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POS Loyalty Vendor Comparison Scorecard

Score 3–6 loyalty vendors against your existing POS on 19 weighted criteria — including the portability and exit terms most comparisons skip.

How this scorecard works

This is a working scorecard — use it directly on this page or print it. The 19 criteria below are the rows; the blank columns are for the vendors on your shortlist. Three vendor columns are printed here. If you are comparing four to six vendors, copy the grid into a spreadsheet and add columns; the criteria and weights stay the same.

It is built for owners and operations leads adding loyalty to an existing POS, and it deliberately scores portability and exit terms alongside features. Feature gaps show up in the demo. Switching costs show up two years later, when your member list, balances, and installed wallet cards sit inside a system you want to leave. Vendors will walk you through the first category unprompted; this sheet makes you ask about the second.

Each criterion carries a suggested weight from 1 to 3 that you can adjust before scoring. Three criteria are marked as knockouts: if a vendor scores zero on data ownership, data export, or exit terms, it is out regardless of its total.

Scoring method

Five steps, in this order. The order matters: weights fixed after the demos drift toward whichever vendor presented best.

1
Lock the weights before the first demo
Adjust the prefilled 1–3 weights to fit your business with your operations lead, then freeze them. A weight of 3 means a weak answer here should sink a vendor; a weight of 1 means it is a tiebreaker.
2
Score every vendor 0–3 on every criterion
0 = missing or the vendor would not answer; 1 = possible with workarounds; 2 = solid and demonstrated; 3 = excellent, with written evidence. Score only what you have seen in a demo or have in writing — sales-call promises score as if unanswered.
3
Multiply and total
Each cell contributes weight times score; sum the column per vendor. With the suggested weights unchanged, the maximum possible total is 132. Rank by total, but read the pattern too: a high total built on weight-1 criteria is weaker than a middling total that sweeps the weight-3 rows.
4
Apply the knockouts
A zero on criterion 5, 6, or 19 — data ownership, data export, or exit terms — disqualifies a vendor regardless of its total. A loyalty program you cannot leave is a liability, not an asset.
5
Re-demo the top two on your own till
Before signing, run a live transaction, an enrollment, and a redemption with your own staff on your own hardware. The scorecard shortlists; the till decides.

Criteria 1–7: Integration and data

How the vendor connects to your POS and who controls the data it generates. Enter a 0–3 score per vendor in the blank cells.

#	Criterion	What a 3 looks like	Weight (1–3)
1	POS integration method	Certified app or documented API integration that reads transactions from the POS itself. A separate tablet at the till with manual staff entry scores 0.	3
2	Transaction latency	Points or stamps are credited within seconds of the sale closing, confirmed in a live test — not an overnight batch sync.	2
3	Coverage of your exact POS	Vendor names your exact POS product, version, and plan tier in writing, with reference customers running that combination today.	3
4	Offline and outage behavior	Sales made during an internet outage reconcile automatically once the connection returns — no lost earn events, no manual re-keying.	1
5	Customer data ownership (knockout)	The contract states in plain language that you own member records and transaction history, including anything collected through the vendor's own forms.	3
6	Self-serve data export (knockout)	One-click or API export of members, contact details, balances, and the full transaction log in CSV or JSON, available on every plan without a support ticket.	3
7	Multi-location support	Balances shared across every till and site in real time, with per-location reporting. Keep weight at 1 for a single site; raise it to 3 if you run or plan multiple locations.	1

Criteria 8–13: Program features and channels

What the program can do for customers and staff, and what it costs to reach members afterward.

#	Criterion	What a 3 looks like	Weight (1–3)
8	Earn mechanics fit	Supports your actual model — visit-based, spend-based, or item-based — without workarounds, and lets you change the rule later without resetting members.	3
9	Redemption at the till	Staff can find a member and redeem in a few taps during a queue, and the discount posts back to the POS so end-of-day reports reconcile.	3
10	App-free customer channel	The card lives in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet with lock-screen visibility, built in or via a wallet layer such as PushNotice; customers are never forced to install an app.	2
11	Re-engagement messaging	Segments members by visit recency and spend, with a channel that carries no per-message fee at your volume — wallet pass updates or push rather than SMS-only.	2
12	Sign-up friction	A customer can join mid-queue in under 30 seconds via QR code or link — no app store detour, no long form.	3
13	Reporting depth	Shows repeat-visit rate, redemption rate, and outstanding reward liability — not just a total member count.	1

Criteria 14–19: Security, portability, and exit

The rows vendors rarely volunteer. Two of the three knockouts live in the other tables; the third is here.

#	Criterion	What a 3 looks like	Weight (1–3)
14	Security and privacy posture	Documented data location, subprocessor list, breach notification terms, and GDPR or CCPA handling; no card numbers stored in the loyalty system.	2
15	Fraud controls	Velocity limits on earning, correct handling of refunds and voided sales, and reporting that surfaces till-level anomalies such as staff self-awarding.	2
16	Support and SLA	Response times written into the agreement, a human support channel, and a public status page with incident history.	2
17	Pricing at your real volume	A written quote at your projected 12-month member, message, and location counts, with every overage and add-on fee itemized.	2
18	Portability	Imports your existing members and balances on the way in, and hands them back in a standard format on the way out; installed wallet cards can be migrated rather than going dead.	3
19	Exit terms (knockout)	Monthly or short-notice termination, a committed data handover format and timeline, and deletion on request — all in the contract before signature.	3

Evidence to demand before you score

A score of 3 requires evidence, not a sales answer. Work through this list with each vendor; anything they refuse becomes a 0 in the grid.

Get a sandbox on your actual POS
Ask to run the integration against your POS product and plan tier, not a generic demo environment.
Time one full transaction
Pay at a till and watch when the points or stamp appear. Seconds and overnight are different products; note which you saw.
Request a sample export file
A real file with members, balances, and transaction history. If getting it requires a support ticket, score criterion 6 accordingly.
Read the exit clause before the second call
Ask for the standard contract early and check notice period, data handover format, and deletion commitments.
Ask what happens to installed cards on exit
If customers hold wallet passes or cards, find out whether they go dead, can be migrated, or can be repointed when you switch.
Confirm the required POS plan tier
Some integrations only work on the POS vendor's top plan. If an upgrade is required, add that cost to criterion 17.
Get the fraud controls in writing
Velocity limits, refund and void handling, and how staff self-awarding would be detected and reported.
Ask for the security documentation
Data location, subprocessor list, and breach notification terms. A vendor with real answers sends a document, not a paragraph.
Price at your projected 12-month volume
Per-location, per-member, and per-message fees at the numbers you expect a year in — not at launch size.
Speak to two reference customers on your POS
Same POS brand, similar size. Ask specifically about credit latency and support response times, not overall satisfaction.
Verify the SLA is contractual
Response times belong in the agreement. A marketing-page promise scores 1, not 3, on criterion 16.
Score with two people independently
Owner and operations lead score separately, then reconcile any criterion where scores differ by 2 or more by re-checking the evidence.

Decision record

Fill this in once scoring is complete, so the reasoning survives past the sales cycle.

Vendor A — weighted total

Total out of your maximum, plus any knockout triggered

Vendor B — weighted total

Total out of your maximum, plus any knockout triggered

Vendor C — weighted total

Total out of your maximum, plus any knockout triggered

Knockouts triggered

Which vendors scored 0 on data ownership, export, or exit terms, and the evidence behind the 0

Shortlist for re-demo

Top two vendors and the date booked for a live test on your own till with your own staff

Scorers

The two people who scored independently, and any criterion where their scores differed by 2 or more

Final decision

Vendor chosen, contract term, agreed exit terms, decision date, and who signed off

From the guide: POS Loyalty Program: Add Loyalty Without Switching POS

This resource accompanies the full article — worth reading before you commit to a tool.

Read the guide