Customer sign-up process

Loyalty sign-up works differently depending on whether you are using your loyalty provider as your identity provider or not.

How loyalty sign-up works

A customer creates an Instacart account using their phone number or email. Instacart creates a loyalty account number which you add to your customer's profile. When the customer tries to sign up or sign in to a retailer's loyalty account, their account details are retrieved from their profile. The customer is asked to enter a verification code, which Instacart uses to trigger a one-time password (OTP) for identity verification. After verification, Instacart makes an API call to the retailer to validate the loyalty account or create a new one. The retailer responds with a message confirming whether the process was successful.

The following image shows the data flow:

note

Instacart does not store any retailer-specific loyalty account information or personally identifiable information (PII) and has no visibility into customer data beyond what is linked to the Instacart profile. The streamlined data flow includes customer sign-up on Instacart, retrieving necessary information, verifying identity through a one-time password (OTP), and an API call to the retailer to validate and create the loyalty account.

Access the loyalty program on your storefront

When the customer clicks a link in the header or promotional banner, the following occurs:

1. A loyalty program page appears with the customer's phone number which is linked to their account. A loyalty program page is an internal page that describes the program and includes a way to sign up for a loyalty account with a phone number.

   The following image shows an example of a loyalty program page:

2. A verification code is sent by text to the customer. The flow is similar for both a new sign up and linking an existing loyalty account. If the code is correct, the customer account and loyalty accounts are linked. Otherwise, the customer sees an error.

3. The customer shops and adds items with loyalty pricing to their cart. They see that the original price is crossed out and the loyalty-based discount price is shown above it. This is the same treatment used for other types of discounts. Loyalty savings are included in the discount subtotal.