LoyaltyLion vs Smile.io vs AiTrillion – Best Loyalty and Rewards App for Shopify

Ease of use and setup 

The number one aspect you need to consider when choosing a Shopify customer loyalty app is the ease of use and setup. Whether you’re just getting started or are experienced at setting up a loyalty program, the app interface needs to intuitively guide you to the next steps up until the launch. 

All three apps – LoyaltyLion, Smile.io, and AiTrillion come with plug-and-play solutions for Shopify stores. All you need to do is add the app from the Shopify app store, and go through the onboarding process for setting up. 

Now AiTrillion comes packed with more features for setting up advanced loyalty programs and the required campaigns around the same. To ensure you don’t get overwhelmed by the setup process, they offer a clean dashboard with core elements of a loyalty program neatly displayed on the left-hand side menu. This ensures the menu items under loyalty act as a mental checklist during setup. 

Customizations 

A customer loyalty program needs to be in sync with the overall experience your brand wants to deliver. This is why it is important to see what customizations the Shopify customer loyalty app has to offer to create a more on-brand experience for members. 

Now Smile.io only works with a pop-up loyalty widget that comes with a limited set of customizations. There is no SDK available and a full-page program is not an option unless you request heavy customizations from the developer. 

On the other hand, LoyaltyLion offers a fully integrated, customizable loyalty page that can be tailored to match your visual expectations with an interactive editor. They also give you access to comprehensive SDK and API, which essentially means you can work with Shopify web developers to further customize the loyalty experience offered on your store. 

In comparison to both the Shopify loyalty apps above, AiTrillion lets you do what the two have to offer. Be it setting up a simple popup for your loyalty program or a full-fledged, customized page, the app lets you choose the scale at which you want the setup to deliver a seamless experience to customers. 

Reward types 

Now Smile.io and LoyaltyLion essentially work on giving out loyalty points as rewards to consumers for different actions. AiTrillion on the other hand lets you go ten steps ahead and offer various rewards in the same loyalty program; this includes: 

• Money off
• Percentage discount
• Free shipping
• Free product (voucher) 
• Product discount (voucher)
• Loyalty points 

Reward triggers 

Similar to reward types, it is also important that a loyalty app lets you set up different actions or triggers for which you give benefits to customers. 

Now both Smile.io and LoyaltyLion let you set up rewards for micro and macro actions from a consumer. Right from making a purchase to reorders, leaving a product review, following you on social media, sharing their purchase, referring a friend, and so on, you can set multiple triggers under the same program to make it a more engaging experience for the members. 

In comparison to the two, AiTrillion comes with 18+ built-in activity rules, making it much simpler for you to set up trigger-based rewards. These include the following: 

• Make a purchase
• Create an account
• Refer a Friend
• Visit store
• Buy $X get Y points
• On X Orders get Y points
• Happy Birthday
• Leave a review 
• Purchase code
• Follow on Instagram
• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Facebook
• Follow on Pinterest
• Facebook share
• Facebook share on thank you
• Allow push notification

BONUS: Customer loyalty program gamification 

Apart from multiple triggers, gamification is said to be one of the most effective strategies to keep loyalty program members actively engaged. AiTrillion enables you to create a tier-based loyalty program, wherein the rewards can vary based on the number of interactions, purchases, and other parameters of engagement between your business and the consumer. 

Analytics 

A customer loyalty program is meant to be optimized over time. Taking a set it and forgetting it approach is the shortest way to losing even your engaged customers. This is why it is important that your Shopify customer loyalty program app comes with comprehensive analytics and reporting around the program. 

Both Smile.io and LoyaltyLion offer analytics and insights across all aspects of a loyalty program. But AiTrillion takes analytics a step further by helping you deep-dive into different customer segments as well. This helps you understand a customer’s journey with the loyalty program and how you can tailor it further to boost engagement and retention. The visual representation of the data makes it further simpler to derive insights and actionables from the loyalty program performance. 

 Integrations

Strong integrations allow you to use the customer loyalty program in the grander scheme of things for better customer engagement, retention, and experience. This may include integrating your customer loyalty app with product review apps, email marketing tools, web push notification solutions, and others. 

Smile.io and LoyaltyLion have an extensive library of integrations that you can explore to add more depth to your loyalty program. But AiTrillion is what simplifies it all! 

AiTrillion comes with 10+ apps built-in to enable the entire marketing stack you need to engage consumers. This means that to leverage email marketing or web push automation, product reviews, and other features, you don’t need any integrations. You get access to them all with one app, making the process even more seamless for you and the consumer both! 

You can always request AiTrillion for integrations if you’re specific about using a Shopify app. The Shopify developer team is experienced at building strong integrations with solutions in and outside the ecosystem.

Note: All the loyalty program apps offer Shopify POS integration to create a loyalty program for both online and offline customers. 

Pricing 

AiTrillion offers a 30-day free trial to explore all its features; post which the pricing starts at $49 per month only. Irrespective of the plan you are on, it gives you access to all the features you need to set up a loyalty program and the additional conversion features to boost engagement. Click here to install the app here.

LoyaltyLion comes with a free plan that offers limited features. Post which, their pricing starts at $159 per month for small businesses. It is important to note that the app only enables you to set up a customer loyalty program; you may have to integrate and make use of other Shopify apps to run specific campaigns. 

Smile.io also offers a free plan with limited features on its loyalty program setup. After which, they offer pricing plans starting at $49 per month. Again, in this case, you may have to use other Shopify apps, integrating them with Smile.io to run automated and synced campaigns for customer engagement. 

Customer support and success

All the customer loyalty program apps come with well-documented help articles, knowledgebases, and blogs to help you understand their features. Each of them has also shared multiple case studies to help you understand how others in the ecosystem are running successful loyalty programs to keep consumers engaged. 

But when it comes to proactive customer support and success, AiTrillion takes the cake. They have an extensive team of eCommerce experts who understand the importance of personalization and building tailored customer journeys online and offline. The team works with you right from the beginning and stays on top of things to help you succeed with the loyalty program. 

Customer loyalty programs are fast evolving. They no longer are just about rewarding customers for the interactions they make. 

That’s why we recommend choosing an app that offers easy scaling of the Shopify loyalty program and comes with additional conversion features that let you offer a comprehensive experience to members. 

AiTrillion is built keeping in mind the increasing needs of an eCommerce business as well as consumer expectations. The features are frequently updated to ensure that your loyalty program meets all industry standards and benchmarks, keeping customers thoroughly engaged throughout the lifecycle. 

The app is chosen by leading brands on Shopify and Shopify Plus to set up their customer loyalty programs for its advanced set of features. 

Want to explore how different AiTrillion is from Smile.io and LoyaltyLion? 

Book a demo here. 

Additional reads: 

How To Amplify Your Email Marketing For The Success Of Your ECommerce Store (free ebook)