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Unify Your Customer Loyalty Program on a Shoestring Budget

Is your loyalty program stuck on your website? When customers only earn points for purchases, you're missing out. Valuable actions like newsletter sign-ups go unrewarded, creating a fragmented experience that weakens customer retention and leaves money on the table.

The Budget-Friendly Starter Stack provides a powerful, low-cost solution to this problem. By integrating BigCommerce, LoyaltyLion, and Mailchimp, you can create a cohesive loyalty experience that rewards customers beyond the point of sale. This stack leverages tools with generous free tiers to track on-site purchases, manage core loyalty features, and communicate with customers via personalized, loyalty-aware emails. It's the perfect starting point to build a more valuable program without breaking the bank.

Expected Outcomes

  • Boost customer retention by creating a loyalty program with higher perceived value.
  • Reward customers for valuable off-site actions, like email engagement.
  • Unify the customer experience across your e-commerce and email channels.
  • Launch a sophisticated, integrated loyalty program with minimal upfront cost and low implementation effort.
  • Increase customer lifetime value by fostering a stronger brand connection.

Core Tools in This Stack

LoyaltyLion

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A data-driven loyalty and engagement platform for ecommerce merchants, designed to increase customer lifetime value and retention through customizable points, rewards, tiers, and referral programs.

Key Features
  • Customizable Loyalty Tiers
  • Points & Rewards System
  • Integrated Referral Program
  • In-depth Analytics & Insights
  • On-site Customization & Branding
  • Extensive Integrations (Shopify, BigCommerce, Klaviyo, etc.)
  • Customer Engagement Campaigns
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Retail & E-commerce, Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services

Pricing

Model: Freemium, Subscription, Contact for Pricing

Tier: Mid-range

Ease of Use

Easy

Mailchimp

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Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps small businesses and larger enterprises market smarter, not harder. It provides AI-powered tools to create and send engaging email campaigns, automate marketing tasks, manage audiences, and analyze campaign performance.

Key Features
  • Email Campaign Builder
  • Marketing Automation
  • Audience Management & Segmentation (CRM)
  • AI-powered Content Optimizer
  • Landing Page and Website Builder
  • A/B Testing
  • Advanced Reporting & Analytics
  • Extensive Integrations with other apps
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Free, Freemium, Subscription

Tier: Mid-tier

Ease of Use

User-Friendly

BigCommerce

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BigCommerce is an open SaaS e-commerce platform that provides businesses with the tools to build, run, and grow their online stores. It supports both B2C and B2B models with flexible, scalable solutions.

Key Features
  • Drag-and-drop page builder
  • Headless commerce APIs
  • Multi-Storefront management
  • Advanced B2B e-commerce features
  • Omni-channel selling (marketplaces, social)
  • Integrated payment and shipping options
  • Built-in SEO and marketing tools
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Retail & E-commerce, Business & Professional Services, Health & Wellness, Technology & Software, Other

Pricing

Model: Subscription-based, Tiered pricing, Usage-based

Tier: Medium

Ease of Use

Medium

The Workflow

graph TD subgraph "The Budget-Friendly Starter Stack" direction LR N0["LoyaltyLion"] N1["Mailchimp"] N2["BigCommerce"] N2 -- "Provides customer and order information" --> N0 N0 -- "Pushes loyalty data (points, tier, referral URL)" --> N1 end classDef blue fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef green fill:#2ecc71,stroke:#27ae60,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef orange fill:#f39c12,stroke:#d35400,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; class N0 blue; class N1 blue; class N2 blue;

Integration Logic

  • LoyaltyLion and Mailchimp Integration

    This integration connects LoyaltyLion and Mailchimp to enrich customer profiles with loyalty data. BigCommerce acts as the foundational platform, providing customer and order information to LoyaltyLion. When a customer's loyalty status changes in LoyaltyLion (e.g., they earn points, enter a new tier, or have points expiring), LoyaltyLion automatically pushes this data—such as points balance, tier name, and unique referral URL—to the corresponding subscriber profile in Mailchimp as custom merge fields. This allows marketers to build powerful segments and trigger automated email campaigns in Mailchimp, such as tier-achievement notifications, points-expiry reminders, and referral-link promotions.

Unlock Your Free Loyalty Program Playbook

Discover how to boost retention and revenue by rewarding every valuable customer action, not just purchases.