KEEP TODAY’S CASH.REWARD TOMORROW’S VISIT.
Use your own gift cards to bring customers back instead of discounting today’s sale.
Built by Local Businesses, for Local Businesses.
Shop Local Rewards lets customers earn Reward Points with you and use them across the local network. That means participating businesses are helping send customers to one another — creating a rewards program national chains can’t easily copy.
WHAT ISSHOP LOCAL REWARDS
Shop Local Rewards is a local rewards network built to help participating businesses attract customers and earn repeat visits. Customers earn Reward Points when they make qualifying purchases at participating businesses.
Those rewards give the customer a reason to make another local purchase — instead of simply getting a discount on the purchase they were already making. A customer can earn rewards at one participating business and use them at another business inside the Shop Local Rewards network.
You fund your Rewards Account with your own gift cards, and Shop Local Rewards issues points to your customers from that account — points they can spend at any participating business in the network.
How Do I Get Rewards?
Fund your rewards account with your own gift cards. You reward customers from this account every time they make a qualifying purchase, and you keep it funded with gift cards, or when customers come in to spend their rewards with you.
What happens if I give out more rewards than I take in?
If you give out more rewards than you take in, you simply refill your account with gift cards.
What happens if I take in more rewards than I give out?
Your rewards balance grows. You have two easy options. You can pause taking rewards in until you catch up, and you'll keep giving rewards to your customers the whole time. Or you can put those points back to work with a rewards special on a slow day, like 100% rewards for two hours on a Tuesday. It costs you about the same as the BOGO offer you'd normally run, and you still collect the full cash from every sale.
Never Discount Your Brand Again —Save Your Cash and Give Rewards Instead
REWARDS ARE BETTER THAN DISCOUNTS
In the 1990s and early 2000s, local businesses used programs like the Liberty Card to attract new customers with offers like Buy One, Get One Free. Those offers created the first visit. But once the customer used the deal, the promotion was over.
By around 2010, daily-deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial took over. Merchants were asked to discount 50% — and then hand over a large share of what was left.
CASHFLOW IS KING.
- Two $20 entrées
- $40 value
- Customer pays
- $20
- Merchant collects
- $20
- Promotional value
- $20
- Two $20 entrées
- $40 sale
- Customer pays
- $40
- Merchant collects today
- $40 cash
- Customer earns
- 20 Reward Points
A discount reduces the cash you collect today. A reward gives them a reason to return tomorrow.
YOU CONTROL THE REWARD
Shop Local Rewards is not a one-size-fits-all discount program. The merchant controls the reward.
If Friday and Saturday are already busy, set a lower reward. If Tuesday is traditionally slow, raise it. If you want to build a major promotion, raise it further.
You are not locked into one permanent discount.You control the reward. We promote it.
Pay Shop Local Rewards 5% in Reward Points when rewards are issued — from your rewards balance, never cash.
HOW CUSTOMERS USE THEIR REWARDS
A customer might earn rewards getting an oil change and use them at a restaurant. A customer might earn rewards at a restaurant and use them at a boutique. And customers earning rewards at other participating businesses can choose to spend them with you.
THEIR CUSTOMERS CAN BECOME YOUR CUSTOMERS.Accepting rewards is free.
There is no fee, ever, for taking Reward Points in.
NO REWARDS ON REWARDS
If a customer's bill is $100 and they use 40 Reward Points, you don't issue new rewards on that $40. New rewards apply only to the eligible $60 in new spending — and you pay Shop Local Rewards 5% in Reward Points on that same $60, never on the $40.
Pay Shop Local Rewards 5% in Reward Points when rewards are issued — from your rewards balance, never cash.
No rewards on rewards — and no charge unless a new reward is issued.
HOW IT WORKS AT YOUR REGISTER
If you have steady foot traffic, we send you a handheld terminal. It sits beside your register and does two things — takes rewards in when a customer spends them, and hands rewards out when they pay you cash. Your staff learns both in about a minute.
We protect your cash flow.
Tax and tip are charged to your customer’s card on your own payment account and go straight to your bank — the same as if you ran it through your own point of sale system. Shop Local Rewards never receives or holds that money. One clean transaction, so no awkward "will you run my credit card for a penny so I can tip."
WHEN A CUSTOMER USES THEIR REWARD POINTS
At the Register — 3 Simple Steps
Your customer is redeeming Reward Points they earned elsewhere in the network.
Your staff picks it before the customer reaches the counter.
Your staff keys in the total before sales tax. The system fills in everything else.
Points cover the sale. Tax and tip go to their card and into your bank.
Completely automated.
The terminal applies your verified sales tax rate and the reward due to the customer, in real time. Change your reward rate at two in the afternoon and every terminal is current on the next transaction — no staff meeting, no retraining, nothing to remember.
WHEN A CUSTOMER PAYS YOU IN CASH
The Rewards Process — 3 Simple Steps
Your customer paid you in cash today, and you want to reward them for it.
Your staff picks it before the customer pays.
Enter the total before sales tax and add the ticket or receipt number.
It lands in their account before they leave the counter.
You're in control from start to finish.
Preset your rates based on your traffic — seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Slow Tuesday? Send out a social post: 100% rewards for the next 20 customers. It sounds like you're giving it away. It's actually better for you than the BOGO you'd normally run.
YOU DO THE MATH
Same Tuesday. Same customers. Same $1,000 in sales.
SLOW TUESDAY EXAMPLES
Two ways to drive traffic. Same $1,000 in sales — very different results.
TYPICAL RESTAURANT
Run a social media 50% off offer.
50% off entrees. You run paid ads for $25 to get customers in.
20 tables come in and buy $50 of entrees per table.
- Half the total ticket
- $500
- Food cost (20%)
- −$200
- Discount issued
- −$500
- Tuesday's income
- $500
- Tuesday's food cost (20%)
- −$200
- Ad cost
- −$25
SLOW TUESDAY SHOP LOCAL RESTAURANT
Use 50% rewards for the first 20 tables.
50% rewards for the first 20 tables.
20 tables come in and buy $50 of entrees per table.
- Food cost (20%)
- −$200
- Your wholesale cost of rewards
- −$110
550 points paid with your gift cards: 500 to your customers, 50 to Shop Local Rewards
- Total today
- $1,000
- Food cost (20%)
- −$200
- Your wholesale cost of rewards
- −$110
550 points paid with your gift cards: 500 to your customers, 50 to Shop Local Rewards
You collect the full sale
Reward Points cover the sale amount and are credited to your rewards balance. You are never discounting the ticket in front of you.
You collect the tips
You collect the tips the way you normally would.
You collect the sales tax
Sales tax is charged to your customer's card on your own payment account and goes straight to your bank — the way you normally would.
Tax and tip clear before points are released
The tax and tip charge has to succeed on your own payment account before any Reward Points are released. A declined card means no sale is recorded and no Reward Points are issued.
No money moves between businesses. Reward Points are a program benefit, not a payment from one merchant to another — Shop Local Rewards does not transfer funds between businesses.
Sales tax is owed on the full price of the sale, before any Reward Points are applied.
Back to all sectionsWhat does it cost?
Three simple costs. Nothing else, ever.
To get started, you'll need to fund your rewards account with a gift card — the amount is up to you. This isn't a fee and none of it comes to us; it's the value you give back to your own customers. Next you'll pay a one-time $250 technology fee and a $100 monthly membership fee, plus a $250 deposit for each terminal you need. After that the only ongoing charge is 5% in Reward Points, paid from your rewards balance whenever you issue rewards. That's it — no other fees.
$250
Plus a $250 deposit per terminal.
One-Time Technology Fee
Covers setting up your Google account, business description, and everything else you need to get started. You can choose to have no terminal or as many as you like.
$100/mo
Monthly Membership
Each merchant contributes $100 per month to cover administration of the site as well as advertising the site to the public through TV, Radio, Billboards, and Social Media.
5%
Paid in Reward Points at Issuance
Charged only when you actually issue rewards, and paid in Reward Points from your rewards balance — never in cash, so no cash leaves the sale.
The 5% is calculated on the eligible sale, not on the reward. It comes out of your rewards balance in Reward Points, so no cash is deducted from your sale.
500 Bonus Reward Points
Share on social media & display our signage and you will receive 500 Reward Points when you give out your first reward within 30 days.
What happens next?
We will need 20-30 minutes to get information to set your account up.
- 1
A technician will set up your terminal.
- 2
Our staff will get all of your details to get your profile set up in our system.
- 3
If you collect sales tax and tips, those go to you in cash, not rewards. We connect your own payment account so the money goes straight to your bank — Shop Local Rewards never receives or holds it.
- 4
We will need to get your information to connect your Google profile to our site to allow your customers to push reviews through.
Only pay rewards for measurable results. No eligible sale, nothing to pay.
READY TO JOIN?
Ready to activate your business on Shop Local Rewards?
Local customers are just one click away.