A practical guide for CMOs, Heads of Product, and Loyalty Leaders on selecting the right loyalty platform – complete with evaluation criteria, pricing considerations, and a downloadable toolkit.
Selecting the right loyalty platform is a high-impact decision that will shape your brand’s customer engagement for years to come. Yet, many enterprises rush into the selection process without clearly defined requirements, leading to mismatched capabilities, hidden costs, and strategic compromises.
This article outlines how to structure a best-practice Request for Proposal (RFP) for loyalty platforms, including technical, operational, commercial, and cultural evaluation criteria – plus real-world insights from the loyalty consultants at Loyalty & Reward Co, who have guided leading enterprise brands through complex RFPs, RFIs, and informal procurement processes.
1. Why a Strategic RFP Is Business-Critical
A loyalty RFP isn’t just about comparing platform features – it’s a tool to assess strategic alignment, scalability, vendor fit, and future readiness.
A weak RFP risks:
- Misaligned vendor responses
- Unclear or inflated pricing models
- Proposals that shift your program design to match vendor limitations
- Costly change requests down the track
A strong RFP helps:
- Drive internal alignment on what success looks like
- Ensure due diligence across IT, marketing, and finance
- Lay a foundation for a true partnership – not just a tech implementation
2. Who Should Be Involved in the RFP Process
The best RFPs are cross-functional. Assemble a team that reflects both business objectives and operational realities:
- CMO / Head of Marketing: Drives customer strategy
- Head of Product / Loyalty Manager: Owns program vision and design
- CTO / Head of IT: Ensures integration and scalability
- Finance / Procurement: Reviews commercial viability
- Legal / Privacy / Security Teams: Validates compliance
- External Consultants: (e.g. Loyalty & Reward Co) for requirements definition, subject matter expertise, vendor analysis, and best practice
3. Initial Vendor Qualification Areas
Before diving into detailed scoring, filter vendors through key qualification lenses:
| Evaluation Area | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Overall Fit | How well does the platform meet functional requirements? |
| Configuration vs Development | Will you need lots of custom work, or is most out-of-the-box? |
| System Integrators | Will they use third parties for implementation? |
| Platform Configurators | Are platform setups handled internally or outsourced? |
| Implementation Timeframe | Can they deliver within your required time horizon? |
| References | Do they have relevant experience in your industry or region? |
4. Scoring Criteria: What to Include and Why
Selecting a loyalty platform isn’t just about ticking off features – it’s about making a confident, commercially sound decision based on your specific program needs. A robust scoring framework helps structure internal alignment, ensures like-for-like vendor comparisons, and ultimately reduces decision risk.
Important note: The scoring criteria and weightings provided below are only indicative. Your final scoring model should reflect your unique loyalty strategy, program type (e.g. points-based, coalition, experiential), and internal capability. Use this as a flexible starting point – not a one-size-fits-all.
Company Evaluation (Example: 35%)
This section assesses whether the vendor can be a strong, long-term partner. Key factors to consider include:
- Project Understanding (50%) – How well does the vendor understand your goals and existing ecosystem?
- On-the-Ground Support (30%) – Do they have local presence, or is it remote-only?
- Industry Experience (20%) – Have they delivered similar programs in your vertical (e.g. retail, telco, banking)?
These criteria help you assess whether the vendor brings contextual expertise and support to ensure a smoother implementation and post-launch relationship.
Product Evaluation (Example: 45–65%)
This is where you assess the platform’s actual capabilities across the program lifecycle. Depending on your loyalty model, some of these may carry more weight than others:
- Join & Onboarding – How easily can customers enrol, earn welcome bonuses, or be migrated from legacy programs?
- Member Identifiers – Can the platform support member cards, digital wallets, or omnichannel IDs?
- Account Merge & Data Hygiene – How well can duplicate accounts or migrated members be handled?
- Member Account UX – Can the platform support real-time updates on frontend member accounts?
- Earning Capabilities – Can you configure standard, bonus, and conditional earn logic?
- Redemption Tools – Flexibility around voucher creation, points conversion, and partner offers?
- Member Benefits & Extras – Ability to support tiers, early access, or exclusive offers?
- Test & Learn – Can you run A/B or multivariate tests post-launch?
- Rules Engine – Is it configurable, rules-based, and business-user friendly?
- Operational Admin Tools – Does it support backend processes like reward issuance, member management, or fraud checks?
Not every program will need everything. For example, a simple earn-and-burn model may not need Test & Learn or tiering logic – but an enterprise coalition program certainly will.
Implementation Evaluation (Example: 15–30%)
Beyond features, you’ll want to understand how much effort and risk is involved in launching and maintaining the platform.
- Systems Integration Readiness – POS, CDP, CRM, ESP, analytics platforms
- Data Migration – Can they import legacy member/contact data cleanly?
- Platform Configuration – Do they offer out-of-the-box tooling, or is everything custom?
- Reporting & Analytics – Is liability forecasting, performance tracking, or fraud analytics available?
- Training & Support – Will you get documentation, onboarding, and ongoing help?
Commercial Evaluation (Example: 15–25%)
This section reflects the total cost of ownership, pricing transparency, and commercial scalability.
- Implementation Timeframe – Can they deliver in 3–6 months, or are they vague? Do they actively support implementation or not?
- Licensing Model Clarity – Per member? Per event? Flat fee? What’s included or modular?
- Scalability of Cost – How does pricing change as the program grows to 1M, 5M, 10M, or more members?
Want to know more? Explore our guide to the Best Loyalty Platforms for 2025 – a curated, consultant-written overview of market-leading platforms, their strengths, and ideal use cases.
5. Implementation & Technical Fit
Deep technical alignment is crucial. Many platforms can theoretically support your program – but at what cost?
Integration & Setup Considerations:
- POS, Commerce, CDP, CRM, ESP, Support/Customer Experience
- Product feed ingestion and loyalty currency setup
- Member migration and account mapping
- Triggered communications via API
- Dashboarding, reporting, and liability tracking
Often Overlooked: Some platforms are backend-only. Others require third-party front-end layers. Know what you’re buying – and what you’ll need to build.
6. Pricing, Licensing & Total Cost of Ownership
Estimated Implementation Time
Ask for realistic timeframes to MVP and full rollout. Factor in:
- Third-party involvement
- Data readiness
- Parallel workstreams
Implementation & Integration Fees
What will the vendor charge for a standard 6-month rollout? Clarify what’s included vs. change-request territory.
Licensing models vary widely – some vendors price based on:
- Total or active member count
- Annual transaction/event volumes
- Feature modules (e.g., wallets, gamification)
- Flat enterprise license with usage tiers
- Or a combination of elements.
Plan for growth: “Many brands focus on pricing for today, not for where the program will be in 2–3 years. That’s a big mistake,” says Loyalty & Reward Co.
7. Common Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Loyalty & Reward Co has reviewed over fifty loyalty RFPs. Here are the top pitfalls we see:
- No clear requirements or strategy – RFPs based on vague ideas instead of a robust loyalty blueprint
- Not defining metrics or success criteria – How will vendors tailor their response?
- Underestimating integration complexity – Especially for data, reporting, CDP, digital wallet, and marketing systems
- Overlooking resourcing needs post-launch – API maintenance, campaign ops, analytics, training
- Choosing platforms without cultural fit – Flexibility, communication, and problem-solving style matter
One of the biggest traps brands fall into is jumping into a tech decision—sometimes even committing to building in-house—without having a clear set of loyalty program requirements or business outcomes defined. Not sure whether to build or buy? Check out our in-depth guide: Buy vs Build a Loyalty Platform
8. Composable vs All-in-One: Which Direction to Take?
Composable loyalty platforms are increasingly popular – but they’re not always the right answer.
- All-in-one suites often shine in one area, with the rest built to “tick the box”
- Composable platforms offer best-of-breed flexibility, but:
- Can introduce integration burden
- Require platform ownership internally
- May lead to under-utilized tools if not well-managed
“Composable is great – within reason. More than 3–5 micro-platforms and it becomes a maintenance headache,” says Loyalty & Reward Co
9. What Vendors Don’t Always Tell You
Even the best platforms can introduce friction when you dig into the detail:
- “Yes, we can do that” — but not out of the box
- “It’s possible with configuration” — but requires a third party
- “We support X” — but it may force you to change your program design
That’s why upfront clarity, scenario modeling, and experienced partner support are critical.
11. What to Do Next: A Quick Recap
If you’re preparing to select or switch loyalty platforms, here’s a smart path forward:
- Define Your Program Blueprint: Before issuing an RFP, make sure you’ve clearly mapped out your loyalty strategy, business goals, and member experience flows.
- Align Internal Stakeholders: Engage Marketing, Product, IT, Data, Finance, and Procurement early to align on goals, integrations, and investment expectations.
- Scan the Market: Explore the loyalty platform landscape to understand what’s possible – and where each provider is strongest.
- Shortlist & Assess Vendors: Whether formally or informally, compare providers based on strategic fit, technical capability, and commercial structure.
- Make the Right-Fit Decision: Use a scoring matrix to objectively evaluate your shortlisted platforms. Factor in future scalability, internal capabilities, and cultural fit.
Need Expert Support?
Loyalty & Reward Co has guided some of the world’s most respected brands through complex loyalty platform decisions – from ideation to implementation. We support with:
- Strategic loyalty design & business case development
- Detailed requirement documentation (50+ pages of flows, rules, and specs)
- Market scan and vendor shortlisting
- RFI/RFP documentation and scoring
- Commercial modelling, liability management and integration planning
If you’re looking to invest in the right platform – and get it right the first time -we’d love to help. Get in touch with our team to start the conversation.
