Get Started with Square Loyalty

With Square Loyalty, you can create a digital loyalty rewards program that will keep your customers coming back again and again – with incentives they earn with each purchase.

How Square Loyalty Works

Your customers earn points for every purchase they make – even when they use cash – from your Square Point of Sale App, Square Invoices or through your Square Online site. They don’t need to receive a digital receipt in order to accumulate points – simply have your customer enter their cell phone number after they checkout. Your customers will be notified via SMS when they sign up with a link to their status page, each time they reach a new reward tier and when the rewards program changes.

You can customize your loyalty program so you’re incentivizing the best possible customer interactions. Your customers can either earn a point per transaction, per item purchased or every time they spend a certain amount. However, you can only set up one Loyalty rule for earning points per transaction at this time.

If completing a payment through Square Invoices, buyers will be prompted to check in to or enrol in your Square Loyalty program to accrue points, and buyers that have an existing account will automatically accrue points based on their contact information. This process applies to both one-time or recurring invoice payments, but buyers cannot redeem available points during invoice transactions at this time. Once they complete the invoice payment, your Loyalty Activity Report and the Buyer Status page will update with any available points they can redeem for future transactions. The buyer’s customer profile will also update with total points accrued through Square Invoices.

Read more about how customers can track their Loyalty status in our Support Centre.

You can customize your loyalty program so you’re incentivizing the best possible customer interactions. Your customers can either earn a point per item purchased, every time they spend a certain amount or per item in a category. However, you can only set up one Loyalty rule for earning points per transaction at this time.

Set a purchase minimum to define how customers can earn rewards:

• Visit: Reward points based on a per-visit minimum. For example, if your customer spends more than $5, they’ll earn one point per item/visit. This program type also allows you to exclude items from accruing points.

• Amount Spent*: Reward points based on the total amount spent before tip. For example, one point per every $5 spent on a purchase. 

• Any Item or Category: Reward points based on purchasing a specific item or category. For example, a drip coffee earns 1 point, a latte earns 2 points and a sandwich earns 3 points.

*Note: The total Amount Spent can be tax inclusive or exclusive (default). To change your settings:

1. Visit Customers > Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard > Settings.

2. Under Earning Points, click Edit next to the rule value.

3. Choose your tax preference.

4. Click Save.

You can also create customizable promotions within your existing Loyalty program. Promotions incentivize customers to return to your business to earn extra rewards on their purchases. Learn more about getting started with Square Loyalty promotion.

Multi-Reward Loyalty Program

You can create a Multi-Reward Loyalty program by adding multiple types of rewards in your setup. Customers will accumulate points towards rewards based on different tiers. Customers can choose to redeem their points for a reward once they reach a tier, or continue toward the next tier to receive a larger reward. This allows you to create a loyalty program unique to your business and incentivize your customers to return.

If you are setting up a Loyalty Program for the first time:

1. Log in to Customers > Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard

2. Follow the steps to create your Loyalty Program.

To add tiers to your Loyalty Program:

1. Log in to Customers > Loyalty section of your online Square Dashboard.

2. Click Settings > Create A New Reward.

3. Select your reward type from the drop-down and choose the reward value.

4. Enter the discount that will be applied for the reward.

5. Click Create Reward.

Note: You can create up to 15 rewards for your Loyalty Program. If you already have 15 rewards created, you’ll need to delete an existing reward in order to create any new rewards for your program. Additionally, reward names must be 100 characters or less for ease of use across your Point of Sale and receipts and during enrolment for buyers.

Redeem Rewards

Points are accumulated until the customer decides they want to redeem a reward.

From your point of sale settings, navigate to Loyalty and toggle on Show check-in screen at start of transaction. Ensure that the Enable Loyalty option is toggled on in order to update the settings on your device.

If the customer is completing their transaction with the payment card that is linked to their loyalty profile, they will automatically be shown any available rewards during checkout. Once rewards are redeemed or skipped, you can proceed to checkout as normal. This is currently available for payments processed on Square Register, Square Terminal and the Square Point of Sale app for iOS and Android devices.

Note: Buyers can only accrue points when completing an invoice payment at this time. Buyers are not able to redeem any available rewards through Square Invoices payments, but rewards can be claimed during checkout at your point of sale or through your Square Online site.

Apply a Reward to a Current Sale

1. Open the Square app and tap Checkout.

2. From the library tab, tap Rewards.

3. Enter the customer’s name or phone number to search for available rewards.

4. Redeem a specific reward by tapping Redeem.

5. Complete sale through Point of Sale. You’ll see the reward applied on the transaction.

Customers are able to apply different rewards or multiple of the same rewards to a single transaction. Applying multiple rewards are only available on iOS devices and there is currently not an option to limit a maximum of one reward per transaction.

Apply a Reward to an Online Sale

Points can be earned or redeemed by loyalty program members if they are making a purchase through Square Online. When completing a transaction on your business’s website, your customer will need to enter in their cell phone number, and any rewards they decide to use for their purchase will be automatically applied. The rewards used for the transaction will also appear on their digital receipt.

Learn about managing your Square Loyalty Program.

Buyer Check-In and Enrollment

After you’ve set up and activated your Loyalty program and subscription, you can opt to show your customers a screen during the checkout process inviting them to enrol or sign in to your Loyalty program with their phone number. The Loyalty screen will appear during each transaction regardless of whether their purchase has earned them a point or reward.

To enable this on your Square Point of Sale app or Square Terminal:

1. Tap More > Settings.

2. Select Loyalty and toggle on Customer check-in on customer display.

To enable this on Square Register:

1. Tap More > Settings.

2. Select Loyalty.

3. Toggle on Show check-in screen at start of transaction. Ensure that the Enable Loyalty option is toggled on in order to update the settings on your device.

After each transaction, your customer will receive a text message indicating they’ve been enrolled and, if applicable, earned their first point, along with a link to their loyalty program status.

Note: Your customer will receive SMS messages when they enroll in your loyalty program, when they earn points, when they are eligible for a reward or when their points are expiring. They can unsubscribe from SMS messages at any time. If they are using Cash App to track their Loyalty status, they can also configure their Loyalty notification settings on their mobile device directly.

Your customer’s loyalty account number is connected to their phone number. They can pay with different cards, cheques, gift cards or cash, and still earn points towards rewards by entering the same phone number.

To walk through what your customers will need to do to enrol in your loyalty program, view the Enrol your Loyalty Customer tutorial:

1. Open the Square app and tap More.

2. Tap Support in the sidebar of your Point of Sale App.

3. Tap Tutorials and Tours and choose Enrol a Loyalty Customer.

4. Swipe through the slides in the pop-up screen to learn how your customers can enrol in your loyalty program after their transaction.

Pricing for Square Loyalty

Square Loyalty’s subscription cost is based on your customer’s participation with your program. This participation is based on the number of qualifying Loyalty Visits within a given month.

Read more about Square Loyalty Pricing.