Discovering a Secret in Loyalty Technology

The loyalty technology provider industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past 5 years, while the names of companies qualifying as the biggest winners have changed dramatically. Some familiar names have slipped in prominence, others have been acquired, and there is a contingent of players registering remarkable success who we are just getting to know.

I began my career selling loyalty marketing loyalty technology, and the evolution of loyalty technology that I’ve observed has accelerated into a massive shakeup. This is the story of how the market is changing, with insights into the factors essential to establishing leadership into the future.

In 2022, while deep in the fuel and convenience sector, I remember hearing rumors that 7-Eleven had migrated their massive 7Rewards program to a new platform. No press release. No LinkedIn hype. Just a seamless switch. Even insiders were stunned. How could a program of that scale be moved without a ripple?

After some digging, I learned the program was being supported by a US-based company named Loyalty Methods. A few years earlier, I had met founder Emil Sarkissian at a loyalty event for the first time and witnessed a brief demo of the tech platform. What stood out was that he had personally architected the platform, known as ReactorCX (RCX), while serving as both the company’s CEO and CTO. He wasn’t just a founder who could talk tech. He had built it. That stuck with me.

I learned that prior to the launch of ReactorCX around 2018 with their flagship client, 7-Eleven, the company operated more as a service-first loyalty provider, delivering custom integrations and implementations for brands like Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and others. They were never the loudest voice in the room, but the work was real. They had a team of more than 500 and a reputation for building quietly behind the scenes.

After the meeting, I let Emil know that Loyalty Methods was, in my opinion, the best-kept secret in the business. The platform was impressive, the client list was notable, and the people behind this privately held company had created a powerful culture of productivity, innovation, and fun.

Fast forward to today. The flashback fades, the screen in front of me sharpens, and there it is — the 2025 Forrester Landscape, with Loyalty Methods quietly listed among the top players. They were actively powering Tier 1 programs and still managing to stay completely under the radar.

How had I missed this?

A Loyalty Methods Update in 2025

A quick LinkedIn search showed a growing digital presence powered by a unique blend of B2B and B2C tactics, along with a good amount of humor sure to give a chuckle or two. Maybe you’ve seen some of the clever branding around #TrustTheMethod, or the launch of The Loyalty Lab’s Hot Thoughts and The Loyalty Methods Movement. If not, just keep refreshing your feed. You will.

It also revealed a flood of new hires at Loyalty Methods. One name in particular stood out: Christopher Sandstrom, an industry contact of mine who had just stepped in as the company’s new VP of Sales and Marketing. I reached out to get an update on the state of their platform and a deeper understanding of the brands they now serve.

It turns out the migration of 7Rewards was not a one-off.

Since then, the company has executed similarly complex transitions for brands like MGM Resorts, Western Union, BP, Speedway, and TravelCenters of America. All were successfully cutover using Loyalty Methods’ one of a kind SafeSwitch™ approach. And they are not done.

They recently landed a large multi-brand fashion and apparel retailer, a brand long pursued by some of the industry’s most visible providers. While Loyalty Methods may still operate just under the radar, they are now powering headliner programs across Retail, Finance, Fuel, Gaming, Hospitality, and Travel.

The Loyalty Technology Landscape in 2025

Loyalty Technology development is inspired by the marketplace. Traditional business development activities for loyalty technology were centered on platform features and functionality. RFP evaluations were made on a side-by-side comparison of company capability listings. But having a cool feature or functionality is table stakes today, so be cautious thinking that platform bells and whistles will always win the day.

Today brands are focused on totally different objectives, models, and member behaviors from five years ago. And with the promise of Artificial Intelligence so powerful, the question that must be answered in every RFP discover session is “what is your viewpoint on AI and how are you incorporating it into your delivery model?”

The secret sauce of loyalty success in 2025 is built around operational excellence. And as I dug into the Loyalty Methods technology and its delivery model, I learned that they possess a unique ability to execute Zero-Downtime Parallel Migrations, a process the company names SafeSwitch™.

Chris explained how Emil broke it down for him like the movie Edge of Tomorrow. The system replays each scenario like a time loop, learning from every execution, refining with every pass, and fixing issues before they ever reach the public. Just like Tom Cruise’s character perfects every move before the final battle, SafeSwitch gives loyalty programs infinite rehearsal until success is inevitable. They replay every transaction, promotion, and customer interaction again and again until the new environment is perfectly aligned with the original. The brand flips the switch when everything is right, and not a moment before.

A broken launch can cost millions and damage brand equity overnight. I recently changed my view of a “favorite” loyalty program based on operational issues that ruined my brand experience. The ability to test, transition, and go live without the risk of a single-day cutover translates into flexibility, confidence, even competitive advantage as brands can manage risk better than before.

The Competitive Market: Out of the Box or Custom Solutions?

Another important consideration for loyalty technology providers is competition and we often overlook that the “DIY” market is a formidable competitor accounting for 30-40% of the total addressable market at any one time.

While the industry has converged towards common messaging around “All-in-one” suites, bundled CMS and marketing automation tools, no-code campaign builders and generic “out-of-the-box” integration, a significant market segment is seeking flexibility.

Brands must cope with legacy systems, diverse point of sale systems and complicated tech stacks. Offering a standardized solution can mean one more app that must be bolted on to existing technology. And CIOs are hesitant to add one more time consuming and costly project to a never-ending list of tech debt.

I learned that RCX is built for tech-first environments, where internal teams need flexibility and direct access. But it’s also layered with business abstraction, so marketers aren’t stuck waiting on dev tickets. Business users can easily configure promotions through simplified interfaces and technical teams can go deeper: writing code, triggering logic, and extending the platform.

In sum, RCX is built with the wide range of pre-coded functionality that one would expect from a SaaS platform while allowing for the flexibility that over-taxed IT teams require to meet proprietary needs. Imagine a pre-packaged solution that gives the brand team pre-disposed to create their own solution everything they need.

Is Access to Capital the Formula for Success?

A June 2025 article on The Wise Marketer documented the pervasive influence of private equity firms across this industry sector and we listed ten well-known firms whose future growth is heavily influenced by outside investment groups.

If you look at the Forrester Wave™ Loyalty Technology Solutions report in Q1 2023, 4 of the 12 companies listed have private equity investment, two had been acquired by larger firms and 3 were publicly traded firms. That’s seventy-five percent of the list reviewed by Forrester working from a nearly bottomless source of funding.

Access to capital is key to sustaining continuous investment in technology, so the importance of PE’s role in the industry is indisputable. The balancing thought is that PE firms find it hard to support investment in service offerings outside of SaaS models that create predictable and recurring revenue.

That means the professional services areas of loyalty technology providers are at risk when capital sources are led by outside investors, as evidenced by the paucity of strategic advisory services operating today that are unbiased by an owned technology solution. No wonder that more of the strategic advisory work has fallen to the global consulting firms Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey.

In the Loyalty Platforms Landscape Q3 2025 published by Forrester, there are 28 firms in the evaluation. A quick review showed 20 firms that are PE-backed or publicly traded. That is still a healthy 71% portion of the total market set. Only 3 firms on this list are privately held in our estimation.

The Future of Loyalty Technology

The massive shakeup that is taking place among loyalty technology providers warrants continued vigilance if you are a brand executive. Here are key elements to watch.

Architecture:

• Forward-looking loyalty technology should serve as an orchestration layer taking in data from across the enterprise, applying flexible business logic, and activating personalized experiences wherever they are needed. It must also give priority to data security and fraud protection.

CX changes behaviors:

• Loyalty is just one layer of the total customer experience, and the future of loyalty technology must revolve around operational excellence to ensure optimal CX.

AI is here:

• The promise of Artificial Intelligence is powerful, and you must discern between providers talking about a viewpoint on AI and those who are incorporating it into the delivery model.

Capital structure matters:

• Access to capital is important for growth, but providers may sacrifice independence for funding in many cases.

Build vs. Buy:

• The decision to build versus is being redefined as providers like Loyalty Methods offer a packaged solution that behaves like bespoke software.

It may be the secret is out on Loyalty Methods. Really, the entire provider landscape is transforming, and this might be the best example of change that we could find at the moment.

We will be looking for more.