3 Steps to Modernize Your Consumer Engagement Tech Stack

This article is brought to you by PAR Technology.

A great in-store experience alone no longer meets expectations for many consumers. Shoppers now demand seamless digital interactions, pushing retailers toward a unified consumer engagement stack that connects the full customer journey, according to Spencer Bean, director of platform solutions and insights at PAR Technology. “A retailer’s programs and operations are strongest as a unified system. When they have a single, connected platform that enables their loyalty program, their mobile payments, their tobacco loyalty and all their other digital experiences, it leads to a lot more measurable and meaningful results,” Bean said.

Fragmented engagement tech stacks create friction for both retailers and consumers. For retailers managing multiple vendors, accountability can quickly become unclear. When issues arise, it’s often unclear who owns the fix, delaying resolution and negatively impacting the customer experience, Bean said.

For consumers, fragmentation shows up as frustrating user flows—like clicking to age verify to see 21+ offers only to be redirected to a third-party form where already-known customer data is not prefilled. When done well, a consolidated tech stack eliminates those handoffs, creating a seamless digital experience that drives stronger loyalty adoption, engagement and overall program performance.

Tobacco loyalty programs are a common example of how fragmented technology creates friction, Bean said. The user flow often spans multiple systems—discounts may be delivered through one platform, while tobacco transaction (t-log) data and loyalty activity are tracked elsewhere and surfaced through a mobile app. Without a unified stack, those data handoffs break down, leading to incomplete reporting, missed reimbursements and lost revenue for retailers—along with a disjointed experience for consumers.

“When we cover all aspects of the customer tobacco journey, we can see when a consumer purchases tobacco a set number of times, and we can automatically mark them as age verified, as well as feed them personalized offers to incentivize them to add more to their basket or trial new products,” Bean said. “We’ve seen retailers grow their age verified addressable audience base by over 160% overnight just by enabling that feature, which also dramatically increases the volume of personalized offers that can be retrieved via APIs from the digital programs that tobacco manufacturers offer.”

For retailers that are looking to consolidate their tech stack, “not everything needs to be modernized or consolidated at once,” Bean noted. Here are three things he suggested retailers consider before consolidating their tech.

1. Decide what business outcomes matter the most to you. The answer will determine the starting point in the consolidation process, Bean said. For example, some operators may want to get more value from their CPG partnerships and retail media network, while others may be more focused on converting customers from the forecourt.

2. Evaluate your data stack. “Are there a lot of data silos where loyalty data is stored completely separate from payment data, which is stored completely separate from tobacco scan data? How is the data environment limiting retailers?” Bean asked, noting that understanding their limits is a prerequisite to understanding how operators can consolidate their tech, ideally with a single partner.

3. Look for the pain points that already exist. “Is it your app provider? Is it your loyalty engine? Is it the mobile payments in your app? Knowing the answer helps you understand where to begin in your consolidation journey,” Bean said.

This is part one of a two-part series brought to you by PAR Technology. Learn more about building a practical AI setup in part two.

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