manage, optimize, and measure your customer loyalty program. They centralize rewards, referrals, customer engagement, and customer data so you can automate your loyalty program rather than manage it manually.
These tools track customer activity across the buying journey and automatically reward actions such as purchases, referrals, reviews, account creation, and other forms of engagement. Beyond allowing you to issue and track points, many customer loyalty platforms include tools for customer segmentation and personalizing messages for those segments.
Loyalty tools also give you visibility into how customers interact with your loyalty program, which can inform your strategies to identify high-value shoppers, encourage repeat purchases, improve customer satisfaction, and strengthen long-term customer relationships.
Top 9 customer loyalty software tools for small businesses
The best loyalty software for your company depends on your business model, loyalty program type, and retention goals. As you evaluate tools, consider whether you need a dedicated customer loyalty platform or a broader retention solution that combines loyalty with other initiatives, such as product review management and community building.
Also, consider how much customization your business requires. Some platforms are designed for quick implementation with prebuilt features, while others offer more flexibility, custom experiences, and advanced integrations but may require more time and resources to configure. Explore the following tools to get started.
1. LoyaltyLion
LoyaltyLion lets you build a customized loyalty program, which is useful if you want greater control over loyalty experiences. The Shopify-focused platform supports flexible rewards, automation through the Shopify Flow automation app, and omnichannel loyalty programs that connect online and in-store activity through Shopify’s point-of-sale (POS) system.
It includes customer analytics and the ability to segment customers by categories like loyal, at-risk, and win-back, helping you personalize your loyalty campaigns when trying to retain customers. Higher-tier plans add VIP tiers, multilingual support, multilocation POS functionality, and AI-powered campaign recommendations.
Pricing: The free plan supports up to 400 monthly orders. Paid plans start at $199 per month.
2. Smile
Smile is designed to help you launch points, referral, and VIP programs without extensive setup or customization work. Its straightforward setup and free entry-level program make it accessible for those launching a new loyalty program. You can reward purchases and customer engagement, create referral programs, and access basic analytics.
Higher-level plans add VIP and tiered features, as well as subscription and gift card rewards, bonus point events, and fully embedded loyalty experiences that integrate directly into the shopping journey (e.g., displaying points on product or customer account pages).
Smile supports Shopify Flow triggers, Klaviyo integrations, Shopify POS, and multilingual loyalty solutions, allowing you to connect your loyalty data to your broader marketing and customer engagement efforts.
Pricing: Smile has a limited free plan for newer stores with up to 200 monthly orders. Paid plans range from $15 to $999 per month, based on the number of monthly orders.
3. Yotpo
Yotpo has many ways to reward customer interactions beyond purchases. In addition to managing purchase and referral programs, businesses can award points for product reviews, social media engagement, SMS signups, and charitable donations. This flexibility may benefit brands interested in rewarding existing customers across multiple channels.
VIP tiers, points expiration rules, punch-card programs, and advanced audience targeting are available on higher-tier plans. Yotpo also includes integrations with Shopify POS, Klaviyo, Recharge subscription management, and a host of other ecommerce, help desk, customer relationship management (CRM), and marketing tools.
Pricing: Yotpo is free to install for stores with fewer than 100 monthly orders. Paid plans start at $199 per month.
4. Rivo
Rivo combines customer accounts, loyalty programs, referrals, and memberships into a single Shopify-focused platform. Its customer accounts product includes passwordless login, wish lists, saved carts, personalized recommendations, order history, and tools that use survey responses, shopping preferences, and other data customers voluntarily share to support more personalized shopping experiences.
You can add loyalty, referrals, and memberships through Rivo’s custom loyalty tech stack. The platform integrates with Shopify Flow, Shopify Markets, Klaviyo, and other tools, allowing brands to connect loyalty initiatives to customer account and personalization experiences.
Pricing: Rivo’s free plan supports up to 200 orders per month. Paid plans start at $15 per month.
5. Growave
Growave is an all-in-one retention platform that includes loyalty, referral, wish list functionality, product review, and user-generated content (UGC). Because these features share customer data, store owners can manage multiple retention strategies through a single Shopify-native platform.
All plans include points-based rewards, review collection, a dedicated wish list page with an add-to button, and one integration (with Shopify POS, Klaviyo email marketing, Gorgias customer service, or another tool). Higher-level plans add more integrations, VIP tiers, store credit rewards, a gift registry, Instagram UGC integration, and customization.
Pricing: The free plan supports up to 200 orders per month. Paid plans start at $15 per month.
6. Stamped
Stamped approaches customer retention through a suite of products that combine loyalty, reviews, and life cycle marketing automation. You can use its loyalty platform to build points, referral, and VIP programs, and connect loyalty data to customer review requests and post-purchase customer journeys.
Stamped is built for Shopify and Shopify Plus users and integrates with tools such as Klaviyo, Gorgias, and the Shop App. One notable feature is the ability to combine loyalty programs with life cycle automation, which helps you engage your audience throughout the customer life cycle with post-purchase follow-ups, reorder reminders, and win-back campaigns.
Pricing: Plans start at $23 per month.
7. Marsello
Marsello is designed for businesses that sell both online and in physical locations, combining loyalty programs, customer segmentation, email marketing, and SMS campaigns in a single platform. The platform syncs ecommerce and POS transaction data to create a unified customer view and personalize marketing campaigns based on customer behavior.
Marsello also includes recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) customer segmentation, omnichannel reporting, digital wallet passes, and loyalty automations that connect rewards activity with email and SMS engagement. Its higher-tier plan adds advanced segmentation, custom rewards, application programming interface (API) access, and deeper marketing automation.
Pricing: Plans start at $60 per month.
8. Kangaroo
Kangaroo combines loyalty programs, customer engagement, and marketing automation in a platform developed for businesses that want to launch and manage loyalty programs without extensive technical resources. It emphasizes ease of use and quick deployment, while also offering features that allow businesses to expand their loyalty programs over time.
In addition to points-based rewards, referral programs, and membership tiers, the customer loyalty platform includes gamification features, such as contests, giveaways, surveys, and “spin-to-win” promotions. Higher-tier plans add AI-powered campaigns, advanced analytics, multilocation support, API access, and white-label mobile apps that you can brand as your own.
Pricing: Plans start at $199 per month.
9. TrueLoyal
TrueLoyal, formerly Zinrelo, takes a community-driven approach by offering traditional rewards features and customer advocacy tools designed to turn your customers and “super fans” into brand promoters.
Its Rewards product includes points, tiers, segmentation, gamification, receipt scanning, and behavior-based earning rules. The platform’s Fan Club product helps you encourage reviews, UGC, product feedback, and community participation through forums, sampling programs, and peer influencer initiatives. The platform integrates with 140 business tools, including Shopify, Klaviyo, and Salesforce CRM.
Pricing: The app is free for up to 500 loyalty members. TrueLoyal uses custom pricing for larger programs.
Loyalty software FAQ
What is the best loyalty software for ecommerce?
The best loyalty software provider depends on your business size, goals, and ecommerce platform. When evaluating options, consider the types of loyalty programs you want to run, the level of customization you need, and whether the software integrates with your existing tech stack. Shopify stores often use third-party apps that are part of the Shopify network, such as LoyaltyLion, Smile, Rivo, and Yotpo.
How does loyalty software work?
Loyalty software tracks actions such as purchases, customer referrals, reviews, and account activity. It can automatically award points, manage rewards, track program performance, and help your business engage customers with personalized incentives to persuade them to become repeat customers. Some loyalty program software includes other marketing, customer engagement, and community-building features.
Do small businesses need loyalty software?
Small businesses can see results from using software to build customer loyalty. For example, Pace Athletic, which sells running shoes and apparel, switched from its prior loyalty program to Yotpo’s loyalty and reviews platform to improve the customer experience and connect loyalty rewards to user-generated content. The company reported a 264% year-over-year increase in incremental revenue. It also saw stronger retention and conversion rates following the switch.
