EmCan × Blue Rewards
How EmCan designed its first partner-loyalty integration under a hard identity constraint — and what it cost to ship it fast.
- Users across iOS, Android, web
- 100K+
- Partner integration EmCan shipped
- 1st
- Teams at the table
- 3
Problem
Both apps used a phone number as the only account identifier, and neither let a user change their registered number without contacting support. Linking meant sharing user data between EmCan and Blue Rewards over an API, so whatever identifier the two systems matched on had to be trustworthy on both sides — there was no shared key to fall back on.
Process
Weigh the options
Considered three ways to match an identity: letting a user link accounts even if the registered numbers didn't match (no reliable way to confirm it was the same person), verifying by email instead (neither app used email as an identifier — a new step for everyone), or requiring the same phone number already registered in both apps, shown but not editable.
Choose the constraint
Went with requiring the same registered phone number. It reused what already existed on both sides and added the fewest new steps for most users, at the cost of shutting out anyone whose numbers didn't match.
Ship the flow
From a homepage banner through a partnership-details screen to a short form: enter the Blue Rewards number, accept the terms, and the accounts link.
Accept the trade-off
A user with different registered numbers on the two apps can't self-serve — they have to contact customer support to update their number before they can link accounts. The right call for a first partner integration that needed to ship fast and prove the model, rather than build editable, cross-system identity matching on day one.
Outcome
Blue Rewards shipped as EmCan's first partner-loyalty integration, as part of the program that went on to win Best Loyalty Program in the Retail Fuel Sector (2024) and the Best Loyalty Customer Excellence Award (MENA Refuel Forum). It didn't become a reusable template, though — the next two integrations, Emirates Skywards (2025) and EtihadWE (2025), came with different, stricter identifier rules and needed their own approach each time.
More screens
