Beyond the Demo: The 4 Critical Architectural Questions for Your Next Loyalty Partner

When choosing a loyalty technology partner, the features in the demo are just the starting point. Especially in retail, where customer expectations are always changing and flexibility, speed, and integration are survival tools. The most critical decision lies in the platform's underlying architecture. It’s a choice that will dictate your agility, total cost of ownership, and capacity for future growth for the next decade.

Keep scrolling to:

• Spot the difference between scalable vs. siloed platforms
• Avoid costly re-platforming down the line
• Understand how architecture impacts loyalty UX and operations
• Learn how retail leaders across the UK & Ireland are choosing smarter tech partners

Question #1

Is this a Unified Platform or a 'Frankenstein Stack'?

The market is divided between two philosophies: the composable "Frankenstein stack" of best-in-class components stitched together, and the all-in-one unified platform.

• The Question to Ask: "Are you providing a single, cohesive platform where all modules are built to work together, or are we responsible for integrating and orchestrating multiple, separate components?"
• Considerations: A composable approach offers flexibility but can introduce significant integration complexity, higher operational overhead, and multiple points of failure. A unified platform, on the other hand, offers a single point of accountability and seamless data flow between its modules (like Loyalty, Campaign Management, and Analytics). The ideal solution offers the best of both: a unified platform that is also modular and API-first, allowing for easy integration without the "Frankenstein" complexity.

Case in Point: KFC France

Operating in a hyper-competitive quick-service restaurant market with 75% penetration, KFC needed more than a simple points engine. They wanted to create a real emotional connection with customers and do it in real time, across all channels. That meant a platform with deep integration capabilities, not a patchwork of disconnected tools.

“We chose Comarch for two reasons. First, Comarch is an integrator of its solution. That was very important for us since we already have an ecosystem of multiple partners across all our channels, so we wanted to cooperate with someone who speaks with one voice and could support our multi-front cooperation. The second reason was that we were looking for a SAAS solution that could be integrated into our other existing tools, such as e-commerce or restaurants.”

-- Antoine Rucho, Head of e-Commerce at KFC France

With the right architecture in place, KFC built a seamless, scalable program that grew from 380K to over 1M members in under a year. Loyalty members now spend 10% more on average than non-members—proof that smart architecture simplifies operations and drives business impact at the same time.

Question #2

How Do You Support Front-End Agility: Headless or White-Label?

Your customer-facing app and website are where your brand comes to life. Your loyalty platform must be able to support your vision without imposing rigid constraints.

• The Question to Ask: "Does your platform force us into a single front-end model, or can you support both a fully custom-built experience via a headless API architecture and a rapid-launch using a ready-made white-label solution?"
• Considerations: A purely headless approach offers total design control but requires significant internal development resources. A white-label solution provides incredible speed-to-market with a proven user experience. A truly flexible partner should support both models, allowing you to choose the right approach based on your resources and strategic priorities.

Case in Point: Doppelgänger

When Italian fashion brand Doppelgänger set out to build a loyalty program, they wanted to create a connection between the brand and their customers. And they wouldn’t be able to achieve it without a dynamic, omnichannel experience that brought together in-store service, digital engagement, and gamified touchpoints.

“Comarch and our company share the same willingness to build a tailor-made solution—from designing our loyalty program to creating iOS and Android apps completely customized according to our needs. And we have achieved many results.”
— Federico Dezi, E-Commerce & Digital Innovation Manager at Doppelgänger

Launched in just 9 months, the program now boasts:

•  47% higher AOV among loyalty members
•  Nearly 200,000 active members
•  A 115% retention rate and 90% omnichannel engagement

Customers can earn points for purchases, but also through dynamic interactions across all touchpoints. Whether it’s tailoring services, in-store actions, or e-commerce perks, the platform adapts to the customer journey—not the other way around.

Question #3

What is its Role in Our MarTech Stack: The Brain or the Engine?

A loyalty platform can either be the central hub of your customer data strategy or a powerful, specialized engine within a broader ecosystem.

• The Question to Ask: "Is your platform designed to act as our central Customer Data Platform (CDP), or is it designed to sit behind our existing enterprise CDP?"
• Considerations: Some businesses need their loyalty platform to be the primary source of truth for customer intelligence. Others have already invested in a master CDP and need a loyalty engine that can seamlessly integrate, ingesting data and executing loyalty logic. The right partner can do both. Their platform should be able to function as the "brain" or as a powerful "engine," adapting to your existing MarTech stack, not forcing you to rebuild it.

Case in Point: An International Car Rental Company

When an international car rental company decided to re-launch its loyalty program, it needed a platform that could plug into a global, operationally complex system across multiple countries and customer touchpoints.

Instead of overhauling their existing MarTech stack, the company used Comarch Loyalty Management for Car Rentals as a specialized engine, powering customer recognition, segmentation, and reward logic while integrating smoothly with their broader data and service ecosystem.

“Comarch has been a true partner not only during the design, build and launch phases of the program, but also throughout the first year as we’ve made enhancements to both the program and the system that supports it. Their team has worked tirelessly with our internal IT teams to ensure that communication between the two systems is optimized and seamless to our customers, thus enhancing their overall experience and satisfaction with the program."

— Vice President of Brand Marketing at the company

Key to this setup were modules like:

• Business Administration for flexible accrual and redemption logic
• Contact Center to unify member communication across channels
• DataHub enabling seamless file translation and scheduling for cross-system sync
• Member Portal providing front-end engagement without dictating design

In other words, our loyalty platform enhanced the client’s stack without trying to replace it (exactly what engine-mode architecture should do).

Question #4

How Does it Scale: For Our Needs Today, or Our Ambitions for Tomorrow?

This is the most critical long-term question. Choosing a platform that only meets your initial requirements is a recipe for a costly re-platforming project in 3-5 years.

• The Question to Ask: "How does your platform handle scalability, both in terms of transaction volume and, more importantly, in functional capability?"
• Considerations:
  - Transactional Scale: You need proof that the platform can handle massive growth. Look for providers who can point to live examples of supporting over 100 million members on a single instance or processing millions of transactions per day in real-time.
  - Functional Scale: Your strategy will evolve. You may start with points and tiers, but you will inevitably want to add more sophisticated capabilities like a subscription model, a partner ecosystem (RMN), or advanced AI-driven personalization. A platform that doesn't have these modules pre-built and integrated into its core will become a technical liability. Choosing a platform with a broad suite of advanced capabilities from day one is the smartest long-term decision.

Case in Point: ENOC

In 2015, just ahead of oil and gas price deregulation in the UAE, Emirates National Oil Company began shaping what would become one of the first-ever loyalty programs in the GCC energy sector. With zero precedent in the region and no roadmap to copy, scalability was a survival requirement.

ENOC launched “YES Rewards”, built from day one to support rapid growth, future innovation, and cross-functional expansion.

“We needed a technological partner with scale. When we set out with our business requirements that loyalty was supposed to fulfill, Comarch checked all the boxes.”
— Suryaveer Singh, Head of Loyalty at ENOC

What does scale look like in practice?

• 200,000+ members in the first month alone
• 2–3x increase in turnover for each loyalty campaign
• Platform hosted locally in the UAE with real-time support from Comarch’s Network Operations Center and a dedicated Dubai-based team
• Flexible architecture supporting mobile-first UX, campaign automation, and advanced BI analytics
• Nominated for Best Customer Experience and Best Loyalty in a Financial Product at the International Loyalty Awards 2023

Even if your market isn’t a greenfield, your ambitions should be. Whether you’re launching your first program or revamping a legacy one, a loyalty platform built for scale will be the difference between leading and catching up.

Choose a Foundation for the Future

The right architectural decision is about choosing a partner that offers not just the features for today, but the flexibility and scalability for all the innovations you can't yet predict.

For retailers in the UK and Ireland, especially those juggling legacy systems, omnichannel ambitions, and rising customer expectations, your loyalty platform needs to adapt, integrate, and grow with you for years to come.

By asking these four questions, you can ensure your next loyalty platform is not just a solution for now, but a true foundation for future growth.

See how this tech foundation looks in practice!

Request a personalized walkthrough of the Comarch Loyalty Marketing Platform, tailored to your tech stack, customer journey, and strategic goals.
No pressure. Just smart architecture and information on how it can work for your brand.