Why do CPG brands run loyalty programs without owning the till?
Loyalty programs run on sales data, and the sale belongs to whoever owns the checkout. A brand that sells cereal or diapers through thousands of stores owns none of them. The sale happens at the retailer's till, and the record of who bought stays with the retailer.
Retailers know what that record is worth. Kroger Precision Marketing sells brands insights, retail media and incentives built on purchase data from over 62 million households. Procter & Gamble's 2025 annual report says it is investing in retail media to reach shoppers closer to when they buy. A CPG loyalty program is how a brand holds some of that knowledge itself.
The price is effort. A shopper has to scan a code inside the pack or photograph a receipt, a step no store card asks for. Every design choice in CPG loyalty follows from that extra step. The programs also change shape often, so examples age fast. Kellogg's ended Kellogg's Family Rewards at the end of 2022. P&G reworked P&G Good Everyday into P&G brandSAVER, and PepsiCo Tasty Rewards is now Joy.
What are the five CPG loyalty program models?
Most CPG programs prove a purchase in one of five ways. Large brands run more than one at once, because each model reaches a different buyer and returns different data.
On-pack codes
The code sits on or inside the product, so a scan proves the member holds the pack. Pampers Rewards puts a QR code on the inside of every diaper and wipes pack. Ten diaper scans earn $10 in Pampers Cash, and most boxes carry two scans. Parents trade the cash for discounts at the retailers where they already shop. The Coca-Cola app works the same way. Members scan or enter product codes, and sip & scan icons on the packaging tell them where to start.
Receipt scanning
The shopper photographs the till receipt, and software reads the items that qualify. It works for any product bought at any store, so it suits brands with wide ranges. P&G brandSAVER pays 50 points for every P&G product on a scanned receipt, and 750 points buy $5 off any P&G product. Some brands rent the scanning instead of building it. PepsiCo's Joy program pays Joy Coins, which buy sweepstakes entries, for qualifying Pepsi and Lay's receipts sent through the Fetch app. Fetch says members earn extra on 500+ brands in its app. Our receipt scanning entry covers the mechanics.
Retailer partnerships
Here the brand buys access to a retailer's members instead of signing up its own. The store card or app records the purchase, and the brand funds offers aimed at chosen households. Kroger Precision Marketing sells this as a service built on Kroger's own purchase data. The brand gets reach and a lift report. The retailer keeps the customer record, so the brand rents access and builds no file of its own.
Direct-to-consumer programs
A brand with its own online store can run points on its own orders. e.l.f. Cosmetics' Beauty Squad pays 10 points for every $1 spent, and it adds receipt scanning for e.l.f. bought at other retailers. One member record covers both channels. The e.l.f. Beauty annual report says insights from its site and Beauty Squad shape which products it swaps out of its retail range each year.
Trade and channel programs
In a trade program the member is the shop that stocks the brand. Brewers and bottlers that sell to small stores reward those stores for ordering. AB InBev's BEES platform lets store owners order online and earn points on every purchase, which they trade for merchandise where local rules allow. AB InBev reports BEES live in 29 markets at the end of 2025, with 72% of its revenues captured through B2B digital platforms.
Coca-Cola FEMSA does the same across Latin America. It had 1.6 million customers enrolled in its Premia Juntos+ loyalty program at the end of 2025. Both programs put the reward in the hands of the shop owner. That is the logic of channel incentives, and our B2B loyalty programs guide covers it in depth.
How do the CPG loyalty models compare?
Each model trades shopper effort against what the brand learns. The table sets the five side by side.
| Model | Proof of purchase | What the brand learns | Main fraud exposure | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-pack codes | A code on or inside the pack | Which product a known member bought, and when | Guessed and shared codes | Pampers Rewards |
| Receipt scanning | A photo of the till receipt | Store, date and the full basket | Repeat, edited and fake receipts | P&G brandSAVER |
| Retailer partnership | The retailer's card or app | Lift among chosen households, as the retailer reports it | Sits with the retailer | Kroger Precision Marketing |
| Direct-to-consumer | The brand's own order | Full order history and contact details | Fake accounts and promo abuse | e.l.f. Beauty Squad |
| Trade and channel | The outlet's order | What each shop orders, and how often | Inflated orders and returns | AB InBev BEES |
What does a CPG reward cost per unit?
Published earn rates let a brand price its offer against others in the aisle. Pampers pays $10 for ten diaper scans, so each scan is worth $1.00. With two scans in most boxes, a box earns about $2.00. P&G brandSAVER pays 50 points per product and charges 750 points for $5 off, so each product earns about $0.33.
Neither figure is the real cost. A reward that is never used costs nothing, and Pampers Cash expires six months after it is added. P&G brandSAVER points lapse after a year without earning, once a 30-day notice runs out. The true cost is the value members redeem, plus the cost of running the program.
For illustration, take a brand that sells a $12 box with $4 of gross profit. It pays a $1 reward per box and expects 60% of rewards to be redeemed. The expected reward cost is $0.60 per box, or 15% of the profit on each box. Members also earn on boxes they would have bought anyway. To break even before running costs, members have to buy about 18% more boxes than they would have without the program. Our loyalty program ROI guide shows how to measure that lift against a control group.
What rewards do CPG programs pay?
Most CPG programs pay in discounts on the brand's own products or in chances to win. Pampers Cash buys discounts on Pampers, and P&G brandSAVER's main reward is $5 off any P&G product. A discount brings the member back for the next purchase, so the reward itself drives a sale.
Sweepstakes suit thin margins. Joy Coins buy entries into PepsiCo sweepstakes, and P&G brandSAVER adds an entry for each survey a member takes. The prize pool is set in advance, so the cost stays fixed however many members join. The Coca-Cola app pays in experiences and eGift Cards, while BEES pays shop owners in merchandise.
How do you measure a CPG loyalty program?
Count what members do, then compare it with shoppers outside the program. Track active members and scans per member each month. Track the redemption rate as well, because it sets the true cost of every reward.
The number that decides the budget is incremental units. Hold back a random group of members from an offer, then compare their buying with the group that got it. The gap is what the offer caused. Divide the reward cost by that gap to get the cost of each extra unit sold.
Receipt programs need one more measure: data quality. Track the share of receipts read without manual review and the share rejected as fraud. A sudden rise in rejections after a promotion is the signal to check for leaked codes or a fake receipt template passed around online.
What is first-party data worth to a CPG brand?
The reward buys a purchase tied to a known person. Each model returns a different slice of it. A code says which product a member bought. A receipt adds where and when, plus everything else in the basket. A direct order adds a delivery address and a full history. A trade program shows what each outlet orders.
That record gives the brand uses a retailer report cannot match. The brand can reach its own buyers without paying for access each time. It can test a product or an offer on known households and read the result itself. It can also carry what it learns into range decisions, as e.l.f. does each year.
The data holds its value only while it can be used lawfully. P&G's annual report lists marketing under "increasingly more restrictive privacy requirements" among its risks. Consent taken at sign-up, with a clear value exchange, keeps the record usable. Our first-party data guide covers capture and activation in full.
How do fraudsters attack codes and receipts?
A program that pays for proof of purchase also pays for fake proof. EY's June 2024 paper on loyalty fraud cites current estimates of an annual loss of $1 billion from loyalty program fraud. Codes and receipts fail in different ways.
Code attacks
Bots guess codes at scale. Imperva's 2025 Bad Bot Report lists coupon guessing among bot attacks in food and groceries, a sector that takes in food and beverage brand sites. A code printed on the outside of a pack can be scanned on the shelf. A code anyone can read can be shared online.
The fixes are structural. Pampers puts its code on the inside of the pack, so the pack has to be opened first. Its app runs on one mobile device at a time, and a third phone is blocked until customer service steps in. Long random codes, a cap on scans per day and rate limits per account shut the guessing route.
Receipt attacks
The simplest receipt fraud sends the same receipt twice. Harder cases edit a real receipt or invent one. Fetch's terms of service ban fake and altered receipts. They also ban buying products and then returning them.
Generative AI made fakes cheap. TechCrunch used ChatGPT's new 4o image model in March 2025 to make a fake receipt for an Applebee's in San Francisco. A photo that looks right proves little now. Checks have to test what a faker cannot see.
Good validation compares each receipt with the retailer's real layouts, store numbers, item codes and price ranges. It fingerprints each image to catch repeats and caps receipts per account. It also limits how old a receipt can be. Fetch refuses receipts more than 14 calendar days old. Points on goods that can be returned stay pending until the return window closes. Our loyalty fraud prevention guide covers detection and response.
How should a CPG brand choose its model?
Start with how often the product is bought. A weekly purchase needs a light action, such as a code scan. A pricier product bought less often can carry a receipt step, because each scan earns more. A brand sold mostly through one or two chains gets reach faster from a retailer partnership than from its own app. A brand that sells to small shops through its own sales force already holds the order data a trade program runs on.
Then decide what the brand wants to own. Codes and receipts build a member file the brand controls. Retailer partnerships rent reach for each campaign. Trade programs build the relationship with the outlet. Many brands pair one consumer model with one trade model, because the shopper and the shop are both worth keeping.
How GRAVTY handles CPG loyalty
GRAVTY, Loyalty Juggernaut's loyalty platform, runs CPG programs on both sides of the shelf. GRAVTY powers Premia Juntos+, the B2B loyalty program of Coca-Cola FEMSA. On the shopper side, FEMSA and 20 CPG brands run a CPG and retailer layer inside Spin Premia. Settlement and revenue share for each CPG are built into the platform.
GRAVTY AI-Scan reads receipts with AI for instant rewards and personalized offers in offline retail. It maps each receipt line to a real SKU, and its fraud checks cover duplicate and manipulated receipts. They also catch synthetic receipts that no store ever printed. AI-Trust flags unusual earn and redemption behavior as it happens. GRAVTY runs 500M+ members in production under a 99.99% uptime SLA, so a launch-day surge in scans runs on capacity already proven at that scale.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a CPG loyalty program and a retail loyalty program?
A retail program rewards what a shopper buys at one store chain, while a CPG program rewards one brand bought at many stores. The store's till logs each sale on its own. A CPG brand never sees the sale, so its members have to prove each buy usually with a code or a receipt.
Why did Kellogg's end its loyalty program?
Kellogg's closed Kellogg's Family Rewards at the end of 2022 and moved its offers to each brand. Members could earn until December 31, 2022 and spend their tokens until January 15, 2023. Kellogg's said deals would go on through specially marked packs, with more on social media and TV. Members would still get emails, sent by each brand.
How long should points last in a CPG loyalty program?
Points should last long enough for a member to reach a reward at a normal buying pace. Pampers Cash expires six months after it is added. PepsiCo's Joy Coins expire 12 months after the activity that earned them. P&G brandSAVER points lapse after a year without earning. A short window keeps the liability low, but it can push slower buyers out.
Can a CPG brand reward retailers instead of shoppers?
Yes, and trade programs do exactly that. AB InBev's BEES pays store owners points on the orders they place, which they trade for merchandise where local rules allow. Coca-Cola FEMSA reported 1.6 million customers enrolled in its Premia Juntos+ program at year-end 2025. The reward goes to the shop that decides what sits on its shelf.
Does a CPG brand need its own app to run a loyalty program?
No, because a retailer partnership runs on the store's own card or app and the brand builds nothing for the shopper. PepsiCo's Joy program takes receipts through the Fetch app instead of its own scanner. e.l.f. runs Beauty Squad on its website and adds receipt scanning for purchases made at other stores.
What data does a scanned receipt give a CPG brand?
A scanned receipt tells the brand where and when the member shopped, and it lists every item in the basket with its price. That shows what the member bought alongside the brand and where they shop. A code scan shows only that one product was bought, so receipts carry far more context per scan.