Loyalty App for Small Business: Why It Matters and Best Loyalty Apps in 2025

Are you looking for a good loyalty app for small businesses? Maybe you want to improve customer retention without paying too much for ads. Or… you just want a better way to keep loyal buyers spending.

Whatever your goal is, we created a list for you to choose from. We reviewed dozens of apps from Shopify and picked the best in terms of pricing, strengths, and ease of use.

We’ll also talk about some important basics like why loyalty programs matter for small businesses, what features you should look for, and step-by-step instructions on how to pick the right one.

Why Loyalty Programs Matter for Small Businesses

Loyalty programs are useful for small businesses because they help encourage repeat customers without the need for a huge budget. It’s start-up friendly and focuses on providing rewards for customer retention.

We all know that the biggest pros of large businesses over small ones are more capital and better brand recognition. And since you may not have that “privilege” for now, you can use loyalty programs as an alternate route for marketing success. It’s much cheaper than other marketing strategies, plus it focuses on people who already know you.

Please be aware of this: Besides huge brands, you’re also competing with other small businesses (oops). One report from the U.S. Small Business Administration showed that there are over 33.3 million of them in the US alone.

So, how does a loyalty program help? You can use rewards, discounts, and exclusive perks to convince your buyers to stay and keep doing business with you.

Imagine you ran a coffee shop in your area. Without a loyalty program, customers might visit your store once and then try the new café that opened a few blocks away. But with a simple “buy 5 coffees, get the 6th free,” you give them a reason to come back.

Common Small Business Problems that Loyalty Programs Fix

Here’s what a customer loyalty program solves for small businesses like yours:

• Low repeat purchase rates: 80% of customers buy once and never come back, and loyalty programs can help you lessen that number. You can introduce a loyalty program (i.e., earn points, get free items, exclusive access) to reward every purchase they make.
• Weak customer engagement: Loyalty program apps also help you interact with customers even pre- or post-purchase. You can send custom offers, birthday rewards, and product updates to keep your brand top-of-mind.
• Lack of customer data to personalize marketing: Loyalty apps can also help you check purchase history and analyze your customer behavior and preferences. So, you can create a better program that they will enjoy or participate in more.

What to Look for in a Loyalty App for Small Businesses

You have to focus on these three things when looking for the best loyalty app for your small business: affordability and ease of use, its loyalty features, and its compatibility with your business type.

Let’s discuss each:

Affordability and Ease of Use

The loyalty app you choose should match your budget and technical skills. Because if not, you’ll have a hard time setting it up and be forced to cut more money from your revenue.

Let’s say you’re selling running shoes. You get an average of 15 customers daily and make around $450 a day. Our suggestion is to only spend 3-6% of your total revenue on your tech stack. So, that’s about $405-810 monthly. With that budget, you can subscribe to a loyalty app that costs less than $80/month.

You should also be able to use and set it up on your own or with a few people. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to waste time on a loyalty program that takes weeks (or months) to launch.

And of course, it should be mobile-friendly. 79% of smartphone users now buy things online. That means your customers should also be able to check their points and redeem rewards easily on their phones.

Must-Have Loyalty Features for Small Businesses

Your loyalty app should have the following non-negotiable features:

• User-Friendly Panel: Your app should provide you a branded (and customizable) page where your customers can sign up, learn about your loyalty program, and check or redeem their rewards.
• Multiple Reward System Options: Make sure you can offer different types of rewards to spice things up. Points can let your customers earn discounts with each purchase, and VIP tiers can make them spend more for better perks. Referral rewards also give your loyal customers the chance to make more money.
• Easy Integration: It should connect with your POS system, CRM, email marketing platform, and online store ASAP (as smoothly as possible). We recommend staying far away from apps that require you to move customer data or reward one by one.
• Basic Analytics and Reporting: You also have to get access to some important data to check your program’s performance. For example, how many loyal members you have, what’s their customer lifetime value (CLTV), and how much revenue you get from referrals.
• Automated Communications: The app should also let you send birthday rewards, point balance updates, and redemption confirmations automatically. Because you won’t have time to manually message every customer about their loyalty status.

Feel free to use the table below if you need a guide on which features to prioritize:

Feature	Essential	Nice-to-Have
Points system	✓
VIP tiers	✓
Referral rewards	✓
Customer dashboard	✓
POS integration	✓
Email automation	✓
Basic analytics	✓
Mobile wallet integration		✓
Multi-language support		✓
AI-powered recommendations		✓
Social media rewards		✓
Gamification features		✓
Advanced reporting		✓
API access		✓
Custom branding		✓

Compatibility with Your Business Type

Do you run a physical store? Or an online e-commerce? Maybe you’re doing both. Whatever it is, you have to choose a loyalty app that matches how your customers interact with and buy from your shop.

Imagine you sold apparel online and you had a boutique shop in downtown LA. You’d need a loyalty platform that synced both locations so your customers could earn points whether they shopped online or in-store.

Brick-and-mortar stores (like our example) need POS and mobile wallet integration for easier point tracking at checkout. But if you’re only running an online store, email marketing and multi-language support are more important.

Best Loyalty Apps for Small Businesses in 2025

The best loyalty apps for small businesses include Channelwill Loloyal, Smile.io, Bon Loyalty, E!, and One Loyalty. 

We didn’t just pick the most popular apps, but compared dozens of them and checked their features, pricing, and ease of use. Customer reviews and ratings also played a part in our curated list.

Let’s discuss each in detail:

App	Starting Price	Shopify Rating (out of 5)	Known For	Best For
Channelwill Loloyal	$19/month	4.9	All-in-one solution	All Shopify stores & DTC brands
Smile.io	$49/month	4.9	Advanced controls	Small businesses that want more loyalty features
BON Loyalty	$25/month	4.9	AI automation	Stores that want hands-off management
E! Essential	Free	5.0	Gamified experience	Start-ups on tight budgets
OneLoyalty	$9/month	4.6	Omnichannel rewards sync	Multi-channel businesses

1. Channelwill Loloyal

Channelwill Loloyal is the best reward platform that you can use to encourage client loyalty. It provides all the essential features you could ask for: points and rewards program, referrals, and VIP tiers.

The app also offers a limited-time promotion program that you can take advantage of during seasonal sales (like Black Friday or Christmas).

Let’s say you own a skincare brand. Your reward system is working well, but you want to provide better offers for your loyal customers. So, you want to create VIP tiers that give exclusive early access to new products, double points on purchases, and special quarterly discounts.

With Loloyal? You can set it up easily and offer multiple loyalty gimmicks for different customers.

Key Strengths

• Customizable Reward Panel: Your customers get one dashboard where they can see their points, check rewards, and redeem benefits. You can also personalize it… with your own branding colors, fonts, and design elements.
• Multi-Language Support: Loloyal is also great for stores outside the US! It supports languages including Spanish, German, Japanese, and Korean, with custom language options available.
• Personalized Recommendations: The app can analyze your customer behavior and suggest relevant rewards and offers for them. They’ll get more fitting promotions and not the usual “generic” ones, and that can improve the engagement.
• POS Integration: Your online and offline sales data sync automatically, so customers earn points whether they shop on your website or visit your physical store. You can save time and make your loyalty program accurate with this.
• 24/7 Support: Did your reward panel suddenly crash at midnight? Don’t worry. You get access to friendly customer support anytime you need help with setup, troubleshooting, or program optimization.

Best For: Shopify store owners and DTC brands that want an all-in-one, simple solution to drive repeat business.

Pricing: Loloyal offers tiered pricing and a 7-day free trial. Its paid plans start at $19/month and have no hidden fees.

2. Smile.io

Next up: Smile.io. This loyalty app provides more advanced program features, so you have more options to execute your special rewards.

For example, you can choose between spending-based or points-based systems for how your customers move in your VIP tiers. You can also offer digital gift cards, free shipping, and free products aside from the usual discounts.

Key Strengths

• Custom Action Rewards: You can reward customers for literally anything valuable to your business… via API.
• Advanced Earning Controls: Smile.io lets you multiply points (2x, 3x, 5x) for VIP customers, set points to expire to encourage usage, and control how often customers can earn from social actions.
• Performance Comparison with Competitors: You can see how your successful loyalty programs perform compared to similar stores in your industry.

Best For: Small businesses that want more advanced rewards features to boost repeat sales without the $$$ price tag.

Pricing: Smile offers a free plan, and it’s free to install, but you can get started with their paid plans at $49/month.

3. BON Loyalty

BON Loyalty focuses on automation and fraud prevention to help you run online (and in-store) loyalty programs with less management.

Key Strengths

• AI-Powered Setup and Recommendations: “Bonnie” (an AI assistant) uses your product category to suggest the best loyalty program for you.
• Anti-Cheat Referral System: You only have to reward referral points once the referred friend makes their first purchase, and you fulfill the order. This helps you avoid fake referrals.
• Order Booster Streaks: Your customers can unlock progressive rewards by completing consecutive orders (like “complete five orders to earn 5 points, complete 10 orders to earn 100 points”).

Best For: Store owners who want to run effective loyalty programs without much supervision.

Pricing: BON uses a tier-based model with a free forever plan. The paid plans start at $25/month, and you get a 7-day free trial.

4. E! (Essential) Loyalty

E! (Essential) Loyalty is one of the few free loyalty programs that’s built for Shopify. It adds the “fun” in collecting perks through its gamified features (more on this below).

Key Strengths

• Dedicated Loyalty Page: You can create a full, standalone page where your customers can explore loyalty rewards, FAQs, and understand how your program works.
• Smart Tracking for Success: Its analytics dashboard allows you to gather valuable customer data and insights like member activity, total loyalty sales, retention revenue, referral-generated revenue, and member activity in real-time.
• Gamified Experience Design: Engage customers by creating an interactive space where they can earn points through multiple activities.

Best For: Start-up stores that want a simple yet fun way to drive repeat sales and bring more brand advocates without paying for anything.

Pricing: E! Essential is currently a free app.

5. OneLoyalty

Let’s wrap up this list with OneLoyalty. It’s another cost-effective option that works for both online and in-store purchases. Like the other platforms here, it also offers the usual points and rewards, VIP tiers, and referral programs.

Key Strengths

• Omnichannel Sync: Your customers’ accounts and loyalty history sync automatically, whether they shop online, through your mobile app, or at your physical store.
• Gamified Daily Check-in: Customers can log in daily to earn points or spin lucky wheels for rewards, and this can add some excitement when engaging with your brand.
• All Features in Free Plan: You can get all the common tools like points, VIP tiers, and referrals for free… for your first 100 active members (not bad).

Best For: Budget-conscious stores that want to boost customer retention.

Pricing: OneLoyalty offers a mix of tiered and pay-per-engaged-member. It offers a free plan, but paid ones start at $9/month (with a 7-day free trial available).

How to Choose the Right Loyalty App for Your Business

You can choose the right loyalty app much more easily by knowing your goals and skills, calculating your budget, and doing a test run.

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Assess Your Needs

Do you need to increase repeat visits, bring more customers, or collect valuable insights? Your loyalty app should match this and give you the best tools to achieve your goals.

Some loyalty apps offer so many features, but sometimes all you need is a couple of basic reward options that actually work.

As a small business owner, you might not have a tech team to handle complicated setups. So, be honest about your technical comfort level and go for a tool that fits that (there’s no shame in wanting something simple).

Step 2: Calculate Your ROI and Budget

Here’s a good rule to follow: if you can increase customer retention by just 10%, most loyalty programs pay for themselves.

For example, if you have 100 customers spending $50 monthly, and 10% increase their visits by one extra purchase per month, that’s $500 in additional revenue to cover your app costs.

But please remember that the total investment includes the setup time, onboarding, and integration capabilities. It’s more than the monthly costs. So, consider them when shortlisting apps.

Step 3: Run a Test Using Free Trial/Plan

Always start with free or trial periods to test the functionality of subscription programs with real customers.

For example, you can run a pilot program with 30-50 customers before full rollout. It’ll allow you to see issues like confusing point systems or poor customer experience.

You can also monitor signup rates during testing. If less than 25% of invited customers actually join, then that can mean the process is too complicated.

During your trial, pay attention to customer feedback. Do they understand how to earn points? Can they easily redeem rewards?

Okay. Before we end this post, let me give you some more tips on how you can use your app fully (and more effectively).

Loyalty Program Tips: How to Maximize Your App’s Impact

Here are some of the best tips to help you maximize your program’s impact:

• Promote Your Program Everywhere: Put signup prompts on your website homepage, checkout page, and email signatures. Add a banner to your email newsletter and mention loyalty points in product descriptions. For physical stores, you can use counter displays or receipts to promote signups.
• Reward More Than Just Purchases: You can give bonus points for writing product reviews, following your social media accounts, and sharing photos. These actions cost you nothing but keep customers engaged between purchases.
• Automate Everything Possible: Set up automatic birthday emails, point balance reminders, and reward notifications. Your loyalty app should handle this without you remembering to send messages manually (because there’s a huge chance you’ll forget).

ADDITIONAL TIP: Combine referral rewards with limited-time offers. A jewelry brand could offer double referral points during holiday shopping, creating urgency while encouraging word-of-mouth marketing.

Final Thoughts & Recommendations

There’s no perfect loyalty app that works for every small business. But you can find one that matches your goals, budgets, and skills right now.

We recommend you start with the free versions or book demos. It’s better to know how the app works before paying… anything.

Ready to try one today? Channelwill Loloyal offers a free trial on Shopify. You can set up a test (or real) loyalty program in just a few hours.

FAQ About Loyalty Apps for Small Businesses