Apparel & Accessories
·
Mid-market
How ROKA moved from Yotpo to Smile and drove more repeat purchases
75%
redemption rate, loyalty members
75%
redemption rate, loyalty members
75%
redemption rate, loyalty members
75%
redemption rate, loyalty members
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
Our customer experience team is so thankful to have everything in Shopify, connected directly to our systems, without having to open up an alternate browser in Yotpo.
Anna Pappas
Director of Marketing, ROKA
Our customer experience team is so thankful to have everything in Shopify, connected directly to our systems, without having to open up an alternate browser in Yotpo.
Anna Pappas
Director of Marketing, ROKA
ROKA is a performance eyewear and apparel brand built for athletes
Industry
Apparel & Accessories
Platfrom
Headless Shopify
Merchant Size
Mid-market
Smile Features
Points
Referrals
Checkout Extension
Loyalty Hub
Headless Integration
Region
North America
The Story
Performance gear built for athletes. Loyalty infrastructure that needed rebuilding.
ROKA designs performance eyewear and apparel built for athletes and built to be worn anywhere. Their direct-to-consumer business runs on a headless Shopify storefront, with development outsourced to a specialized partner. That setup gives ROKA a custom, fast, on-brand experience, but it also means every tool in their stack has to play well with a non-native Shopify front-end.
The Challenge
Prices up. Support thin. Four account managers in seven months.
ROKA had been running their loyalty program on the same platform for more than five years. Over time, the relationship deteriorated on three fronts at once. Pricing climbed steeply at each renewal even though ROKA had been a long-tenured customer. Support for headless stores stayed thin. And in the span of six or seven months, the ROKA team was reassigned across four different account managers as the vendor restructured internally.
In the words of the ROKA team: "Their price was going up up up with minimal support for headless stores. That aside, the fact that we had been bounced around between 4 account managers within 6-7 months as the organization overall was transitioning was not instilling confidence in our team, and ultimately we couldn't get enough traction with each point of contact to make any tangible changes to the program." Switching to Smile delivered roughly 50% savings on ROKA's loyalty spend, on a platform built natively for Shopify.
ROKA's checkout with checkout extension enabled
The Solution
Loyalty consolidated inside Shopify. Half the cost.
ROKA chose Smile to consolidate loyalty back inside Shopify. The migration is still in progress: the core program is live, and the team is working through the nuances that come with a headless build, including referrals and the loyalty hub experience. Because ROKA uses little to no native Shopify front-end, every surface has to be wired up deliberately. The team has already developed workarounds for the loyalty hub, and continues to partner with Smile on patterns that fit a headless storefront, particularly around promoting referrals without relying on the standard pop-up.
Smile's native Shopify integration means loyalty data lives where the rest of ROKA's commerce data lives. For a headless store with outsourced development, that consolidation matters: fewer integrations to maintain, fewer browser tabs for support agents, and a single source of truth for customer activity.
What changed after the migration:
Loyalty consolidated inside Shopify, with no separate browser tab for the customer experience team
Customer history and loyalty activity connected directly to the systems CX agents already use
Workarounds in place for a headless loyalty hub experience, with referrals in active development
A stable, single point of contact replacing a revolving door of account managers
Pricing aligned with the value of the program, without the steep year-over-year escalation
The Results
75% of members redeem. Spend up 28%. One tab, not two.
ROKA hasn't yet run a head-to-head comparison on loyalty metrics, the migration is still maturing, but the operational results are already visible. The customer experience team no longer toggles between Shopify and a separate loyalty browser tab to resolve tickets. Loyalty activity is connected to the same systems they use for every other customer interaction. And the team is back to focusing on the program itself rather than managing vendor churn.
The biggest win is the unified workflow for the people closest to ROKA's customers. As the headless build continues, ROKA and Smile are working through referral promotion patterns that fit a fully custom storefront, an area where ROKA is helping shape what good looks like for other headless merchants.
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
Why Smile
Headless done right. A partner that stays.
ROKA's advice to other merchants considering the same move is direct: "Plan end-to-end with a headless integration and make sure that you have help at every step along the way." Headless storefronts trade convention for control, and that trade-off only works when every tool in the stack respects the custom front-end. Smile's native Shopify foundation, combined with a willingness to develop headless patterns alongside the merchant, is what made the switch viable for ROKA.
As the leading loyalty platform purpose-built for Shopify, Smile supports merchants from native Shopify storefronts to fully headless builds, with the integration depth that keeps loyalty data and customer experience working as one system.
ROKA is a performance eyewear and apparel brand built for athletes
Industry
Apparel & Accessories
Platfrom
Headless Shopify
Merchant Size
Mid-market
Smile Features
Points
Referrals
Checkout Extension
Loyalty Hub
Headless Integration
Region
North America
The Story
Performance gear built for athletes. Loyalty infrastructure that needed rebuilding.
ROKA designs performance eyewear and apparel built for athletes and built to be worn anywhere. Their direct-to-consumer business runs on a headless Shopify storefront, with development outsourced to a specialized partner. That setup gives ROKA a custom, fast, on-brand experience, but it also means every tool in their stack has to play well with a non-native Shopify front-end.
The Challenge
Prices up. Support thin. Four account managers in seven months.
ROKA had been running their loyalty program on the same platform for more than five years. Over time, the relationship deteriorated on three fronts at once. Pricing climbed steeply at each renewal even though ROKA had been a long-tenured customer. Support for headless stores stayed thin. And in the span of six or seven months, the ROKA team was reassigned across four different account managers as the vendor restructured internally.
In the words of the ROKA team: "Their price was going up up up with minimal support for headless stores. That aside, the fact that we had been bounced around between 4 account managers within 6-7 months as the organization overall was transitioning was not instilling confidence in our team, and ultimately we couldn't get enough traction with each point of contact to make any tangible changes to the program." Switching to Smile delivered roughly 50% savings on ROKA's loyalty spend, on a platform built natively for Shopify.
ROKA's checkout with checkout extension enabled
The Solution
Loyalty consolidated inside Shopify. Half the cost.
ROKA chose Smile to consolidate loyalty back inside Shopify. The migration is still in progress: the core program is live, and the team is working through the nuances that come with a headless build, including referrals and the loyalty hub experience. Because ROKA uses little to no native Shopify front-end, every surface has to be wired up deliberately. The team has already developed workarounds for the loyalty hub, and continues to partner with Smile on patterns that fit a headless storefront, particularly around promoting referrals without relying on the standard pop-up.
Smile's native Shopify integration means loyalty data lives where the rest of ROKA's commerce data lives. For a headless store with outsourced development, that consolidation matters: fewer integrations to maintain, fewer browser tabs for support agents, and a single source of truth for customer activity.
What changed after the migration:
Loyalty consolidated inside Shopify, with no separate browser tab for the customer experience team
Customer history and loyalty activity connected directly to the systems CX agents already use
Workarounds in place for a headless loyalty hub experience, with referrals in active development
A stable, single point of contact replacing a revolving door of account managers
Pricing aligned with the value of the program, without the steep year-over-year escalation
The Results
75% of members redeem. Spend up 28%. One tab, not two.
ROKA hasn't yet run a head-to-head comparison on loyalty metrics, the migration is still maturing, but the operational results are already visible. The customer experience team no longer toggles between Shopify and a separate loyalty browser tab to resolve tickets. Loyalty activity is connected to the same systems they use for every other customer interaction. And the team is back to focusing on the program itself rather than managing vendor churn.
The biggest win is the unified workflow for the people closest to ROKA's customers. As the headless build continues, ROKA and Smile are working through referral promotion patterns that fit a fully custom storefront, an area where ROKA is helping shape what good looks like for other headless merchants.
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
Why Smile
Headless done right. A partner that stays.
ROKA's advice to other merchants considering the same move is direct: "Plan end-to-end with a headless integration and make sure that you have help at every step along the way." Headless storefronts trade convention for control, and that trade-off only works when every tool in the stack respects the custom front-end. Smile's native Shopify foundation, combined with a willingness to develop headless patterns alongside the merchant, is what made the switch viable for ROKA.
As the leading loyalty platform purpose-built for Shopify, Smile supports merchants from native Shopify storefronts to fully headless builds, with the integration depth that keeps loyalty data and customer experience working as one system.
ROKA is a performance eyewear and apparel brand built for athletes
Industry
Apparel & Accessories
Merchant Size
Mid-market
Region
North America
Platfrom
Headless Shopify
Smile Features
Points
Referrals
Checkout Extension
Loyalty Hub
Headless Integration
The Story
Performance gear built for athletes. Loyalty infrastructure that needed rebuilding.
ROKA designs performance eyewear and apparel built for athletes and built to be worn anywhere. Their direct-to-consumer business runs on a headless Shopify storefront, with development outsourced to a specialized partner. That setup gives ROKA a custom, fast, on-brand experience, but it also means every tool in their stack has to play well with a non-native Shopify front-end.
The Challenge
Prices up. Support thin. Four account managers in seven months.
ROKA had been running their loyalty program on the same platform for more than five years. Over time, the relationship deteriorated on three fronts at once. Pricing climbed steeply at each renewal even though ROKA had been a long-tenured customer. Support for headless stores stayed thin. And in the span of six or seven months, the ROKA team was reassigned across four different account managers as the vendor restructured internally.
In the words of the ROKA team: "Their price was going up up up with minimal support for headless stores. That aside, the fact that we had been bounced around between 4 account managers within 6-7 months as the organization overall was transitioning was not instilling confidence in our team, and ultimately we couldn't get enough traction with each point of contact to make any tangible changes to the program." Switching to Smile delivered roughly 50% savings on ROKA's loyalty spend, on a platform built natively for Shopify.
ROKA's checkout with checkout extension enabled
The Solution
Loyalty consolidated inside Shopify. Half the cost.
ROKA chose Smile to consolidate loyalty back inside Shopify. The migration is still in progress: the core program is live, and the team is working through the nuances that come with a headless build, including referrals and the loyalty hub experience. Because ROKA uses little to no native Shopify front-end, every surface has to be wired up deliberately. The team has already developed workarounds for the loyalty hub, and continues to partner with Smile on patterns that fit a headless storefront, particularly around promoting referrals without relying on the standard pop-up.
Smile's native Shopify integration means loyalty data lives where the rest of ROKA's commerce data lives. For a headless store with outsourced development, that consolidation matters: fewer integrations to maintain, fewer browser tabs for support agents, and a single source of truth for customer activity.
What changed after the migration:
Loyalty consolidated inside Shopify, with no separate browser tab for the customer experience team
Customer history and loyalty activity connected directly to the systems CX agents already use
Workarounds in place for a headless loyalty hub experience, with referrals in active development
A stable, single point of contact replacing a revolving door of account managers
Pricing aligned with the value of the program, without the steep year-over-year escalation
The Results
75% of members redeem. Spend up 28%. One tab, not two.
ROKA hasn't yet run a head-to-head comparison on loyalty metrics, the migration is still maturing, but the operational results are already visible. The customer experience team no longer toggles between Shopify and a separate loyalty browser tab to resolve tickets. Loyalty activity is connected to the same systems they use for every other customer interaction. And the team is back to focusing on the program itself rather than managing vendor churn.
The biggest win is the unified workflow for the people closest to ROKA's customers. As the headless build continues, ROKA and Smile are working through referral promotion patterns that fit a fully custom storefront, an area where ROKA is helping shape what good looks like for other headless merchants.
28%
higher average annual spend, members vs. non-members
31%
higher purchase frequency, members vs. non-members
Why Smile
Headless done right. A partner that stays.
ROKA's advice to other merchants considering the same move is direct: "Plan end-to-end with a headless integration and make sure that you have help at every step along the way." Headless storefronts trade convention for control, and that trade-off only works when every tool in the stack respects the custom front-end. Smile's native Shopify foundation, combined with a willingness to develop headless patterns alongside the merchant, is what made the switch viable for ROKA.
As the leading loyalty platform purpose-built for Shopify, Smile supports merchants from native Shopify storefronts to fully headless builds, with the integration depth that keeps loyalty data and customer experience working as one system.
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