Lantern was born out of Headphones.com’s need to boost repeat purchases, evolving into a standalone loyalty infrastructure that integrates directly with Shopify stores. The platform handles customer account creation, loyalty points, referrals, and even forum-based engagement, all embedded natively in the Shopify checkout flow. For Headphones.com, Lantern lifted repeat purchase rates from 30% to 50% and shortened the average time to a second purchase from 198 days to 98 days. Current customers include skincare brand Counter (>$200 million in annual revenue) and footwear company Vessi. The startup differentiates itself from rivals like LoyaltyLion and Yotpo by supporting flexible, non-points-only reward mechanics and an in-checkout “wallet” experience that avoids pop-ups or redirects. Lantern employs eight full-time staff, including two former Shopify designers who helped build the Polaris design system. With fresh funding, the team plans to incorporate AI-driven insights and recommendations to further improve merchant retention strategies.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Oct 2025