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Loyalty has long been built on the holy trinity of rewards - points, perks, and member prices - but the way shoppers buy has moved on. With a mountain of channels to choose from, customers now blend online and in-store without thinking about it, yet loyalty often remains stuck in systems that don’t talk to each other. The result is patchy reward points, mismatched offers, and in-store service that misses the mark.
More than just frustrate customers, those gaps suppress spend. Insights from our new report with Shopify, What customers really want from unified commerce, show that seven in ten shoppers would buy more often with retailers whose loyalty schemes work seamlessly online and in-store. It’s a clear signal that loyalty is no longer earned through repetition, but through recognition, which means knowing who someone is, wherever they show up.
Unified commerce is how retailers meet that new expectation. By connecting customer identity, transactions, stock and rewards into one shared view, it turns recognition from an aspiration into something automatic, and it’s redefining what effective loyalty now looks like.
Why recognition matters more than rewards
Loyalty rewards still offer value, but what really matters is whether the shopping experience feels continuous, and if each touchpoint reflects a clear grasp of who the customer is and how they’ve shopped before.
Recognition is what creates that continuity. When a customer is acknowledged instantly and when their history and preferences are already known, the journey feels more assured. Routine moments such as returns, repeat purchases or service queries become easier because the customer doesn’t need to explain themselves. Instead of friction, they experience familiarity, and that familiarity builds confidence.
Confidence is what ultimately drives spend. Shoppers make decisions more quickly when they trust that prices will be aligned, rewards will be accurate and the experience will be consistent wherever they choose to buy. They come back more often because the relationship feels dependable, and they engage across more touchpoints because nothing disrupts the flow. Done right, recognition becomes a commercial force in its own right, strengthening loyalty well before a reward is ever applied.
Why loyalty often fails in practice
If recognition is what drives retention, the biggest barrier to delivering it is fragmentation. Most loyalty schemes were built on systems that predate connected shopping, and the cracks show quickly. A customer earns points online but can’t redeem them in-store. A promotion appears on the website but not at the till. Store staff greet someone without any visibility of what they’ve bought before.
On paper these might seem like small inconsistencies, but viewed as a whole, they’re moments that interrupt the relationship. When loyalty behaves differently depending on the channel, shoppers lose confidence in the scheme and start holding back their spend. The result is a loyalty experience that looks compelling on paper but feels unreliable in practice, creating exactly the friction customers expect retailers to remove.
The backbone of reliable loyalty
Joined-up loyalty only works when retailers unify everything behind it. That means running eCommerce, POS, loyalty, stock, pricing and customer data through one shared source of truth, which is the core principle of unified commerce.
Instead of syncing multiple platforms together and hoping they stay aligned, unified commerce keeps every system reading from the same live dataset. Purchases update instantly whether they happen online, in an app or in-store. Loyalty balances change in real time, and a promotion adjusted in one place appears everywhere.
With Shopify POS at the centre, this becomes not just achievable but dependable. The platform connects online and in-store activity through a single customer profile, with loyalty, purchases and preferences updating automatically, delivering a level of accuracy and consistency that manual workarounds cannot sustain.
For customers this means every interaction behaves the same wherever they shop. For retailers it creates a stable operational base that removes gaps and reduces errors, giving teams a foundation they can trust.
Transforming in-store teams into relationship builders
One of the strongest advantages of unified commerce is its impact on in-person interaction. When store teams can instantly see a customer’s profile - including their purchase history, rewards balance, preferences and recent activity - the conversation changes.
Staff are no longer starting from zero. They have the context they need the moment the customer arrives.
With that insight, service becomes far more personalised. Teams can recommend products that complement what someone has bought before, acknowledge recent orders or issues, apply loyalty rewards without delay and adapt the experience to what the customer is likely to need next. Every interaction feels more considered because it’s grounded in real information rather than guesswork.
This matters because shoppers increasingly expect personal recognition, particularly younger customers who see fast and relevant service as proof that a brand is paying attention. Unified data allows teams to meet that expectation with confidence. It removes the awkwardness of asking customers to repeat information, avoids confusion when systems disagree and eliminates the friction that disrupts an otherwise smooth journey.
Connecting every moment
At Visualsoft, our unified-first approach helps retailers turn recognition into something that happens by default, not by exception. By connecting eCommerce, Shopify POS, loyalty tools and customer data around one shared foundation, we create a single system where every update moves together and every interaction draws from the same truth.
That foundation doesn’t stop at the till. Our suite of Shopify apps helps bridge the gaps that typically separate online and in-store experiences, supporting everything from QR-led product discovery to cross-channel wishlisting.
Alongside this, our wider marketing services ensure those same profiles are used for relevant campaigns and communications, creating continuity across every touchpoint.
With the right systems and the right integrations behind them, retail teams gain context, customers experience greater accuracy and loyalty becomes something shoppers can rely on. Consumer behaviour points in the same direction, with many choosing to buy more often from retailers who recognise them wherever they shop. Unified commerce gives retailers the clarity and consistency needed to meet those expectations, and to build loyalty that lasts.
For more insight into what UK shoppers value most in a connected journey, download our new report What customers really want from unified commerce.
