How to Launch a Loyalty Program with Loyallyst: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

A loyalty program helps businesses increase repeat purchases, grow customer LTV, and build long-term relationships.

With Loyallyst, you can launch a modern system of bonuses, discounts, tiers, Apple/Google Wallet digital cards, push notifications, and automations in just 1–3 days — fully integrated with your POS.

Why a Loyalty Program Is a Must-Have Tool for Any Business

If you are not yet familiar with what a loyalty program is and how it works, you can first read our separate overview:

What is a loyalty program?

Once you understand how loyalty mechanics work, it's time to move on to the main question — why it matters so much for any business, especially in HoReCa, retail, services, fitness, and e-commerce. A properly configured loyalty program helps you:

• increase the number of repeat visits
• raise the average check
• reduce advertising costs
• collect customer behavior data
• increase customer lifetime value (LTV)
• retain existing customers
• reduce churn and predict audience behavior

Today, digital loyalty is the standard. Leading brands around the world use bonuses, tiers, push notifications, and Wallet digital cards to build long-term relationships with customers and create stable, predictable revenue.

What Loyallyst Can Do

Loyallyst is a full-featured digital loyalty ecosystem. You can launch:

✔ Bonus program (cashback) ✔ Discounts ✔ Loyalty tiers (Silver / Gold / Platinum) ✔ “8th coffee free” reward promotion ✔ Coupons ✔ Apple Wallet & Google Wallet digital cards ✔ Push notifications without an app ✔ QR-based customer registration ✔ Sales and customer analytics ✔ Review module ✔ Online menu

Step-by-Step: How to Launch a Loyalty Program with Loyallyst

Below is the complete process we use when onboarding clients in Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Spain, and other countries.

Step 1 — Connecting Your POS System or the Loyallyst Scanner

Why POS Integration Is Important for Accurate Loyalty Processing

Integrating with your POS system is the most reliable and accurate way to run a loyalty program. When your POS is connected to the platform, it automatically sends all order, customer, payment, and reward data. This allows the system to:

• fetch the customer card by phone number or QR code
• automatically award and redeem bonuses
• apply discounts, tiers, and promotions
• record the purchase immediately after the check is closed
• synchronize order history and balances across all locations

At the same time, Loyallyst pulls all bonuses, tiers, and customer history, even if the customer was already in your database. No manual actions from the cashier — everything happens automatically and without errors.

Loyallyst integrates with leading POS systems:

• Poster
• Syrve
• iiko
• R-Keeper
• SkyService
• Loyverse
• KeyCRM
• BAS / 1C
• ProfIT
• FoodSoft
• and more

After Connecting Your POS:

• the POS automatically accrues and redeems bonuses
• the cashier sees the customer card, balance, and tier
• all order history is synchronized
• bonuses, discounts, and promotions are applied automatically
• employee errors are eliminated

If You Don’t Have a POS or It Doesn’t Support an API: Loyallyst Scanner Is the Solution

In the real world, not every business uses a modern POS system. Many operate on outdated solutions that haven’t been updated for years, lack an API, don’t support integrations, and simply cannot connect an automated loyalty program. This includes small cafés, local shops, beauty salons, food trucks, high-traffic points, and businesses where the POS is used only as a “cash register” without the ability to transmit data.

To help these businesses launch modern digital loyalty, we created Loyallyst Scanner — a web-based tool that works in any browser and does not require POS integration. With it, businesses can look up customers by QR code or phone number, view their balance, purchase history, and tier, manually award or redeem bonuses, and all data is instantly synchronized with the Loyallyst system. This makes it possible to launch a loyalty program literally in one day — even for companies using old accounting systems or no POS integration at all.

Step 2 — Configuring Loyalty Mechanics in the Admin Panel

After connecting your POS system or the Loyallyst Scanner, the next step is configuring the loyalty rules in the admin panel. This is where you define how your program will work: which bonuses are awarded, which tiers are available to customers, and how promotions and reward mechanics function. All settings are managed in a single interface, and changes are instantly applied across all locations.

In the admin panel, you can configure a classic bonus system — the most common option. For example, a customer receives 7% of each check as bonus points and can spend them during future purchases. The bonus percentage may vary for different customer groups, product categories, or time periods. Alongside bonuses, you can set up flexible discounts — both fixed and dynamic. The system will apply the discount at the right moment automatically, without cashier involvement. This makes it easy to run morning discounts, category-based promotions, or limited-time offers. Loyalty tiers deserve special attention, as they work exceptionally well for cafés, restaurants, retail, and service businesses. Tiers create a sense of progress and status. For example, a customer may start at the Silver tier and earn 3% in bonuses, then move to Gold with 5%, and later to Platinum with 7%. Such mechanics increase visit frequency and motivate customers to return more often to maintain their tier. The system also allows you to configure reward mechanics and promotions. One of the most popular scenarios is “every 8th purchase free,” which is a powerful tool for coffee shops and stores with regular repeat purchases. Coupons enable one-time promotions. A customer activates a coupon in advance, and the system automatically applies it during the next purchase if the conditions are met. This is a convenient way to run promotions without adding workload to staff. The Loyallyst admin panel also supports personalized rules. You can set up birthday greetings, morning offers, promotions for new customers, special conditions for specific segments, and personalized post-purchase recommendations. All rules run automatically and scale across all locations. Any changes made in the admin panel are updated instantly. This means you can adjust your loyalty mechanics in real time — for example, launch a discount for tomorrow, increase bonus percentages for specific product categories, or enable a new promotion across the entire network with a single click.

Step 3 — Creating a Digital Loyalty Card for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet

Once your loyalty mechanics are configured, the next step is creating the digital card. In Loyallyst, the card is generated automatically: you choose your brand colors, upload a logo and banner, and the system creates a ready-to-use Wallet card with the customer’s balance, loyalty tier, QR code, and profile data. The card can be added to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet in one click, updates automatically after every closed check, and fully replaces plastic cards.

Below is an example of how the card setup interface looks and how the card is displayed on a smartphone:

To ensure the card displays correctly and looks professional, it’s important to use the proper image sizes:

Wallet logo image — the logo in the top-left corner

Size: 546 × 159 px This is a small horizontal image shown at the top of the card on the left, next to the brand name. Usually, a minimalistic logo or brand mark is uploaded here.

Wallet banner image — the large image in the center of the card

Size: 1125 × 432 px This is a large banner placed under the logo. It takes up the main visual area of the card and sets the overall style. You can use it as a branded background, a promo banner, or simply a clean visual in your brand colors.

Both images must be uploaded in PNG or JPEG format, up to 2 MB in size. The digital card works smoothly across all devices, syncs with the system in real time, and is always available on the customer’s phone — via QR code, phone number, or directly through the Wallet interface.

Step 4 — Launching Customer Registration

Once the card is ready, you can start customer registration. The simplest approach is to place QR codes at the counter, on tables, packaging, or the storefront: the customer scans the code, fills out the form, and instantly receives the card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

If you already have an existing customer base, we transfer it into the system so customers immediately gain access to their digital card. Registration can also be launched through your website or social media — the customer opens the link and gets their card in one click.

Step 5 — Automating Push Notifications (free and without an app)

Push notifications are delivered directly through Apple Wallet and Google Wallet — the customer receives a message on their phone screen even without having an app installed and without any cost to the business. You can configure automated triggers: birthday greetings, reminders for customers who haven’t visited in a while, alerts that bonuses are about to expire, tier upgrades, or personalized offers. After a purchase, you can automatically request a rating and review. Such push notifications significantly increase repeat visits — on average, the growth ranges from 18% to 30%.

Step 6 — Collecting Reviews via QR

Loyallyst allows you to collect reviews immediately after a purchase: the customer scans a QR code, leaves a rating from 1 to 5, and optionally adds a comment. All ratings appear in the admin panel, where you can see service quality by day, location, and staff member. This approach helps you quickly respond to negative feedback, improve service, and increase the overall rating of your business.

Step 7 — Analytics and Customer Management

The admin panel provides detailed analytics: registration conversion, repeat purchases, average check, promotion performance, bonus balance, location statistics, customer LTV, and cohort analysis. These insights help you understand real customer behavior and make decisions based on data rather than assumptions.

Step 8 — Scaling Your Network

Loyallyst works equally well for a single location or a network with dozens or hundreds of stores. All customers are unified into one system where bonuses, tiers, and purchase history are synchronized across all cities and countries. This allows the network to grow without changing mechanics, rules, or infrastructure — the system scales automatically.

How Long Does It Take to Launch Loyallyst?

Typically:

• 1 day — integration
• 1 day — card design and loyalty mechanics setup
• 1 day — launching QR registration and push notifications For large networks, the process may take 7–14 days due to internal approvals.

Why Brands Choose Loyallyst

• intuitive, fast admin panel
• best-in-class integrations for HoReCa and retail
• instant Wallet card issuance
• free push notifications
• flexible automation
• powerful analytics
• support and onboarding assistance
• works across multiple countries