PIING
Reading Getting startedWhat is Piing?
Getting started
- What is Piing?
- Install the Shopify app
- Choose your setup
- Set up Retail ID
- Your first check-in
- Key terms glossary
In this guide
- The customer journey
- What the Wallet pass can carry
- What reaches the rest of the stack
- Where Piing runs
- Data boundary
- Next steps
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Getting started 1 / 6
What is Piing?
How Piing recognises a customer in store, keeps their Wallet pass useful, and measures what happens after the visit.
Piing is the in-store recognition and Wallet layer for retail. A customer identifies themselves when they arrive, Piing records the known visit, and the systems the retailer already uses receive the context needed to act on it.
Piing does not replace the commerce platform, loyalty programme or CRM. Shopify remains the customer and order record. The loyalty platform keeps owning points, tiers and rewards. The CRM keeps owning journeys. Piing adds the physical visit, a useful Apple or Google Wallet pass, and the link between that visit and the outcome that follows.
The customer journey
- A customer scans a pass at a kiosk, taps a supported pass or card, or scans the store's QR sign to sign in on their own phone. Staff can also scan the pass or find and check in the customer in Shopify POS.
- Piing resolves the identifier and customer context needed for that route.
- The visit is recorded with its store, time, source and customer reference.
- Staff see the customer's profile and selected membership details. On a kiosk, the customer can see their points, tier and rewards when those fields are enabled and available. The pass and connected destinations receive the relevant updates.
- Your CRM can use the visit in a configured follow-up. If an attributed order follows, Piing records a purchase outcome. Piing can also send a no-purchase event after a separately configured window; without a separate setting, that window follows purchase attribution.
The four recognition routes all create the same underlying customer visit, so reporting and downstream workflows do not depend on which surface the store used.
Follow-up timing starts at check-in, not detected departure. For a worked example, see a two-hour post-visit flow. Reading a loyalty balance does not automatically award points: supported visit rewards must be enabled separately.
What the Wallet pass can carry
The pass is more than an identity card. Depending on the merchant's programme and connected systems, it can show:
- Loyalty points and tier from LoyaltyLion, Rivo, Yotpo or Antavo.
- Shopify store credit.
- A merchant-controlled segment or tier.
- Visit count, recent store and membership status.
- A QR code used for recognition at the kiosk or till.
Piing can also send merchant-configured Wallet messages for moments such as pass issuance, a completed check-in, a visit milestone or a saved item changing price. Issuing a pass does not confirm that it has been installed; Wallet messages require an installed pass and the appropriate device settings. Available triggers depend on the connected setup.
What reaches the rest of the stack
Piing can send structured visit and outcome events to Klaviyo, Attentive, Ometria, HubSpot and signed webhook endpoints. Wishlist context can come from Swym, Wishlist King or supported customer metafields. The exact event catalogue includes the original tap or scan, the completed check-in, Wallet activity, loyalty activity and separate purchase or no-purchase outcomes.
Visit context can also be written to Shopify customer metafields, including visit totals, recent location and Wallet status. Shopify Flow, customer segments and other metafield-aware tools can use those values.
Where Piing runs
Piing runs natively as a Shopify app with a Shopify POS extension. Retail ID brings the same recognition, Wallet and visit-event model to non-Shopify and bespoke retail stacks. Piing: Intelligence and Piing: Alerts are separate Shopify-only apps.
Data boundary
The merchant remains controller of its customer data and the commerce platform remains the primary customer record. Piing processes the identifiers, customer context and events required for the features the merchant enables, stores the operational records needed to run the service, and writes selected outputs back to the merchant's systems. Payment card details and biometric profiles are not part of the recognition flow. See Security for the full boundary.
Next steps
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Install the Shopify app
Arrange Piing access, approve installation in Shopify and test the Wallet or in-store setup you choose.
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