Experia Group engaged us to build a loyalty platform for an Italian jewellery brand with more than 50 stores and an online shop. The programme needed shared points, balances and discount tiers across both channels. Its checkout integration had to return a member’s discount within 150 milliseconds.
The loyalty programme
Experia Group is an IT solutions company. Its client needed a loyalty card programme with points management and discount tiers that worked consistently in stores and online. The implementation also had to preserve the business’s existing systems and operations.
Checkout and consistency requirements
The store management system was designed around cash registers but also had to support e-commerce. It provided extension points for integration with a new stack. The work required careful integration with this till-centred system and consistent loyalty operations across the two channels.
Points earned in a store had to be available online immediately. Customers needed the same balance and discount entitlement whichever channel they used, including when transactions occurred concurrently.
The POS software allows 150 milliseconds for a loyalty discount response. If that window is missed, the register continues without applying the discount. The integration therefore had to resolve the member’s entitlement within that deadline without holding up checkout.
Implementation
Store-system integration. We owned the integration and used the vendor’s SDK and API. The store management system remained the source of record, with the new loyalty layer connected to it. This allowed new capabilities to be developed outside the store system and reduced dependence on its vendor for future features.
Card management. The platform handles card issuance, renewal and discount tiers. Cards can be issued directly from the checkout software, allowing customers to join at the till without a separate back-office step.
A shared points ledger. We used an append-only, tamper-evident, blockchain-style ledger with traceable operations. A consensus mechanism reconciles concurrent transactions from more than 50 stores and the online shop into an agreed balance. It prevents double-counting and spending the same points twice across channels.
Discount responses within 150 ms. The loyalty layer resolves the member’s discount entitlement within the POS software’s 150 millisecond window. The design avoids slow retrieval at payment time, so the register can apply the discount during checkout. The programme uses the same discount entitlement in stores and online.
Results
- One loyalty programme across more than 50 stores and e-commerce, with the same cards, points and discount tiers in both channels.
- A shared balance across channels, with points earned in-store immediately available online and all channels using the same ledger.
- Discount responses within the 150 millisecond checkout window, allowing the POS software to apply the member’s discount.
- The existing store management system integrated with the new loyalty layer, without disrupting the business’s operations. New features can be developed in the layer controlled by the business, reducing dependence on the original vendor.
- Cards issued directly at the till, allowing customers to join and start earning points during their visit.