Note: This article covers LINE, a messaging platform overwhelmingly popular in Japan but with limited use elsewhere, and related integrations. The information below will not be directly relevant if your customer base does not use LINE.
Many Shopify merchants struggle with how to keep in touch with their customers over the long term. This is where LINE, Japan's leading messaging app, comes in. With relatively high open rates and a low-friction way to communicate, LINE is a highly effective tool for maintaining customer relationships.
However, simply running a LINE account isn't enough to get real results.
In this article, we'll clearly explain the benefits of guiding Shopify customers to follow your store on LINE, key points for designing an effective conversion flow, and apps that help drive LINE follows.
If you're a Shopify merchant looking to grow your LINE follower count, this article is for you.
Benefits of Driving LINE Follows from Shopify
First, let's look at the benefits of guiding customers from your Shopify store to LINE.
Maintain an ongoing touchpoint with customers
It isn't easy to get a user who has left your site to come back. Encouraging a LINE follow lets you stay connected even after they leave.
By keeping up consistent communication from the consideration stage before purchase through to after-sales follow-up, you can build trust with your customers more easily. This kind of ongoing connection also helps drive repeat purchases and boost customer loyalty.
Lay the groundwork for future messaging and promotions
Growing your number of LINE followers is also important as a foundation for future marketing efforts. Sending followers new product announcements, coupons, and other promotions can help drive repeat purchases and maximize the impact of your campaigns.
Segmenting followers (grouping them by specific attributes) also enables more effective messaging. In this way, guiding customers to LINE can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your future promotional activities.
Build stronger brand affinity
LINE is an especially familiar communication tool for users in Japan. Through your LINE account, you can share your brand's story and philosophy, or send a thank-you message after a purchase — making it easier to cultivate customers' sense of "wanting to stay connected with this brand" and their overall attachment to it.
Guiding customers to LINE can be the first step toward building a strong relationship with them.
A chance to prevent drop-off and cart abandonment
For users who hesitated and left without purchasing, sending a reminder or campaign information via LINE afterward can encourage them to complete the purchase.
LINE is especially effective here because of its real-time nature — notifications reach users directly, which tends to drive higher response rates. To avoid missing purchase opportunities as part of your cart-abandonment strategy, it's effective to first set up a flow that encourages LINE registration.
Key Points When Guiding Customers from Shopify to LINE
Simply placing a LINE sign-up prompt on your Shopify store isn't enough to get sufficient results. Here are some key points for guiding customers to LINE effectively.
Place the prompt icon in a natural spot
A LINE sign-up prompt is more effective when it's shown after the user has had a chance to understand the page content to some extent — it's received more naturally than if it appears the instant they arrive.
It's also important to place it so that it fits naturally with your store's overall design. Positions where users naturally see it — such as the bottom of your homepage, the end of a product page, or near the cart page — tend to work well. Because an overly assertive design can drive users away, use colors and styling that match your brand's aesthetic to create a conversion flow that naturally encourages LINE sign-ups.
Don't overuse pop-ups
Pop-ups are effective for encouraging sign-ups, but showing them too often can hurt the user experience. The key is to limit when they're shown — for example, on a first visit or after a certain amount of time has passed.
On smartphones in particular, avoid designs that take up too much screen space and are hard to close. Focus on creating a sign-up flow that lets users register without feeling stressed.
Make the sign-up incentive clear
When encouraging a LINE sign-up, it's essential to clearly convey the "reason to sign up." Concretely presenting benefits — such as "10% off your first order," "an exclusive coupon," "early access to new arrivals," or "exclusive sales" — is effective.
Keep the incentive simple enough to understand at a glance. Even just adding a short description near the sign-up button can significantly change your click-through rate.
For a method of offering exclusive sales only to LINE-registered members, see the "Bonus: How to Offer Exclusive Sales to LINE-Connected Members to Boost LINE Sign-Ups" section below.
Measure the results
Once you've set up your LINE sign-up flow, regularly check its performance. It's important to track sign-up trends and click-through rates, and to keep improving the display position, timing, and incentive offer.
By using Shopify apps, Google Analytics, heatmap tools, and similar tools, and repeatedly testing and refining based on data, you can find the LINE conversion approach that works best for your store.
5 LINE-Follow Apps for Shopify
Here are 5 apps that are effective for guiding customers from your Shopify store to LINE.
* This information is current as of October 2025.
Obakec
Image source: Obakec｜Shopify App Store
"Obakec" is an app that makes it easy to add a LINE "add friend" button to your Shopify store. Setup is very simple, and you can add a LINE button to your store in just a few minutes. You can choose from preset icons, or upload your own image to create an original button.
Because the placement can be freely changed, you can build a natural conversion flow that matches your brand's look and feel — on your homepage, footer, bottom of product pages, and elsewhere.
With its low cost, it's a great fit for stores that want to start guiding customers to LINE without much upfront investment.
For more details on Obakec, see the article below.
| Price | Japanese support | Free trial for paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| $1.99/month | ◯ | 7 days |
Omise Connect
Image source: Omise Connect｜Shopify App Store
"Omise Connect" is a full-fledged marketing app that connects Shopify and LINE. Beyond encouraging friend adds with customizable pop-up banners, it can also add prompts on product pages like "get a LINE notification when this is back in stock."
It can also re-engage customers who abandoned their cart with reminders, and follow up with customers after purchase through step-by-step message sequences. Since it also supports purchase-path analysis and measuring the effectiveness of LINE messages, it enables data-driven operational improvements.
"Omise Connect" is free to use if you have 50 or fewer friends linked via LINE ID. Once you have 51 or more, a 3% fee applies to orders generated through targeted LINE messages.
For more details on Omise Connect, see the article below.
| Price | Japanese support | Free trial for paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Free – 3% fee | ◯ | 3 days |
LINE Kantan Setchi (Easy LINE Setup)
Image source: LINE Kantan Setchi｜Shopify App Store
As its name suggests, "LINE Kantan Setchi" (Easy LINE Setup) is a simple app that makes it easy to add LINE buttons and links. No HTML or CSS knowledge is needed — placement and design can be adjusted intuitively. It's a good fit for anyone who wants to add a LINE prompt while keeping decoration to a minimum and without disrupting their store's design.
The app also supports image-based LINE prompts in addition to buttons. For example, you can set up a campaign image such as "10% off when you follow on LINE" so that clicking it takes users straight into the LINE sign-up flow.
| Price | Japanese support | Free trial for paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| $1.98/month | ◯ | 7 days |
Smartarget Line - Contact Us
Image source: Smartarget Line｜Shopify App Store
"Smartarget Line" adds a LINE chat icon to your store so visitors can reach out via LINE right away. It displays a persistent LINE icon across your entire site, and clicking it opens a LINE chat directly. This makes it easy for customers to send questions or concerns, helping ease pre-purchase hesitation and build trust.
Design customization is flexible too — you can adjust the icon's shape, position, and set a greeting message. The free plan covers the basic features, while the paid plan adds support across all pages and detailed reporting.
This app is recommended for stores that place a strong emphasis on communicating with customers via LINE.
| Price | Japanese support | Free trial for paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Free – $9/month | ✕ | ✕ |
Handy Social Media Icons
Image source: Handy Social Media Icons｜Shopify App Store
"Handy Social Media Icons" is an app that lets you display multiple social media icons, including LINE, on your Shopify store.
In addition to a LINE icon, you can add Instagram, Facebook, and other social icons at the same time, keeping your store's social touchpoints organized with a consistent design. Since icon size, color, and placement are all freely customizable, you can arrange them naturally to match your brand's tone.
The free plan lets you display two icons, so it's a good fit if you'd first like to try showing just a LINE icon.
| Price | Japanese support | Free trial for paid plan |
|---|---|---|
| Free – $2.99/month | ◯ | 3 days |
App Comparison Summary
| App name | Key features | Price | Japanese support | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obakec | Easy LINE add-friend button setup Choose from preset icons Upload your own image Freely adjustable placement |
$1.99/month | ◯ | 7 days |
| Omise Connect | Connects Shopify and LINE Sends LINE messages Measures LINE message performance Customizable pop-up banners Back-in-stock notification prompts Cart-abandonment reminders |
Free – 3% fee (Free for 50 or fewer LINE ID–linked friends, 3% of orders for 51 or more) |
◯ | 3 days |
| LINE Kantan Setchi | Easy setup of LINE buttons/links No HTML or CSS knowledge needed Image-based LINE prompts supported Clickable campaign images supported |
$1.98/month | ◯ | 7 days |
| Smartarget Line - Contact Us | LINE chat icon setup Persistent site-wide display Customizable design Adjustable icon shape/position Custom greeting message |
Free – $9/month | ✕ | ✕ |
| Handy Social Media Icons | Displays multiple social icons Supports LINE and other platforms Customizable size, color, placement Free plan shows 2 icons |
Free – $2.99/month | ◯ | 3 days |
Bonus: How to Offer Exclusive Sales to LINE-Connected Members to Boost LINE Sign-Ups
To succeed at driving LINE sign-ups, it's important to clearly show customers "a reason to sign up." One effective approach is an exclusive sale limited to LINE-connected members. Here, we'll introduce how to run a sale that only LINE-connected members can purchase from.
Benefits of exclusive sales for LINE-connected members
By restricting an exclusive sale to LINE-connected members only, you create a sense of "only I can get this" or "only I get this deal." This kind of exclusivity not only stimulates consumers' purchase intent, but is also expected to increase LINE connection numbers.
Recommended app for exclusive sales to LINE-connected members
You can easily implement exclusive sales for LINE-connected members using "RuffRuff 予約販売."
RuffRuff 予約販売 has a feature that lets you run exclusive sales limited to members with a specific customer tag. By using the customer tag that a LINE integration app assigns as the condition, you can easily create products that only LINE-connected members can purchase.
For specific setup steps and detailed instructions, please see the related articles below.
Expand Your Customer Touchpoints by Guiding Customers from Shopify to LINE
In this article, we introduced the benefits of guiding customers from your Shopify store to LINE, key points for designing an effective conversion flow, and 5 recommended LINE-follow apps.
Using LINE is highly effective for building long-term customer relationships and maximizing your marketing impact. Using what we've covered here as a reference, start by designing a natural flow within your Shopify store that guides customers to sign up for LINE.
If you'd like to learn more about using LINE with Shopify, see the article below as well.
