Centralizing loyalty programs across Albanian businesses.
Building the foundation for cashless payments.
The ideal and the realistic. One leads to the other.
A phone-based payment platform that lets every Albanian pay for everything from their phone. Built on Albania's own infrastructure (e-Albania + fiskalizimi). Not dependent on Apple, Google, or any foreign company.
This is the endgame. Not the starting point. Requires EMI license, significant capital, and proven traction.
Centralize loyalty programs from Albanian companies (Neptun, Conad, BKT, etc.) into one app. Users earn rewards across all partners. Companies get cheaper, better loyalty infrastructure.
This builds the user base, merchant relationships, and data needed for Vision A. No banking license required.
Consumers are drowning in loyalty programs they don't use.
One platform that solves both: consumers consolidate, businesses get affordable loyalty infrastructure. 65% of consumers now rely on loyalty programs amid economic pressures.
Loyalty coalitions and aggregators worldwide. A $214.7B market by 2028.
| Program | Region | Users | Model | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payback | Germany + 6 countries | 35M (DE), 110M (India) | Coalition, shared points | Thriving 25 yrs |
| OK Cashbag | South Korea | 38M, 41K partners | Coalition, multi-sector | Active |
| The1 | Thailand | 17M (25% of population) | Coalition, 1,000+ brands | Active |
| T-Point/V-Point | Japan | 48% of consumers | Coalition + payments | Active |
| Dotz | Brazil | 50M registered | Coalition, publicly listed | Active |
| Stocard | Germany (global) | 48M across 25 markets | Card aggregator, no permission | Shutting down |
| Plenti | USA | N/A | Coalition (AmEx) | Dead 2018 |
| Nectar | UK | 16.8M peak | Coalition → single-brand | Coalition dead |
| Air Miles | Canada | 9.7M accounts | Coalition | Being replaced 2026 |
| Flybuys NZ | New Zealand | 28 years | Coalition | Shut down 2024 |
South Korea, Japan, Thailand, India, Brazil — all have successful coalitions with tens of millions of users. These are markets where loyalty tech is still expensive relative to market size.
US, UK, Canada, NZ — coalitions are collapsing. Tech got cheap enough for big companies to run their own. But this does NOT apply to small markets like Albania where businesses can't afford DIY.
The specific conditions that make loyalty coalitions work.
Building loyalty tech costs $50K-550K. When 10 companies share one platform, each pays a fraction. This is the core economic argument.
Source: WPLoyalty 2026 Cost Analysis
"Earn at Conad, spend at Neptun" is something no single company can offer alone. This makes the coalition program more attractive to consumers than any individual program.
One airline saw 40% higher redemption and 20% higher satisfaction after integrating coalition partners.
Payback's formula: only ONE company per category. The supermarket, the gas station, the electronics store. This creates:
The platform sees shopping behavior across all sectors. A cafe learns that their customers also shop at a specific supermarket. No single company can get this alone. But raw data is never shared between partners — only anonymized insights.
Every new member who joins through ANY partner becomes available to ALL partners. A user who signs up at the supermarket now sees offers from the cafe, the gas station, the bookstore. Customer acquisition cost is spread across the entire network.
Five failure patterns to avoid. Every dead coalition died the same way.
Once one major partner leaves, others follow. Plenti: AT&T left Oct 2017 → Macy's left Feb 2018 → 5 more left Jan 2018 → Dead Jul 2018. Seven months from first departure to shutdown.
Large partners want first-party customer data for personalization, but data sits with the coalition operator. This tension grows as partners get more sophisticated. Nectar died partly because Sainsbury's wanted the data for itself.
Cloud SaaS made standalone programs affordable, eliminating the cost-sharing argument. Flybuys NZ CEO: "businesses now have greater access to technology... the Flybuys model has run its course." But this only applies where businesses CAN afford their own tech.
Plenti: Half of US consumers surveyed weren't even familiar with it. Low-value currency + complex earn/redeem rules = disengagement. The consumer must understand and feel the value immediately.
Air Miles Canada: Introduced 5-year points expiration in 2011. Massive backlash in 2016 as deadline approached. Triggered partner departures, bankruptcy of parent company, and replacement of entire program.
There is no loyalty aggregator or coalition in Albania. Zero competition.
...but not Albania. The Western Balkans is described as "largely underserved by formal coalition loyalty programs." Most markets rely on individual brand programs or have nothing at all.
Individual companies (Neptun, Conad, BKT) have basic loyalty programs, but nobody aggregates them.
Albania first. Then Kosovo (same language, similar market). Then expand across Western Balkans. Payback started in Germany and expanded to 6 countries. The playbook exists.
Albania has something no other loyalty platform in the world has: state-verified receipts.
Since September 2021, every single receipt in Albania has a QR code that is verified by the tax authority in real-time. Each receipt contains:
This means: receipt verification is instant, free, and built into the law.
Ibotta and Fetch Rewards in the US have no universal receipt verification. They rely on OCR (error-prone), manual review, and brand partnerships. Fetch's early team literally typed receipts by hand until 2 AM for six weeks.
Albania's fiskalizimi system gives us better verification infrastructure than a $2.7B US company has.
Albania's shadow economy is 30-50% of GDP. Many consumers don't demand receipts. A platform that rewards scanning receipts directly supports tax compliance.
PM Rama's cashless 2030 goal + our platform = aligned interests. The government WANTS what we're building.
fature.al has a documented REST API for fiscal receipt data. QR codes contain tatime.gov.al verification URLs. Multiple integration paths available.
Before writing a single line of code, we prove the idea works.
Talk to 10 business owners. Not a sales pitch. A conversation.
Questions to ask:
The math that makes this work for merchants, users, and the platform.
Merchant spends 50 LEK (fee + discount) to earn 200 LEK in extra revenue. Clear positive ROI.
Not life-changing money, but free money for zero effort. The consolidation convenience is the real hook.
Not a salary yet. But at 100 merchants: ~EUR 2,200/month. At 300: ~EUR 6,500/month.
The government is building the infrastructure for us.
No cashback aggregator exists in Albania. Zero. The market is completely empty. Global players don't operate here.
Albania's informal economy is 30-50% of GDP. Consumers don't always demand receipts. A platform that rewards scanning receipts directly supports tax compliance. This is the kind of thing that gets government support.
Less legacy infrastructure to replace. Small population moves faster. Kenya skipped credit cards with M-Pesa. Albania can skip the Visa/Mastercard era.
Strengths to leverage and challenges to address.
Germany, 1998. Three employees. Zero venture capital. Now worth EUR 500M.
Albania has 2-3 major players per category. Category exclusivity is achievable. Companies share costs. And the fiskalizimi system provides free receipt verification that Payback never had.
70 million users. $31M funding. No merchant permission needed.
Three university students built an app that digitized existing physical loyalty cards. Users scanned their Conad card, Neptun card, BKT card into the app. No merchant partnership required.
The app was useful from day one because it replaced the stack of cards in your wallet. Merchants didn't need to know it existed.
Combine Stocard's approach with Payback's model:
What worked, what failed, and what almost killed them.
Southeast Asia, 2014
Pure cashback, grew to 55M users across 13 markets. $332M raised. IPO planned.
Almost died: Tried BNPL payments in 2021. Lost money fast. Fired 24% of staff. CEO apologized publicly. Survived by going back to basics.
Lesson: Don't try to become a fintech too early.
US, 2011. IPO'd 2024 at $2.7B
Receipt scanning cashback. Pay-per-sale model eliminated risk for brands.
Key pivot in 2017: stopped being a consumer app, became B2B marketing infrastructure. That's what made them worth billions.
Lesson: The consumer app is the entry point. The B2B platform is the real business.
UK, 2002. Coalition loyalty program.
Launched with half of UK households. Peaked at 16.8M members.
What killed it: Partners left. As loyalty tech got cheaper, companies ran their own programs. Value collapsed from GBP 368M to GBP 60M. 84% destruction.
Lesson: Lock in long-term exclusive contracts from day one.
How a billion people stopped using cash. And what Albania can learn.
Fiskalizimi QR codes are already on every receipt. e-Albania provides digital identity. The infrastructure exists. What's missing is the consumer-facing app that makes it all useful.
Outsourced loyalty infrastructure for Albanian businesses.
Companies don't need their own apps, loyalty cards, or tech. They join our platform and configure their offers through a simple dashboard.
Replace every loyalty card, punch card, and points system with one app. Scan any receipt from any partner. Never miss a reward.
The complete user and merchant flow.
Why would Neptun, Conad, or BKT join instead of doing their own thing?
"How many of your customers come back within a week? Maybe 30%?
We make them come back by giving them a reason — a discount on their next visit, automatically, through the fiscal receipt you already hand them.
You don't need anything new — no hardware, no training. Just a card on your counter and one sentence from your staff.
3 months free. If it doesn't work, remove the card."
Nectar died because partners left. From the start: 3 months free, then 3-year exclusive commitment. The exclusivity IS the value — protect it contractually.
Four phases. From validation to vision.
| Phase | Timeline | Capital | What We Do | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0: Validate | Months 1-2 | EUR 0 | Talk to 5-10 companies. Test fiskalizimi API. Research existing loyalty cards. | Go / No-go decision |
| 1: Stocard Hack | Months 2-6 | EUR 5-15K | Digitize existing loyalty cards. Add receipt scanning. Build user base without merchant permission. | 5,000 users |
| 2: Payback Model | Months 6-12 | EUR 5-15K | Approach companies with user data. Exclusive partnerships. Per-redemption fees. | 20,000 users, 30 merchants |
| 3: Real Money | Months 12-24 | EUR 50-100K | Partner with EasyPay/Paysera. Add withdrawals. Real cashback. | 50,000+ users |
| 4: Payments | Year 2+ | EUR 500K+ | Add payment capability. The Albanian Alipay vision. External investment needed. | The PM pitch |
If companies say no → stop. If fiskalizimi API doesn't work → find alternative. Don't write code before validation.
The payment vision only makes sense with 50K+ users and proven merchant relationships. Build first, pitch the PM later — with real data.
Who to partner with, who to watch, who to avoid.
| Entity | What They Are | Relevance to Us |
|---|---|---|
| EasyPay | First open banking licensee. EMI since 2010. | Key partner for Phase 3 money movement. Already has the license we'd need. |
| Paysera Albania | EMI licensed since 2021. "Fintech of the Year." | Alternative partner if EasyPay doesn't work out. |
| Bank of Albania | Regulator. Licenses EMI/PI under Law 55/2020. | Regulator — understand their requirements before Phase 3. |
| tatime.gov.al | Tax authority. Runs fiskalizimi. | Infrastructure — receipt verification backbone. |
| fature.al | Third-party fiscalization API provider. | Technical integration point. Has documented REST API. |
| e-Albania | National digital identity platform. | Future KYC integration for Phase 3-4. |
| PayLink | National card payment/clearing operator. | Infrastructure layer. Certified by Visa, MasterCard, AmEx. |
What could kill this, and how to prevent it.
Validate in Phase 0. If 8 out of 10 say no, reconsider or pivot. Don't build first.
Long-term exclusive contracts (3+ years) from day one. Make switching costs high. Build dependency.
Move fast. Build traction before talking to politicians. First-mover advantage matters in a small market.
First-claim-only per NIVF. For loyalty rewards (not real money), the risk is low. Tighten in later phases.
Use fature.al third-party API. Or parse QR code data directly (contains a tatime.gov.al verification URL).
Focus on Tirana first (~800K people). Prove unit economics. Expand to other cities only when Tirana works.
What we do this week and this month.
Will at least 3 out of 5 companies say "yes, I'd try this"? Everything else is engineering. This is a sales question.