How to Create a WooCommerce Loyalty Program in WordPress?

Customer retention has become one of the biggest challenges facing online retailers today. While you spend countless hours and dollars attracting new visitors to your store, research shows that acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one. Yet, many WooCommerce store owners watch helplessly as their hard-earned customers make a single purchase and disappear forever.

The harsh reality is even more troubling. Studies reveal that the average customer retention rate across industries hovers around 20%. This means 80% of your customers will never return to your store after their first purchase. Without a strategy to keep customers engaged and coming back, your business is essentially bleeding money through a leaky bucket.

Fortunately, there’s a proven solution that successful eCommerce businesses use to transform one-time buyers into loyal, repeat customers: implementing a WooCommerce loyalty program in WordPress. This comprehensive guide will show you exactly how to create, configure, and optimize a loyalty program that keeps customers coming back while increasing your average order value.

What Is a WooCommerce Loyalty Program?

A WooCommerce loyalty program is a strategic marketing system that rewards customers for specific actions they take in your online store. These actions typically include making purchases, referring friends, writing product reviews, or engaging with your brand on social media.

The program usually operates through a points-based system where customers earn rewards that can be redeemed for discounts, free products, or exclusive perks. When implemented correctly, loyalty programs create a psychological incentive for customers to choose your store over competitors and return for future purchases.

Think of it as a digital version of the punch cards you might find at your local coffee shop – but with far more sophisticated tracking and reward options.

Why Your WooCommerce Store Needs a Loyalty Program?

Some of the benefits that you can avail yourself from implementing WooCommerce loyalty program in WordPress store are given below:

Improved customer retention: Loyalty programs offer your customers a rock-solid reason to come back to you to make a future purchase.

The loyalty programs motivate the customers to continue purchasing so that they can take advantage of their current benefits or for accessing better benefits that all these loyalty programs are going to offer them in the upcoming days.

More referral business: One of the most common things for marketing your business is word of mouth, and these loyalty programs incentivize customers to bring their family and friends. When a customer receives benefits frequently from one loyalty program, they often encourage their close ones to join the program.

Cost-effective marketing: Awarding your existing prospects to purchase more items and refer fresh shoppers is very cost-efficient. Investing in a customer loyalty program that keeps the prospects back is way less expensive than marketing to attract new prospects.

Higher customer satisfaction: The happier the customers you have, the more money they will spend, hence keeping things great for your online store’s bottom line.

The competition is extremely high, so you need to give the people a correct reason for choosing your company over your competitors. The prospects will spread the word about great loyalty programs having unique incentives and deals.

Improving store sales: All the customers want to spend on an eCommerce business if they have a rewards program. All of their efforts result in a larger incentive, like a discounted deal or a free commodity. It encourages the customers to purchase more of the products your brand offers.

Essential Planning Steps Before Creating Your Program?

Before you create a WooCommerce loyalty program in WordPress, here is what you need to consider:

Ask yourself some customer-related questions:

Ask yourself who your clients are, what they are looking for, what kind of choices they have for purchasing your product, see if you want to sell to any individuals or firms, and what the beneficial rewards they are receiving.

When it is about B2C, you must know that your prospects are in charge of their own decisions. So, providing them with action-based points and discount cards will motivate them to always opt for your services.

Motivate your clients:

You need to research and then test the things that make your customers purchase from your or encourage them to opt for your service every time.

The majority of consumers prefer a brand or store that offers incentives, and some prefer firms that offer personalized prizes and messages. Make use of online polls and surveys to understand your customers and their needs.

Prepare a list of the objectives of your stores:

The incentive strategy will impact how the users and customers interact with the services and products you offer. This, in turn, will impact your revenues.

So, before straightaway deciding on the incentive programs you are going to offer, figure out the objectives of your store. This will help you assess the program’s effectiveness in the upcoming days.

Short-term vs long-term loyalty program value:

Short-term advantages like single-use discounts and coupons are related to point-based reward programs. At the same time, the long-term advantages are aspirational.

These rewards generally entail unlocking a particular status or earning a greater tier to gain valuable perks. You need to ensure that the shopping behavior of your clients corresponds to the kind of benefits and value you offer via your loyalty program.

Top WooCommerce Loyalty Program Plugins

Whenever you try to make a WooCommerce loyalty program in WordPress from scratch, it may prove to be time-consuming. But you may catalyze things a bit by using the right plugins.

A lot of plugins are available. But you need to go for the best. Some of the strong plugins that you have got are as follows:

Gratisfaction:

Gratisfaction is a high-rated WooCommerce plugin. It provides massive customization options for rewards programs.
It will help you set up referral programs, giveaways, purchase rewards, and more. You may choose whatever features you like. Every type of reward possesses an array of options. Other features of Gratisfaction are as follows:

• It facilitates reward redemption.
• Post purchase campaigns are available.
• Giveaways and contests are available.
• It offers referral and loyalty programs.

Easy Loyalty Points and Rewards for WooCommerce:

It is very lightweight and easy to use tool for WooCommerce. It helps you to facilitate a customer loyalty system. You can reward your customers with points for actions and purchases with this tool. All the points can be redeemed for discounts on all future orders. Other features of this plugin are stated below:

• Reward is available for specific actions.
• A customer dashboard and a custom message are available with this tool.
• Balances can be adjusted anytime.
• Award points based on tax-exclusive or inclusive prices are available.

Beans:

Beans is a complete package when it comes to WooCommerce. It offers various functions that are beyond loyalty programs. Some excellent features include a social media manager and smart popups. But if you want, you can use it for powerful rewards features.

The loyalty program Liana enables you to offer incentives and rewards for social media shares, purchases, product reviews, birthdays, and much more. Also, there is a referral plugin, Bamboo, for providing gifts, coupons, and points to customers who refer you to their families and friends. The salient features of the Beans plugin are as follows:

• It offers powerful referral and loyalty programs.
• It offers email notifications.
• Detailed analytics is available with this plugin.
• It offers fraud detection.

WupSales:

With WupSales, you can now reward your prospects by making use of reward Points for purchasing products, leaving reviews, signing up, and social promotions such as liking, and sharing on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, and referrals.

Now you can set up rewards in the form of bonus points. Or you can set up campaigns with automatic reward points based on conditions or triggers. Then you can notify the users through email and/or pop-up. Popular features of WupSales are as follows:

• You can set multiple point amounts for different actions.
• You can track the balance of reward points easily with WupSales.
• It facilitates loyalty discount coupons.
• Automatic marketing campaign is available.

MyRewards:

If you are looking for a straightforward option, nothing beats MyRewards. It will help you to set up a reward program within 5 minutes. With this, you can set up incentives easily for spending a particular amount, purchasing 1st time, and a lot more.

You can also display WooCommerce reward points for every customer. You do not need coding skills to operate this plugin. Other features of MyRewards are as follows:

• Converting points into a WooCommerce coupon is easy.
• You can subtract and add points from the customers.
• More than 20 ways are there for the customers to earn points.
• The unlockable rewards incentivize progression.

myCred:

If you are looking for a free tool to start with, you can go for myCred. This tool lets you make a loyal and engaged customer through gamification, rewards, leaderboards, and much more. Modularity is the true strength of this plugin. Features of myCred are as follows:

• Three reward system options- badges, ranks, and points are available.
• You can also set up compound interest, recurring points, and notifications.
• It allows you to convert the points into cash.
• It offers a seamless customizable experience.

WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards:

With WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards plugin, rewarding and retaining loyal customers via a powerful point system is possible. Customers can receive WooCommerce points in different ways. Points are available for shopping rewards, referral rewards, or upon signup through the website you have created.

Also, the customers can easily spend their WC points on product coupons and discounts. From your view point, you can set maximum point limits and expiry dates and also restrict the usage for a customizable program. The principal features of this plugin are as follows:

• Points can be shared among customers.
• Coupons can be generated.
• Converting earned points to cash or redeeming points for the products is possible.
• Offering reward points for multiple actions is possible.

Conclusion

Creating a successful WooCommerce loyalty program in WordPress requires careful planning, the right tools, and ongoing optimization. By understanding your customers, choosing appropriate rewards, and implementing the strategies outlined in this guide, you can transform one-time buyers into loyal brand advocates.

Remember that loyalty programs are not set-it-and-forget-it solutions. They require continuous monitoring, testing, and improvement to remain effective. Start with a simple program, gather customer feedback, and gradually add sophisticated features as you learn what resonates with your audience.

The investment you make in customer loyalty today will pay dividends for years to come through increased retention, higher average order values, and powerful word-of-mouth marketing. Don’t let another customer slip away – start building your WooCommerce loyalty program in WordPress today.

Ready to get started? Choose a plugin that matches your needs and budget, then begin with a simple points-and-rewards structure. You can always add complexity later as your program matures and your understanding of customer preferences deepens.