Loyalty app or Wallet card?
An app asks for a download and an account. A Wallet card, a scan. Here’s what that changes for your customers, and for you.
Published September 30, 2026 · 4 min read
Big chains have their own app: ordering, payment, points, all in one place. For a café or a salon, the question is simpler: how many customers will go as far as downloading it?
A Wallet card lives in Apple Wallet on iPhone and in Google Wallet on Android. The customer scans a code at the counter, taps “Add”, and that’s it.
- 59.0% → 44.1%
- Share of members who mainly use a loyalty app, from 2025 to 2026.
- 34.7% → 42.4%
- Share of members who mainly use a digital card on their phone, from 2025 to 2026.
Antavo, Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026(opens in a new tab). Figure published by a company that sells loyalty software.
What changes for your customers
| Point | App | Wallet card |
|---|---|---|
| To start | AppFind the app, download it, create an account. | Wallet cardScan a code, tap “Add”. |
| Password | AppOne more to remember. | Wallet cardNone. |
| Space on the phone | AppOne more app, for a single business. | Wallet cardOne card among others, in an app that’s already there. |
| Reminders | AppNotifications, if the customer allowed them. | Wallet cardA notice appears when the card changes, for example on a new stamp. |
| Lock screen | AppOnly through a notification. | Wallet cardOn iPhone, the card can be suggested near the business, if the customer allowed it. |
| At the counter | AppOpen the app, sign in, find the code. | Wallet cardOpen Wallet: the code is ready. |
What changes for you
No app to keep alive
No store listing, no update to publish: Apple and Google display the card.
More customers signed up at the counter
A scan fits in the time of a payment. A download rarely does.
The same data
Sign-ups, visits, return visits and promos with consent, just like an app, with nothing to install.
What suits your business
An app makes sense if…
- your customers order and pay online with you;
- you have the team to keep it alive and up to date;
- your customers already open it several times a week.
The Wallet card suits you if…
- your customers come to the counter, without online ordering;
- you want to sign them up in seconds, while they pay;
- you’d rather have nothing to maintain.
Sources
- Antavo, Global Customer Loyalty Report 2026(opens in a new tab)accessed September 30, 2026. Figure published by a company that sells loyalty software.
- Apple, Wallet documentation: pass field content (changeMessage key)(opens in a new tab)accessed September 30, 2026.
- Apple, iPhone User Guide: use passes in Wallet(opens in a new tab)accessed September 30, 2026.
- Google, Google Wallet documentation: loyalty cards(opens in a new tab)accessed September 30, 2026.
Try the card on your own phone.
A 15-minute demo by video call. No app to download, of course.