Many loyalty programs fail to add new customers—not because of what they offer, but because of how they’re built.

It's 2025, and the vast majority of programs still require customers to upload receipts to verify purchases. That means taking out your phone, snapping a photo of your receipt, and waiting for the upload to get processed—hoping your receipt doesn't get flagged for fraud or poor image quality. It’s clunky. It's slow. And it’s costing brands trust and engagement.

If your marketing tech stack still relies entirely on receipt uploads, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Account linking is the smarter, scalable way to integrate purchase verification into your loyalty efforts. It makes rewards automatic, cuts down support costs, and gives your team access to structured purchase data that actually helps you market better.

Here’s how account linking for loyalty works — and why we built Subtotal to help marketers both scale loyalty and derive actionable insights.

Why Receipts Are Killing Loyalty

For years, uploading receipts has been the default. Buy, snap, upload, and earn points.

There's one major issue with this process: it excludes millions of consumers that don't keep physical receipts.

Have you ever crumpled up a receipt and thrown it in the trash? Have you ever said "no thanks" when asked if you'd like a copy of your receipt? I'm willing to bet that—list most consumers—your answer is yes to both of these questions.

Even if marketers can incentivize consumers to keep receipts and scan them for points, they still need to figure out how to protect against increasing fraud, maintain image quality standards, and expedite manual reviews. It's very difficult to do all of these at scale and still provide a low friction experience for consumers.

According to a 2024 Deloitte survey, 78% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers said a smooth digital experience matters in a loyalty program. Over half of all respondents said they prefer programs that are simple and work across channels.

Receipt scanning belongs to an era before the martech stack could handle real-time, omnichannel data—and before a GPT could whip up a realistic-looking receipt in seconds.

Consumer behavior has shifted away from physical receipts, and loyalty programs need a new way to verify purchases.

How Account Linking Works

With account linking, shoppers connect their accounts from major retailers — like Walmart, Costco, or Sephora — directly to your brand’s loyalty program or digital experience.

Here’s the flow:

1. A user links their retail account once.
2. The system begins receiving itemized purchase data securely.
3. Rewards are triggered automatically when qualifying products are purchased.

This process is seamless and eliminates the need for photo uploads. It serves as a clean integration that can be implemented within an intuitive experience.

Why It Works Better—for Everyone

For customers, linking a retailer account instead of uploading a receipt means automatic rewards, fewer errors, and a better experience.

For marketers and tech teams, the benefits are even bigger:

• Data comes structured and clean directly from retailers
• Operational costs drop with fewer support tickets and disputes
• Clearer insights into product performance across retailers and channels

With that visibility, loyalty becomes a source of actionable marketing data. It’s not just about rewarding purchases—it’s about understanding what drives them.

Loyalty That Sticks With the Customer

Traditional loyalty programs struggle when purchases happen outside a brand’s direct channels. You might know what someone buys on your website, but not when they grab your product off the shelf at a retail store.

Account linking fills this gap.

When you use Subtotal to link merchant accounts and integrate purchases from the retailers your customers are actually shopping, retail purchases become the lifeblood of your loyalty program.

This is especially useful for:

• CPG brands that need to reward retail purchases of snack, beverage, and wellness products
• Restaurants that want to connect delivery orders to their apps
• Commerce platforms using AI for personalized offers

Subtotal makes it all possible with one integration that plugs into your existing stack.

Ready for a Loyalty Program That Just Works?

Today’s customers expect convenience. Your martech stack should deliver it.

Receipt uploads create friction. Account linking removes it, turning loyalty into a real-time, data-rich experience.

Marketers who embrace this shift won’t just improve loyalty program performance. They’ll get better data, stronger relationships, and more tools to drive growth.

If your tech stack doesn’t support account linking yet, now’s the time to build it in.

Sign up for Subtotal today to get started with account linking. Book a demo with our team to learn more.

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