What your store sees when a member checks in (and what it never sees)

A man in Kelowna has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit over a data breach at More Rewards, the loyalty program behind Save-On-Foods, according to Castanet. The suit hasn't been certified and its claims are unproven. Every name and email address a store collects is another record it has to protect. A member discount can work with a simple membership check instead.

The list you don't want to hold

Picture a snack bar beside the Eastside FC field that wants to give the club's families 10% off. The easy way is a sign-up sheet, an email list, maybe a spreadsheet shared with the club. That list grows for years. Nobody remembers to delete old entries. Then one day it leaks, and it's the store's name in the breach notice, not just the club's.

A member discount doesn't need a list like that. It just needs a way to ask "is this person a member?" and get a yes or no, right at the counter.

What the Scanner shows at the counter

That's what the Bothy Scanner does. It's a web page, not a gadget, so it runs on any phone, tablet or laptop the store already has. Nothing to buy or install.

When a member shows their pass, staff see one of three things: recognized with a discount, recognized with no perk, or not recognized. That's it. When an Eastside FC parent holds up their pass, the screen says "10% off. Recognized member. Apply the discount at checkout." Staff take 10% off and hand over the popcorn. They never see a wallet, a balance or anything else.

What you see, and what you never see

At the end of the month, the snack bar's owner opens the store dashboard and sees visits by community: how many Eastside FC members came in, and the discount they got. The membership check shares no names, emails or contact details with the store.

There's no public directory either. Only the Eastside FC volunteer who issued the passes keeps a member list, and it lives in the club's dashboard, not yours. See what this looks like for stores before you set anything up.

Setting it up without building a mailing list

Online, Shopify stores give the member price at checkout and at the register, and SkyeWoo puts it right on the product in WooCommerce. Either way there's no coupon code to leak onto a deal site. Your checkout still collects what it always has for an order; the membership check adds nothing to it. At the counter, the Scanner does the same job in person.

Setting up is free: sign up with your email, add your store, and choose which communities you welcome and what each one gets. No card until you switch it on. Billing starts when you pick a plan. Starter is $49 a month or $490 a year and covers 500 member visits a month. See Growth, Pro and Scale on the pricing page.

The same pass, everywhere a member shows up

A member's pass works the same way whether they're checking a members-only page, buying online, or standing at your counter. Underneath, each check is a signed yes or no from the condition-based access API Skye Meta builds on. You never see more than that, and that's the point.

Want the longer version of how recognition works? Read how it works.