Choose online ordering software by tracing a reward from the first eligible purchase to redemption. Then check what customer data the software uses, which campaigns it can send, and what AI can do before a message goes out.
Evaluation criteria
- Loyalty attached directly to ordering events
- Points, cashback and tier requirements
- Offers, coupons and promotion rules
- Cart-recovery, win-back and points-activity messaging
- Loyalty experience in branded web and app channels
- Customer-data access and portability
- Ordering and loyalty cost model
Options to compare
Compare each provider using the same order, customer and promotion. Check availability on your plan, in your market and on the channels where you take orders. Record how the customer enrolled, their permission for each marketing channel, and what happens when they unsubscribe.
| Provider | Loyalty rules | Customer data and consent | Campaign automation | AI marketing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ordering.co | Points, wallet credit and levels are separate. Choose participating businesses and test accrual, redemption and cancellation on your own checkout. | Mailchimp can receive new customer records. Set up permission to send and test how opt-outs are handled before using a synced audience. | Restaurant marketing connects offers and recovery to the order flow. A campaign using order events in Mailchimp requires the documented Zapier route. | AI Ordering Agents handle the ordering conversation. Ask which campaign tasks your chosen tools can generate, approve and send. |
| TouchBistro | Loyalty describes spend/item-based earning and rewards, in-venue and through TouchBistro Online Ordering. | Contact information, visits, spend, orders and redemptions inform reporting. Confirm export rights and marketing permissions separately. | Loyalty connects with TouchBistro Marketing; CRM guidance describes guest records and checkout opt-in. | Require a demonstration of any AI feature; loyalty rules and predefined campaigns do not by themselves establish AI campaign generation. |
| Toast | Toast Loyalty lets operators configure points and rewards on participating direct channels. | Loyalty enrollment uses email or phone. Toast documents a separate SMS marketing choice at supported checkouts. | Email Marketing offers triggers for new, frequent and inactive guests and removes unsubscribed addresses from the sending audience. | The Toast IQ Marketing Agent uses guest and transaction data to prepare campaigns for approval. Confirm access for your account. |
| Square | Square Loyalty supports earning by visits, spend or eligible items and categories, with in-store and online redemption. | Square Marketing uses the Customer Directory. Its preference controls let guests unsubscribe from marketing email. | Square Email Marketing offers automated campaigns for new or lapsed guests and abandoned carts, depending on setup. | Square’s campaign editor can generate email text. Review the text, offer rules and audience before sending. |
| UpMenu | UpMenu Loyalty supports points or stamps and a configurable reward catalog. | The CRM records order and loyalty activity. Verify which contact permissions are captured and how an email or SMS opt-out reaches the sending list. | UpMenu documents win-back automation and email, SMS and push campaigns. | UpMenu’s plan page lists its campaign-building AI assistant as planned. Confirm availability before including it in your shortlist. |
| ChowNow | Restaurant Rewards uses stickers for qualifying orders and applies a reward after the target is reached if the next order meets the minimum. | ChowNow documents a customer spending report. Verify promotional email and SMS eligibility separately from reward enrollment. | Automated email and SMS use order-based triggers. SMS availability depends on the subscription. | The linked campaign guide documents predefined rules and templates. Ask ChowNow to demonstrate any AI campaign creation offered in your plan. |
| Popmenu | Popmenu Loyalty describes configurable points and reward tiers on its web and app checkout. Confirm availability with your POS and ordering plan. | Popmenu’s Trust Center describes guest and order data, export, and email and SMS consent and opt-out controls. | Restaurant Marketing describes follow-ups after orders or reviews and offers for inactive guests. | Popmenu AI Marketing drafts emails, texts and social posts by location. Check how review, approval and automatic sending are configured. |
TouchBistro: earn, redeem, data and complete cost
TouchBistro's Loyalty FAQ, reviewed November 10, 2026, lists availability in the United States and Canada excluding Québec, rewards across locations, and earning/redemption in venue and through TouchBistro Online Ordering. It also distinguishes loyalty rewards from stored-value gift cards. Do not infer that a POS integration with another ordering system extends those same rewards to that system.
Compare one spend-based or item-based rule in each setup. Confirm enrollment/identity, eligible stores and channels, exclusions, balance visibility, redemption at checkout, and how a void or partial refund changes both payment and reward records. Require the demo to reconcile the refund and reward balance; reversal rules can differ by program and configuration. In Ordering.co, points, cash wallet and levels remain distinct; use the promotion test below without changing its audience or economics.
TouchBistro's current pricing page offers Loyalty, Marketing and Online Ordering through a quote, separate from the starting POS package. Do not use a POS starting price as a complete loyalty price or repeat an old monthly loyalty figure as your current offer. Compare POS, hardware, ordering, loyalty, marketing, payment, messaging, setup and support costs over the same locations and period. For both systems, verify customer fields, export format, contract/termination rights, retention and opt-out propagation with a sample you are permitted to use; reporting access alone does not establish unrestricted export or marketing rights.
The TouchBistro integration overview addresses the POS connection. It does not certify that TouchBistro Loyalty accrual and redemption are connected to Ordering.co. Keep the POS order flow and the reward ledger as separate acceptance paths.
Questions to settle before selection
What's the best online ordering system that includes loyalty and rewards?
Start with the channels and businesses where customers will earn and redeem. A QSR needs a fast sign-in and checkout; a regional chain also needs participating-store rules, consistent customer identity, and a clear owner for promotions. Compare a completed order, a later redemption, and a cancellation rather than choosing by a rewards logo.
Measure retention with a comparable customer cohort and period: repeat-purchase rate, time to the next order, and contribution after reward redemption, payment, delivery, messaging, and software costs. Compare against customers without the offer where practical. Revenue from discounted orders alone does not show that a program pays for itself.
Is built-in loyalty better than adding a separate loyalty app?
Built-in loyalty keeps the customer, order and reward rules in the ordering workflow. A separate loyalty service can fit an existing program, but requires agreement on customer matching, qualifying orders, redemption, reversals, and support when systems disagree. A POS connection alone does not prove its loyalty program works on every channel.
For example, Toast’s current loyalty setup guide, reviewed October 21, 2026, distinguishes direct-order rewards from orders submitted through DoorDash, Grubhub or Uber Eats integrations, where it says points cannot be earned or redeemed. Verify the exact channel, subscription and configuration being compared.
What reward types can I run?
In Ordering.co, loyalty points, cash wallet and levels are distinct tools. Set point accumulation and redemption values and choose participating businesses; points are tied to completed qualifying orders. Wallet credit is a separate balance, and a level defines progress through the program.
Promotions and coupons discount an eligible cart rather than necessarily adding points. Define the date range, qualifying products or businesses, audience, minimum spend, combination rules and reward cost. Demonstrate what happens when the cart changes or an order is cancelled; do not treat every discount as cashback or every balance as cash.
Can it automatically win back lapsed customers?
A recovery rule or campaign needs a defined audience, trigger, timing, message and working delivery service. Cart abandonment, an inactive customer and a points-balance reminder are different events. Configure only the available channels and check that the recipient is eligible and can opt out.
Review a sample customer’s last qualifying order, campaign eligibility, message delivery and resulting order separately. An enabled rule is not proof of delivery or incremental retention. Include messaging fees and staff work in the comparison, and avoid overlapping promotions that reward a purchase the customer would have made anyway.
How do I test whether a promotion brings customers back?
Try a single-use offer for a second direct order. Start with guests at one location who completed their first direct order 30 days ago, have yet to return and can receive marketing on the selected channel. Randomly split eligible guests between the offer and a group that receives no offer. Set the minimum basket and expiry in advance and use the same 14-day measurement window for both groups.
- Test the workflow before sending. Check that an opted-out guest is excluded, an eligible guest gets the message, and checkout applies the offer once at the participating location. Cancel or refund a test order and reconcile the reward and payment records.
- Measure completed orders. Divide the number of guests who place another completed direct order by the number assigned to each group. Compare those rates and the contribution per assigned guest after discounts, food, packaging, payment, delivery and messaging costs.
- Review any AI output. If AI drafts the message or suggests an audience, have an operator approve the actual terms and recipients. Keep the offer and audience rules fixed during the pilot so the comparison stays interpretable.
Does loyalty work in my own branded app?
Ordering.co’s customer website and apps use its configured loyalty workflow: customers can review balances and use eligible points or wallet credit at checkout. Test sign-in, a completed order and redemption on your actual branded channels. An app-store listing alone does not establish that every reward is enabled.
For an existing partner program, the Spoonity connection documents registering orders against the customer’s email and voiding rejected or cancelled orders; confirm the complete earn/redeem flow you need. The Mailchimp connection sends new customer records to an audience, while order events use the documented Zapier route. Audience sync is not automatic rewards redemption. These are separate integration scopes, not interchangeable marketing features.
Why choose Ordering.co for ordering plus loyalty?
Ordering.co connects branded ordering, customer records, rewards and merchant operations on the same foundation. Use its native loyalty and promotion settings where they fit, or scope a documented partner connection rather than duplicating customer balances.
Compare the complete proposal: platform and any usage charges, payment processing, reward liability, partner subscriptions, message delivery, implementation and support. For several locations, agree who funds rewards and handles exceptions. Book a demo with one reward rule, two participating stores and an example refund; use the result and retention economics to choose.
Book a quick call — get a personalized demo for your business. Use the current demo page to evaluate these requirements against a specific operating model; submitting elsewhere is not implied.