How to Create a WooCommerce Loyalty Program in WordPress

There are questions every online store owner has asked themselves. How can you attract more customers, increase the retention of existing ones, and market your business more effectively?

At least one answer is actually fairly simple: start a loyalty program. This encourages customers to shop at your store, and reward your most loyal patrons with discounts, referral bonuses, and other goodies to keep them engaged. They’re also a smart way to encourage existing shoppers to recommend your brand to their friends.

In this article, we’ll go over what a loyalty program is, why you should be using one, and some of the best WooCommerce loyalty program plugins for WordPress. Let’s dive right in!

What Is a WooCommerce Loyalty Program?

Remember those punch cards shops used to give out, where you could buy ten sandwiches or coffees and get one for free? Loyalty programs for WooCommerce sites work in a very similar way, just in a digital format.

The basic goal is rewarding customers for taking specific actions in your store. This could include making a certain number of purchases, referring their friends, or sharing information about your store on social media. 

If you’re using WooCommerce, rewards typically come in the form of reward points that can be redeemed for free products or discounts on future orders. One common example is giving customers a percentage discount on their next purchase when they refer a friend. 

This idea is nothing new. It’s been in use for hundreds of years. However, the digital age has opened up lots of exciting possibilities for loyalty programs, and WooCommerce plugins make them easier than ever to implement.

The Benefits of Creating a WooCommerce Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are useful for customers, of course, but they’re just as rewarding for you and your business. Here are just a few of the benefits of implementing WooCommerce rewards programs in your online store:

• Increase customer retention. Rewards and loyalty programs give customers a reason to come back and make more purchases.
• Attract referral business. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to market your business, and rewards give customers an incentive to bring their friends.
• Make your marketing more cost-effective. Rewarding existing customers for buying more products and referring new shoppers is extremely cost-effective.
• Keep your customers happy. Happy customers spend more money, which is fantastic for your bottom line.

When you add up all these advantages, they make a compelling argument for using this technique. All you need are the right tools to get started.

5 Best WooCommerce Loyalty Plugins for WordPress

While you can create a loyalty program from scratch, this would be a time-consuming task. Fortunately, you can speed the process up significantly with the right plugin. Here are five strong options.

1. Gratisfaction

Pricing: 

Gratisfaction is free for 100 users and under. Prices increase on a sliding scale up to $399/month for unlimited users. All options are 30% off with an annual plan.

Features:

• Loyalty and referral programs
• Contests and giveaways
• Event celebration (i.e. birthday rewards)
• Post purchase campaigns
• Rewards redemption

Gratisfaction is a popular and well-rated loyalty plugin for WooCommerce. It offers a huge amount of customization options for your rewards programs, enabling you to set up giveaways, referral programs, purchase rewards, and much more.

This tool offers granular controls of its functionality, so you can activate everything or pick and choose which features you want. Each rewards type has a number of options as well. With referral rewards, for example, you can choose to give them only to the referrer, or to both the referrer and the invited customer.

Gratisfaction offers a free version that’s capped at 100 loyalty members. To unlock the plugin’s full potential, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version. Pricing varies based on the maximum number of loyalty program members you need.

2. YITH WooCommerce Points and Rewards

Pricing:

$129.99/year (free version available).

Features:

• Reward specific actions with points (email signup, product review, etc.)
• Create point systems for different products or categories
• Show point totals on cart and checkout product page
• Notify customers about expiry dates, offers, and more

YITH WooCommerce Points and Rewards is a powerful, automated rewards plugin that targets the ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ crowd. Once you’ve configured your rewards program, the plugin takes care of everything else, such as applying points, notifying customers, and sending out reminder emails. 

This plugin is focused on the rewards points system, but it also offers a lot of options to make your loyalty program work for your business. Some of the highlights include expiration dates, scheduled promotions, and the ability to give out bonus points for customers who leave reviews.

YITH does have a free version, but you’ll really want the premium subscription in order to take advantage of all its features. There are a few premium tiers, depending on how many sites you need to use the plugin on.

3. Beans

Pricing:

• 100 users: $29/month
• 400 users: $49/month
• 1000 users: $99/month
• 2000 users: $199/month
• Unlimited users: Custom pricing (contact Beans for details)

Discounts exist for annual payments, and there’s a 14-day free trial.

Features:

• Robust loyalty and referral programs
• Email notifications
• Fraud detection
• Detailed analytics

Beans is actually a full-featured marketing suite for WooCommerce, with a variety of functions that go beyond just customer loyalty programs. These include smart popups and a social media manager. However, you can use it just for the rewards features, and they’re quite powerful.

The loyalty program is called Liana, and it enables you to provide rewards and incentives for purchases, social media shares, birthdays, product reviews, and more. There’s also a referral plugin called Bamboo, which you can use to provide points, free gifts, and coupons to customers who refer their friends and family members. 

Beans offers a free trial, but if your shop sees more than a few orders each month you’ll need to upgrade to one of the premium packages. You can opt for the full suite, or just one of the modules.

4. SUMO Reward Points

Pricing:

$49/month, or $468/year (a $120 annual savings). A free version is also available.

Features:

• Set different point amounts for various actions (purchase, referral, etc.)
• Points can be redeemed for cash or transferred user-to-user
• Unlimited email subscribers
• All designs are fully customizable

Like Beans, SUMO Reward Points is part of an integrated suite of plugins that can help you create a full customer loyalty experience. There are tools for coupons, subscriptions, membership programs, setting up payment plans, and much more. 

The SUMO Rewards Points plugin provides an admin dashboard for managing customer points, as well as options to configure referral links, maximum rewards points balances, expiration dates, and much more. This is an extremely popular plugin for a reason. 

Unlike the other solutions on this list, SUMO does not offer a free trial. There’s a live demo you can test out, however, but to use the plugin you’ll need to purchase a license.

5. WooRewards

Pricing:

€9.90/month (approx. $11.50), or €249.00 for a lifetime WooCommerce subscription (approx. $289.00). A month-long free trial is available.

Features:

• Convert points into a WooCommerce coupon
• Manually add and subtract points from customers
• Celebrate holidays and events with temporary programs
• Create unlockable rewards that incentivize progression
• 20+ ways for customers to earn points

Last but certainly not least, we have WooRewards. This is a straightforward WooCommerce loyalty plugin, which promises to have your rewards program up and running in “less than five minutes”. 

WooRewards lets you easily set up incentives for spending a certain amount, making a first-time product purchase, and more. It also features configurable outreach emails, and a short code and widget to display each customer’s WooCommerce reward points total. You don’t need any knowledge of coding to customize your widgets and emails, and the WooCommerce rewards plugin is designed to be as intuitive and easy-to-use as possible.

WooRewards is a fully-featured free WordPress plugin, unlike the other options on this list. However, there is a pro version that offers additional functionality. It includes infinite rewards programs, more ways to earn a reward point, and badges and achievements to turn your loyalty program into a game for your customers.

6. myCred

Pricing:

myCred is free to start, but is enhanced through dozens of paid add-ons (available from $29 and up for one site).

Features:

• Three reward system options (points, ranks, and badges)
• Customizable experience
• Convert points to cash
• Set up recurring point payouts, compound interest, and notifications

myCred creates an engaged, loyal customer via rewards, gamification, community leaderboards, and more. 

Ultimately, myCred’s strength lies in its modularity. This WordPress plugin begins as a free service; from there, you can customize it through paid add-ons, depending on your needs. For example, if you want to reward customers for visiting often, there’s a Daily Login Rewards extension. Other features like points caps, expiration dates, and notifications can also be purchased.

The free version includes core functionalities, but to really unlock myCred’s potential, add-ons are a must. Thankfully, you can join the Membership Club to bundle together add-ons and services at a discounted rate.

7. WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards

Pricing:

$39 for a regular license (end users cannot be charged), or $1999 for an extended license (end users can be charged).

Features:

• Points are shareable between customers
• Generate coupons
• Convert earned points to cash or redeem points for products
• Offer rewards points for different actions
• Create tiered membership levels

With WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards plugin, you can reward and retain loyal customers through a robust point system.

Customers can earn WooCommerce points in various ways. There are points for the referral reward, shopping reward, or upon signup through your website. They can then spend their WC points on product discounts or coupons. On your end, you can set expiry dates, maximum point limits, and restrict usage for a fully customizable loyalty program.
A free version of WooCommerce Points and Rewards exists for WordPress, but without a paid license, you’re missing out on many of the more advanced features.

Increase Your Customer Loyalty With WP Engine

If you own a WooCommerce business, you owe it to yourself to try implementing a customer rewards program. Plus, if you own a WordPress site, it’s simple to do – just install the right WordPress plugin.

Here at WP Engine, we offer thorough resources for users and developers. In addition, don’t forget to check out our world-class WooCommerce hosting plans, to help you give your customers an incredible digital experience!