Case study · POS integration

Loyalty Service Integration

Putting a loyalty programme inside a point-of-sale that was never built for it, without asking the person at the till to learn a second system.

Production system

Engagement
Integration engineering
Platforms
POS web interface and sync service
Role
Integration design and build
Sector
Food, beverage and retail Verify before publishing
The loyalty integration: the point-of-sale web interface identifying a loyalty customer mid-sale with their points balance and available discounts, beside the sync monitoring view.
Industry
Retail and hospitality
Users
POS operators and their customers
Integration
Loyalty platform into POS
Platforms
Web
Role
Integration engineering
Status
Production

01The business situation

Loyalty only works if it happens at the till.

A loyalty programme that requires the cashier to open another application, find the customer and apply a discount by hand will not survive a busy service. Businesses running on Lightspeed point-of-sale wanted to use Como, a loyalty provider not among Lightspeed’s built-in options. The integration had to make Como feel native to the till, and keep sales flowing into it without anyone thinking about synchronisation.

Core challenge

Make a third-party loyalty programme usable inside the point-of-sale, at the speed a real counter runs at.

Before

Loyalty limited to what the POS already supported

  • Separate Loyalty App
  • Manual Lookup
  • Unsynced Sales
  • Slow Redemption

After

Loyalty available at the till, sales flowing automatically

  • POS Operator
  • Customer
  • Loyalty Platform
  • Sales Sync

Loyalty Integration Service

02The system at a glance

One integration. Four connected parts.

  • Monitoring Interface Sync activity at a glance
  • In-POS Web Interface Identify and redeem at the till
  • Sales Synchronisation Transactions into loyalty
  • Business Registration Opt a location into the service
Core PlatformQueue-driven sync with an embedded interface
  • Sales Sync
  • Customer Identification
  • Point Redemption
  • Discount Application
  • Business Registration
  • Activity Monitoring

03Workflow 01

Sales flow to loyalty without anyone sending them.

A business registers once for the service. From then on its transactions synchronise from the point-of-sale to the loyalty platform in the background, so the customer’s balance reflects what they actually bought.

Image placeholder The synchronisation service: registered businesses with their sync status, the transaction queue moving sales to the loyalty platform, and the activity log. assets/portfolio/como/workflow-sync.png · 16 / 11
  • Opt in onceA business connected to both platforms registers for the service and is then synchronised continuously.
  • Background synchronisationSales move without staff involvement, so loyalty balances stay current on their own.
  • Visible activityThe service exposes what it has been doing, so a business can see the sync is healthy rather than assume it.

04Workflow 02

Redemption happens in the sale, not beside it.

A web interface opens on the point-of-sale itself. The operator identifies the loyalty customer, sees what they are entitled to, and applies it, inside the transaction they are already running.

  • Inside the transactionThe interface runs on the till, so redemption is part of the sale rather than a separate step.
  • Identify then rewardThe operator finds the customer and immediately sees what they can be given.
  • A single-page interfaceThe embedded interface is a self-contained application, which keeps it responsive on POS hardware.
Image placeholder The in-POS web interface during a sale: the identified loyalty customer, their points balance, the available discounts and the redemption action. assets/portfolio/como/pos-interface.png · 16 / 10
Image placeholder Redemption confirmation: the discount applied to the running sale and the customer’s updated point balance. assets/portfolio/como/redemption.png · 1 / 2.04

05Engineering behind the product

The system behind an embedded integration.

Integration work is judged on whether it disappears. These are the parts that let it.

  • Sales synchronisation service

    Transactions move from the point-of-sale to the loyalty platform continuously, with the service owning retries and ordering.

  • Multi-series POS support

    The integration covers Lightspeed Restaurant L and K Series and Lightspeed Retail R Series rather than a single product line.

  • Embedded single-page interface

    The till-side experience is a self-contained application served into the POS, which keeps it fast on counter hardware.

  • Business registration model

    Locations connected to both platforms opt into the service, so synchronisation is explicit rather than assumed.

  • Queue and background processing

    Synchronisation runs as queued background work, which is what keeps the till unaffected by it.

  • Operational visibility

    The service surfaces its own activity so a business can confirm it is working.

06Technical architecture

Under the hood

A Laravel synchronisation service with a standalone Vue single-page interface served into the point-of-sale.

Backend

  • Laravel
  • PHP

POS interface

  • VueJS SPA

Integrates

  • Lightspeed Restaurant L Series
  • Lightspeed Restaurant K Series
  • Lightspeed Retail R Series
  • Como loyalty APIs

07Delivery journey

How the integration was delivered.

  1. Requirement

    Define the sync and redemption scope

  2. API review

    Work through both platform interfaces

  3. Sync service

    Build transaction synchronisation

  4. POS interface

    Build the embedded till experience

  5. Testing

    Validate against live POS series

  6. Production

    Release to registered businesses

  7. Support

    Operate and extend the service

The integration is in production. Dates, durations and the number of connected businesses are withheld until confirmed. Verify before publishing

08What the system enabled

What the delivered integration enabled

  • A third-party loyalty programme usable inside the POS
  • Sales synchronised continuously without staff action
  • Customers identified and rewarded during the sale
  • Several point-of-sale product lines supported
  • Businesses opting in through registration
  • Visible synchronisation activity for operators

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