Loyalty Register glossary
SSO
Single sign-on: a login method that lets a person sign in once and use several connected sites or apps without entering credentials again.
SSO, short for single sign-on, means logging in once and then using several connected websites or apps without entering a password again. NIST defines it as an authentication process in which one account and its authenticators give seamless access to multiple applications, usually through a federation protocol. One system, the identity provider, checks who the person is and vouches for them to the others. In loyalty programs SSO appears in two places: for members moving between a brand’s sites, apps and partners, and for staff signing in to the loyalty platform’s admin tools.
Updated · By Loyalty Register Editorial TeamRelated terms
How does SSO work?
When a person opens a connected site, it redirects them to the identity provider. If they are already signed in there, the identity provider sends back a signed confirmation of who they are, and the site lets them in. The site never sees the password. Standard protocols handle the exchange: SAML is common for company logins, and OpenID Connect, an authentication protocol built on the OAuth 2.0 framework, is common for consumer apps. A site that supports them can connect to an identity provider without building its own login system. “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Apple” is a familiar consumer form of SSO, often called social login.
Why does SSO matter for members?
Every extra login is a point where members give up. A member who has to create a new account to use a partner’s booking site or a sister brand’s app may not bother, and the program loses that activity. With SSO across a group of brands, one member account can follow the customer, which also helps the program keep one profile instead of several duplicates, a precondition for a single customer view. The design needs care: the program must still pass a stable member ID to each site, so it knows which partner or brand produced each purchase.
Why does SSO matter for staff?
The loyalty platform’s admin console can issue points, change balances and show personal data. Connecting it to the company’s identity provider means staff use their corporate login, with the company’s password rules and multi-factor authentication, and lose access in one place when they leave. Paired with SCIM provisioning, it keeps the list of people with access accurate. Ask for both when you evaluate platform vendors.
What are the risks of SSO?
SSO concentrates risk: if a member’s single account is taken over, every connected service is exposed, including their points. Require multi-factor authentication or step-up checks for sensitive actions such as redeeming, transferring points or changing an email address. Check how sessions expire on shared devices. Make sure members can still be identified at checkout if the identity provider is down. And be clear, in the privacy notice and consent flows, about which brands and partners share the login and what data passes between them.