Dispensary loyalty: points, credit and gift cards explained
The useful test for loyalty software is a partial return: what happens to the points earned, the reward used and the amount refunded? Work through that before choosing earn rates or tier names.
PURP makes cannabis retail software. This is our buying framework, not an independent vendor ranking.
Prepare a sample customer with points, store credit and a gift card. Keep a record of each starting balance. Use test transactions to follow the three histories separately.
Points, credit and gift cards need separate histories
Loyalty points usually reward qualifying activity under rules the retailer sets. Store credit is a balance a customer can use under the retailer's policy, often after a refund or exchange. A gift card holds prepaid value. Similar-looking numbers should not make their histories or rules interchangeable.
Open each balance and find the transaction that created it. Check where it can be spent, who can correct it and what appears on the receipt. Confirm the rules for your intended programme and market before enabling it; a vendor’s sample programme is not a policy for your store.
| Balance | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Points | What earns points, what can be redeemed, and what happens after a refund? |
| Store credit | What created the value, which customer owns it, and which policy controls its use? |
| Gift card | How is value issued, redeemed, checked and recovered if there is a problem? |
Try signing up during a sale
Have a budtender enroll a sample customer while building a basket. Find out which details are required and what happens if the customer declines an optional field. Ask them to explain the earn rate and what the customer can use today, without opening a settings screen.
Check how customer permission and communication preferences are recorded. Can someone join the programme without agreeing to marketing? Which employees can view or change those choices?
For a multi-store business, look up the sample customer at a second location. Confirm whether the programme is shared and how staff access is controlled.
Try a lookup with a shared surname and a mistyped phone number. Staff need to identify the right person before seeing or using a balance. If the customer is duplicated, ask who can resolve it and what happens to both histories.
Return part of a mixed-payment purchase
For a hypothetical test, buy two $20 items using $15 from a gift card and the rest, including applicable tax, by card. Return one item. Before confirming the refund, have the vendor explain which tender receives value, how tax is reversed and how points earned on the original purchase change.
Next, redeem points on a purchase and return it. Repeat with store credit. There is no single expected result for every programme: write down your chosen policy, then compare it with the balances and receipt the software produces.
- Can staff explain a balance without reconstructing the customer's entire history?
- What happens if a refund is retried after an interrupted connection?
- Who can make a manual correction, and is the reason recorded?
- Can the retailer review outstanding balances and the movements behind them?
Check what moves a customer between tiers
Put a sample customer just below a tier threshold, make a qualifying purchase, then return it. Check when the tier changes and whether it changes back. Confirm whether qualifying spend includes tax, discounts and gift-card purchases, and which period is counted. Those definitions belong in your programme terms.
For targeted offers, start with a specific use case: an offer for one membership tier or for customers interested in a product category. Ask how the audience is selected, who can approve the offer and how communication preferences are respected.
Wallet passes are a separate decision from the points programme. Confirm supported phones, enrollment, updates, lookup and any additional charges. A digital card is useful only when its displayed state and the register's authoritative balance agree.
Measure use and cost, as well as signups
Choose a few measures before launch: members who make a second purchase, rewards redeemed and the cost of those rewards. Ask the vendor to produce them from sample data and explain the date range and customer grouping. A signup total does not tell you whether anyone came back.
When reviewing your results, compare similar periods and note promotions or other changes. Members may already be your most frequent shoppers; a higher member spend alone does not prove the programme caused it.
Ask what reports and exports are available for points, credit and gift cards. Your finance team should be able to understand the definitions and reconcile the balances. Confirm the treatment appropriate to your business with the people responsible for its accounts.
Explore loyalty in PURP
The PURP loyalty walkthrough shows enrollment, configurable earn and redeem rates, spend-based tiers and offers aimed at tiers or customer preferences. The register walkthrough shows points, PURP Credit and recent purchases attached to a customer, plus gift-card tender and policy-controlled refunds.
Branded wallet passes are presented separately as a PURP+ add-on. Ask which parts of the setup you want are included in your proposal. For the wider selection process, return to the cannabis POS buyer's guide.