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Smile.io powers tens of thousands of ecommerce loyalty programs around the world, helping merchants drive repeat purchases, increase customer lifetime value, and build brand affinity. Founded in 2010 in Canada, Smile.io offers a customizable, scalable platform that helps businesses run rewards, VIP, and referral programs—all designed to bring shoppers back. Merchants across Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more use Smile.io to fuel engagement and loyalty. And with over five years of building with Klaviyo, Smile.io makes those programs smarter, faster, and easier to launch.

Learn how Smile.io increases engagement and retention for leading brands with new Klaviyo app

Challenge

Loyalty programs thrive on communication, and that’s where many brands fall short.

Smile.io customers needed more than just on-site messaging; they needed a loyalty communication strategy that felt cohesive with their brand’s voice across email and SMS. Without the Klaviyo integration, loyalty messages often felt disconnected—interrupting the customer experience instead of enhancing it.

“When you’re running a loyalty program, it’s really easy to come up with messaging that potentially is off cadence or is too frequent for a customer if you just layer it on top of your existing communication with your customers,” says Mike Rossi, CEO of Smile.io. “Without the Klaviyo integration, you end up with a bit of a disparate, potentially redundant type of communication strategy when it comes to the loyalty program.”

Without the Klaviyo integration, you end up with a bit of a disparate, potentially redundant type of communication strategy when it comes to the loyalty program.

For merchants, managing unsubscribes and maintaining brand consistency across platforms was painful. For Smile.io, not having a robust communication integration meant the loyalty experience came up short.

To scale smarter, Smile.io needed a way to embed loyalty into every customer touchpoint with ease, speed, and strategy.

Solution

Smile.io partnered with Klaviyo to rebuild its integration from the ground up in 2024, leveraging OAuth and API upgrades to deliver a faster, easier experience for merchants.

Setup is now one-click. Flows are branded and ready out of the box. Loyalty is part of the broader customer journey, not an afterthought. And being integrated into a true B2C CRM means Smile.io’s merchants can finally tie loyalty into the full customer experience—across email, SMS, and on-site—with data flowing in both directions.

That kind of integration with a B2C CRM didn’t just improve the merchant experience. It delivered real business results for both ecommerce brands and Smile.io. Shortly after launching their Kalviyo app, Smile.io saw a measurable lift in retention, a drop in support tickets, and tighter product alignment with how brands actually want to communicate.

“We typically notice retention of our merchants being about two times higher than merchants who don’t have Klaviyo integrated,” Rossi says. “It’s been a game changer for us on that front.”

We typically notice retention of our merchants being about two times higher than merchants who don’t have Klaviyo integrated.

It also helped Smile.io reinforce its own brand promise: creating seamless loyalty experiences that feel integrated, intentional, and on-brand. “Qualitatively, what we’re hearing from a lot of our merchants is that they love that the loyalty program communication feels like it’s one in the same with the rest of the brand’s communication,” Rossi says. “That’s a big deal.”

Once the app was live in the Klaviyo App Marketplace, that momentum accelerated. Smile.io saw an immediate boost in visibility, organic installs, and inbound opportunities—proof that a verified listing isn’t just a stamp of approval, but a real driver of adoption.

Strategy

From the outset, Klaviyo and Smile.io prioritized merchant value through an easier setup, stronger performance, and real utility for end users. But that shared focus also delivered internal wins for Smile.io—creating a smoother developer experience, reducing support load, and increasing merchant stickiness.

“I always think about partnerships and integrations in terms of, ‘What’s the use case, and is it really valuable? Is it driving revenue for everyone involved?’” Rossi says. “And if that’s the case? Cool, go ahead with it.”

That clarity of purpose came to life across three key areas:

One-click setup with OAuth

Smile.io rebuilt the app using Klaviyo’s OAuth framework—streamlining setup to a single click and dramatically removing friction for both merchants and their support teams.

“We don’t actually need to help merchants set it up anymore,” Rossi says. “There’s almost no troubleshooting that needs to happen.”

Behind the scenes, the development process was just as smooth. From documentation to hands-on support, Klaviyo made it easy to build fast—and build right.

“We’ve built a lot of integrations into a lot of different technologies,” Rossi says. “And the combination of the self-serve tools available for our developer team, plus the go-to-market support, plus the actual tactical integration support—if and when we needed it—was all really solid.”

The combination of the self-serve tools available for our developer team, plus the go-to-market support, plus the actual tactical integration support—if and when we needed it—was all really solid.

Pre-Built flow templates out of the box

Smile.io partnered with Klaviyo to launch pre-built flow templates for loyalty touchpoints, including points reminders, bonus campaigns, and VIP tier upgrades. These flows eliminate setup friction and give merchants a head start with out-of-the-box, world-class loyalty program communication flows.

“It goes from days to set up their loyalty program to a single day,” Rossi says, “because a lot of the work  that they would typically be doing is already done for them when they set up the integration.”

It goes from days to set up their loyalty program to a single day.

Most importantly, they let brands act on loyalty data in real time—automating engagement across the lifecycle through Klaviyo’s B2C CRM infrastructure.

Loyalty embedded in Customer Hub

As a launch partner for Klaviyo’s Customer Hub, Smile.io’s Klaviyo app enables brands to surface loyalty data—like point balances and tier status—in places where shoppers already interact onsite, such as order status pages or customer support experiences.

“A loyalty program is only as effective as the amount of surface area you can give it to customers,” Rossi says. “And the fact that that visibility comes with no additional setup is really, really cool for brands.”

A loyalty program is only as effective as the amount of surface area you can give it to customers.

It’s exactly the kind of visibility that turns loyalty from a backend feature into a real-time, customer-facing experience—and a key part of Klaviyo’s B2C CRM strategy to connect data with action across the full customer journey.

Bringing it all together

For Smile.io, building their Klaviyo app didn’t just improve the merchant experience—it drove real business impact. From stronger retention and reduced support tickets to pre-built flows and embedded loyalty data, the integration delivered value for everyone from day one. But it also created unexpected upside: bigger sales conversations, more co-marketing opportunities, and stronger alignment with Klaviyo’s go-to-market motion.

“One of the big surprises for us was how many new opportunities the updated integration opened up,” Rossi says. “After launch, we saw more substantial conversations—larger merchants, more complex use cases—and a lot of them came through the Klaviyo team or in collaboration with them. You don’t usually expect that kind of organic demand just from building an integration, so it was a really nice surprise.”

After launch, we saw more substantial conversations—larger merchants, more complex use cases—and a lot of them came through the Klaviyo team or in collaboration with them. You don’t usually expect that kind of organic demand just from building an integration, so it was a really nice surprise.

Building an app with Klaviyo has already delivered real results for Smile.io and the merchants they serve. And with the new Klaviyo Technology Partner Program, the opportunities for your technology are only growing. There are more ways to stand out, more paths to scale, and more value to deliver—together.