Top 4 POS with Loyalty Programs for Retail Businesses

Studies show that even a modest 5% increase in customer retention can translate to a revenue boost of 25-95%. One powerful strategy for achieving this is through customer loyalty programs, designed to incentivize repeat purchases and reward loyal customers.

The impact of loyalty programs is undeniable: 79% of American consumers report being more likely to purchase from a shop if they offer a loyalty program, and loyalty program members contribute a substantial 43% of companies’ annual sales.

POS loyalty programs offer a convenient solution for businesses to implement promotions seamlessly and ultimately drive customer retention and sales growth.

This article will guide you through the top 4 POS systems with loyalty programs to help you choose the ideal solution to build a loyal customer base. Let’s dive in!

What is a POS Loyalty Program?

A POS loyalty program is a customer management tool integrated with your POS (point of sale system). Your POS loyalty system automatically updates customer profiles with points or incentives after every purchase. These POS loyalty programs also provide real-time reports for retailers to gain valuable insights, personalize marketing efforts, and make data-driven decisions.

Besides connecting a loyalty tool to POS, numerous retail POS systems offer built-in or addon loyalty features. Typical loyalty features of POS include:

• Collect and store customer data, including purchase history, preferences, and contact details

• Report on customer orders to track their buying habits and personalize your loyalty programs Manage reward points by automatically applying program rules

• Allow customers to use store credits, gift cards, or special promotions as a payment method

• Sync your loyalty program across all channels

• Track key metrics like customer participation in the loyalty program, redemption rates, and program impact on sales

• Customize point structures, reward tiers, and program rules

• Integrate your POS loyalty program with your customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing tools for efficient and central control

4 POS Software with Built-in Loyalty Programs for Retailers

• Magestore POS: Best for multi-store Magento and Shopify retailers

• Square POS: Best for small, low-traffic businesses

• Toast POS: Best for growing food and hospitality businesses

• Lightspeed Retail POS: Best for established businesses and large enterprises

1. Magestore POS

If you are an omnichannel, multi-store Magento, or Shopify retailer, you should check for Magestore POS, a comprehensive POS system with loyalty programs dedicated to your business type. This eliminates the need for complex additional loyalty integrations. Magestore POS offers a unified rewards experience across both eCommerce and brick-and-mortar stores, enabling you to incentivize customer loyalty and convert customers into devoted advocates.

Magestore’s POS loyalty program inherits Magento’s catalog and cart price rules, enabling consistent promotions on your eCommerce sites and physical stores for a seamless shopping experience. Therefore, Magestore’s store credits, gift cards, and reward points work both online and offline. You can set up earning and spending rates based on specific customer actions, such as opening an account. You can also utilize store credits for refunds as well as sales.

Key Features of the Magestore POS Loyalty Program

Customer profile management:

• Sync customer profiles across all sales channels in real-time

• Allow staff to view or redeem the customer’s balance and loyalty history at the payment screen upon checkout

Inherit all Magento promotion rules:

• Generate discount codes using Magento shopping cart rules

• Apply coupon code on the whole cart and custom price per item (override)

• Add custom discounts on the whole cart

Reward point:

• Set custom rates for earning and spending points

• Let customers redeem points for purchases

• Adjust and track customer points

Gift card:

• Allow customers to redeem gift cards at their convenience or send gift cards to friends on every occasion

• Generate gift card codes in bulk

• Customize gift cards

Store credits:

• Let customers manage and redeem their store credit balance either online or in-store

• Allow customers to purchase or send store credits to friends

• Accept store credits as a payment method

• Support refund by store credits

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
- Highly customizable with various earning rules - Hassle-free points management with an intuitive user interface - Native with Magento and inherit all Magento promotion configurations - Detailed analytics for monitoring loyalty program performance	- High upfront costs for the feature-rich POS but one-time payment for the POS license

Pricing

Loyalty features are all included in the Magestore Magento POS. And their Shopify POS (Standard Plan) will soon have such powerful features. Here’s the detailed POS pricing:

POS	Price
Magento POS (POS for medium businesses & enterprises on Magento)	The price depends on: - The number of stores - Business's needs - Support level Note: one-time payment
Magestore POS Lite (POS for small businesses on Magento)	$69/month
Magestore POS for Shopify	Lite: $15/month
	Standard: $50/month/location

2. Square POS

Square POS is a well-known option for small retailers looking for a POS system with basic functionality and ease of use. Business owners can effortlessly design a digital loyalty rewards program and give customers rewards for each transaction to enhance customer experience and encourage repeat purchases.

Key Features of the Square POS Loyalty Program

• Onboard customers directly from your POS screen

• Integrate directly with Square Marketing to promote your loyalty programs

• Customize point-earning rules, reward tiers, and reward terminology

• Allow customers to earn and redeem rewards both in-store and online

• Enable customers to view their loyalty status on the Cash App and digital receipts after every purchase

• Manage loyalty programs across all your locations with intricate reports

• Work well for various industries like restaurants, retail, personal services, etc.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
- Easy to use - Allow you to measure the ROI of your loyalty program through reports - Offer month-to-month subscriptions with no contracts and no hidden fees	- Limited reward options (only 3 options: per visit, per amount spent, and per item or category) - More expensive than some other loyalty programs

Pricing

Square Loyalty is an add-on and is not included in either the free POS of Square (Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail) or the paid one (Square for Retail Plus, $89/location/month). The monthly subscription cost of Square Loyalty is based on:

• The number of store locations you have

• The number of loyalty visits within a given month. A loyalty visit is when customers enroll in your program, earn rewards, or redeem points.

Square Loyalty offers a 30-day trial without any long-term contracts or hidden fees. The table below gives you an overview of Square Loyalty pricing:

Loyalty visits	Price (per month, per location)
0–500	$45
501–1,500	$75
1,501–10,000	$105
Greater than 10,000	Contact for custom rates

3. Toast POS

Toast POS should be top-of-mind if you’re seeking POS software designed for restaurants with a built-in loyalty program. This cloud-based POS offers various features an F&B business may need, from menu management to payment processing, advanced reporting, and of course, robust loyalty features.

Toast POS loyalty program allows guests to quickly opt in to earn points, track progress, and benefit from customizable birthday rewards, accrual and redemption rates, and sign-up bonuses.

Key Features of the Toast POS Loyalty Program

• Credit card-linked program: Enable swipe-based earning and redemption

• Seamless onboarding: Sign customers up for the loyalty program with ease, using the POS, kiosk, display, Toast Go app, or online ordering

• Integrated online ordering module: Customers can earn and redeem points online.

• Customizable reward programs: Customize sign-up bonuses, set accrual and redemption rates, and offer birthday rewards

• Integrated gift card program: Allow Toast gift cards to be registered as loyalty cards

• Earned reward notification: Customers can receive updates on their rewards via SMS or email.

• Rewards lookup website: Let customers look up their points balance online

• Loyalty program reporting: Gain insights into your regulars and their spending

• Multi-location support: Manage loyalty programs across your restaurant or retail chain

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
- Seamless opt-in process at checkout - Easy to implement - Points-based rewards - One flat fee per month	- Must use its in-house payment processor - Require long-term contract - Only support one loyalty program at a given time

Pricing

The cost of this loyalty POS begins at $0 for a pay-as-you-go plan and $69 for a standard plan each month. The primary distinction is that the free plan has higher payment processing fees. With custom pricing, you can select certain features your business needs to create a unique POS package.

Regardless of your plan, Toast Loyalty is an add-on to the POS that costs approximately $50 per month.

4. Lightspeed POS

Lightspeed Loyalty is Lightspeed’s POS customer loyalty software, available on a higher-tier plan or as a paid add-on. It’s a point-based loyalty program with flexible reward tiers, built-in marketing, and CRM tools.

With Lightspeed’s loyalty program, businesses can enhance customer loyalty with POS promotions, design tailored promos for special occasions like birthdays, send in-store and online promotions, and construct tiered loyalty rewards programs. It also comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop email builder for marketing purposes.

Key Features of the Lightspeed POS Loyalty Program

• Manage loyalty directly from your POS, minimizing back-office work

• Offer an omnichannel design that lets customers redeem rewards online or in-store for freebies, discounts, and more

• Leverage customer auto-segmentation based on purchasing habits to tailor marketing efforts for better results

• Provide a customer-facing loyalty app for sending promotions and one-time deals, and allowing customers to track their points

• Create and launch target text and email campaigns using a drag-and-drop tool (available to Premium Lightspeed Loyalty program users)

• Integrate directly into your POS for effortless customer onboarding right from the checkout

• Generate POS graphs and reports with valuable customer spending habits and promotional effort results for data-driven decision-making

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
- Easy to use for both businesses and their customers - Integrate with Lightspeed eCommerce and your in-person POS on iPad or PC - Keep customers engaged through a mobile app - Quick and easy customer sign-up	- Only available on higher-tier plans or as a paid addon - High prices - No automatic balance import from other loyalty systems

Pricing

To use the loyalty functions, Lightspeed Retail users will need to purchase the Advanced package and Lightspeed Restaurant users will need to buy the Plus or Pro package.

You can also purchase Loyalty on lower-level plans as a separate addon, but you’ll need to contact Lightspeed directly in order to create a custom package.

The following table sums up Lightspeed Loyalty pricing. Please note that these costs are for yearly subscriptions; if you choose month-to-month billing, you will pay extra.

Plan	Price (per month per register, billed annually)	Loyalty included?
Lean (Lightspeed Retail)	$69/month	No
Standard (Lightspeed Retail)	$119/month	No
Advanced (Lightspeed Retail)	$199/month	Yes
Essentials (Lightspeed Restaurant)	$69/month	No
Plus (Lightspeed Restaurant)	$189/month	Yes
Pro (Lightspeed Restaurant)	$399/month	Yes

How to Choose the Best POS with Loyalty Programs?

By utilizing a well-designed POS loyalty program, you can incentivize repeat purchases, build stronger customer relationships, and ultimately increase customer lifetime value.

Here’s a quick recap of the 4 best POS loyalty programs

• Magestore POS: Ideal for multi-store Magento and Shopify retailers, offering a comprehensive solution with native integration and a feature-rich loyalty program

• Square POS: A user-friendly and affordable option for small businesses with basic loyalty needs

• Toast POS: An industry-specific POS with a loyalty program designed specifically for restaurants with strong CRM features

• Lightspeed POS: An easy-to-use loyalty program with integrated marketing tools, ideal for established businesses seeking an omnichannel solution

Choosing the right POS with loyalty programs depends on several factors:

• Your business size and type to determine the must-have and nice-to-have functions your POS should offer

• Your budget: Remember to compare the total ownership including POS license, addons, customization, transaction fees, subscription fees, etc. to decide the most cost-effective POS solution

• Your desired loyalty program features to run on POS

• Your existing software ecosystem to evaluate the POS compatibility

By carefully considering these factors and the functionalities of each POS system, you can select the ideal solution to cultivate a loyal customer base and propel your business forward.