The most seamless loyalty experience happens when rewards are earned and redeemed directly at the POS — no separate app scan, no manual entry. Here's how to build that integration.
Integration Patterns
API-Direct
The POS calls the loyalty platform's API directly on each transaction. Pros: real-time, simple architecture. Cons: requires internet connectivity, POS must support custom API calls.
Middleware
A local service sits between the POS and loyalty platform, handling communication, caching, and retry logic. Pros: works with POS systems that have limited API support. Cons: additional component to maintain.
Cloud-to-Cloud
The POS sends transaction data to its cloud, which syncs with the loyalty platform's cloud. Pros: no POS modifications needed if the POS cloud supports webhooks. Cons: not real-time (delay of seconds to minutes).
Handling Offline Transactions
Internet drops happen. Your integration must queue loyalty transactions locally and sync when connectivity returns. Key considerations:
- Queue with timestamps — sync in order to prevent point calculation errors
- Handle conflicts — what if a customer redeems on another device while you're offline?
- Set a maximum offline duration — after X hours, require online verification