Every customer loyalty program has two primary aims: Boost sales and increase brand loyalty. Unfortunately, most Shopify businesses do not achieve these two goals with their loyalty programs.

Why? They fail to avoid these 6 mistakes we are about to uncover when running their first loyalty program.  

Today's post takes you through critical mistakes to avoid in your first loyalty program. If you've made the mistakes already, we let you in on how to navigate them.

6 Common Mistakes to Avoid With Your Shopify Loyalty Program

1. Packing a Plethora of Features Into Your First Launch

Your first launch is important. But it shouldn't always be a bells and whistles event. One typical mistake we see with loyalty programs on Shopify is a first launch with so many features than customers would care for.

 Of course, it's good to stand out from competitors, but you don't want to overwhelm customers either. VIP tiers, gamification, mystery gifts, and other secondary features are best added later on.

 For your first launch, it's better to have a few core components and one or two incredible and unique features or rewards that set your program apart. Such an approach would keep customers interested in your program right from the start. It would also help you get the feedback you need for your subsequent feature launches.

2. Complicating the Loyalty Program Sign-up Process

A  complicated loyalty program is one of the most common mistakes businesses make when running their loyalty program. Unfortunately, the modern-day customer does not appreciate complications in any form.

 In fact, according to a 2018 study, fewer Gen Z customers are joining customer loyalty programs compared to millennials. 28% of the participants cited a long enrollment process as one of the top reasons for not joining loyalty programs.

 Few customers will opt-in if you have an overly complicated process for signing up. Ultimately, your loyalty program will not produce results as you expected, and you might even lose some frustrated customers.

 Remove any unnecessary steps in your sign-up process to make it seamless. If possible, include the autofill function. Most importantly, make the loyalty program sign-up page easily accessible. It shouldn't be hidden in your drop-down menus or the forgotten parts of your store's footer section. 

 Instead, place the program's sign-up link in plain view. You can also display it after a customer completes a purchase or in the sale confirmation email. This will increase awareness of the loyalty program and boost the conversion rate.

3. Rewarding Customers for Making Purchases Only

Of course, the main goal of your loyalty program is to keep customers engaged and buying more. However, if you only reward for purchase transactions, you will miss out on appealing to a bigger customer base.

 Recognition loyalty ensures that you are rewarding customers on touchpoints other than purchases. For instance, you can reward customers for:

 Referring your product to friends and on social media

• Writing product reviews
• Participating in surveys
• Donating to causes you support

 If you reward customers for non-transactional activities, you set yourself up for success with your loyalty program. This is especially true for modern customers.

 In their annual Customer Experience Index study, Forrester found that emotions play a far greater role in loyalty than ease or effectiveness in most cases. One of the things that customers want from a brand is to be valued. This goes the same for your loyalty program.

 In other words, infuse your rewards in aspects other than transactions, and your customers will feel more valued and less like cash cows. 

4. Offering Unappealing Rewards to Customers

Rewards make all the difference when it comes to customer loyalty programs. If you offer the wrong rewards to customers, you could be sabotaging the success of your loyalty program. The wrong reward can come in two ways. Either your rewards don't match customers' needs, or the commitment required to get a reward is unreasonable.

 According to Invesp, 37.5% of customers join a loyalty program to earn rewards, while 54.7% join to save money. Once you understand why a customer enters your program, you'll be in a better position to offer the right reward.

 You could also run a survey to get input from customers participating in your loyalty program. The feedback you gather will help you optimize your rewards to satisfy your customer's needs. Eventually, if your customers are satisfied, their customer lifetime value also increases.

5. Underutilizing Customer Data

First off, if you are not collecting data, you are 'leaving insights on the table'. On the other hand, if you aren't using your data, you are also setting yourself up for a failed loyalty program.

Customer data is crucial in discovering your customer's preferences and dislikes. It's through this customer data that you get to understand how best to tailor your reward. 

In a 2017 study, 77% of customers admitted to withdrawing their brand loyalty more quickly than the previous three years. Simply put, preserving customer loyalty in today's environment is quickly becoming a tough job for e-commerce businesses. Here is where data comes into play.

Data gives you the ability to add more personalization to your loyalty program. Data also helps you evolve with the trends to retain your customers and their loyalty. 

6. Fractured Omnichannel Experiences

Can your customers earn points on your web store and redeem them on your loyalty program app? If customers can't have such an experience, you have fractured omnichannel capabilities, which spells bad news for your program.

 A fragmented omnichannel experience is where the customer experience is not interconnected across the web, social media channels, and your apps. If this is the case, you risk losing customers through the cracks of the different platforms where they interact with you. It's even more important when you consider that 9 out of 10 customers expect a seamless omnichannel experience. 

To keep your customers engaged in the loyalty program, ensure that you create an interconnected system that supports earning points and redeeming rewards across all vital channels.

 Also, it's essential to have content that helps customers flow from one channel to the next without hurdles when using your program.

Wrap Up

Loyalty programs do work if you get it right the first time. However, you'll need to avoid the mistakes we just mentioned when running your Shopify loyalty program. Most importantly, focus on creating a seamless experience for your customers through personalization and simplifying the program.

 If you want a seamless loyalty program that gets you results, Glow Loyalty can help. Our app helps you develop loyalty programs that customers love and recommend. Contact us to find out how we can help you get started.