What is a digital loyalty card?
It works exactly like the paper stamp card you already know: ten visits, one reward. The difference is the medium. Instead of a cardboard card that ends up soggy at the bottom of a bag, the card lives in the phone's Wallet — the wallet app already installed on every iPhone (Apple Wallet) and every Android (Google Wallet), the one that already holds boarding passes and concert tickets.
For your customers, there is nothing to download and nothing to remember: the card is always on them, because it is in their phone. For you, the shift runs deeper: every card issued is tied to your customer list. You know who comes back, who stops coming, and you can talk to them directly, by notification, without depending on the Instagram algorithm.
How it actually works
Behind the word "digital" sits a very proven technology: the Wallet pass (the format of boarding passes). Here is the full journey, on the customer side and the merchant side:
- You create your card: logo, colors (or a photo of your shop as the card background), loyalty rule, reward. A guided assistant handles it in under 30 minutes.
- The customer scans your QR code, placed at the counter or in the window. They give their first name, tap "Add to Apple Wallet" (or Google Wallet), and their card — in your name and your colors — is in their phone. Ten seconds, no account.
- At each visit, you scan their card's QR with your phone (or your employee's, via a dedicated staff access). The stamp is added, their card updates on its own, and they receive the notification on their lock screen.
- The reward unlocks automatically at the tenth visit (or the threshold you chose): their card shows it in full, they present it at the counter, and the counter starts again.
Everything else (win-back messages to inactive customers, birthday wishes, scheduled promotions) starts from your dashboard, in a few taps or automatically.
I want my card in their pocket →
Paper, shared loyalty app, or Wallet card?
There are three ways to run loyalty today. The differences that matter for a local business:
| Paper card | Shared loyalty app | Wallet card (Fidelyz) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer effort | Keep the cardboard on you | Download an app, create an account | Scan a QR code, once |
| Lost cards | Most never come back | App uninstalled = customer lost | Never: the card lives in the Wallet |
| Your brand | Your cardboard | One logo among your competitors | Your card, in your name, no neighbors |
| Customer list | None | Belongs to the platform | Yours, one-click CSV export |
| Talking to your customers | Impossible | Through the platform, often paid | Unlimited notifications, included |
| Cost | Printing + lost stamps + zero data | Subscription + commissions, depending on the vendor | Monthly or yearly, all-inclusive. Two free months with yearly billing |
I choose the card in my own name →
How much it costs
With Fidelyz, pricing is deliberately simple: monthly or yearly, everything included and billed in CHF. Yearly billing gives you two free months. Three plans: Card at CHF 490/year or CHF 49/month (Wallet card, rewards, enrollment QR, customer list and essential statistics), Return at CHF 890/year or CHF 89/month (everything in Card, plus visit-pattern detection, follow-ups for approval and recovered-visit measurement), and Network from CHF 1290/year for three locations. They are detailed on the pricing page. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial so you can judge for yourself. No cost per notification, no hardware.
And cardboard is not free either: between printing, the ink stamp and, above all, the regulars lost for lack of a reminder, it often costs more than it looks. We ran the full calculation.
How to choose your solution
Four questions to ask before you sign, whoever the vendor is:
- Do my customers have to download anything? Every download cuts adoption. The native Wallet always wins that match: zero app to download.
- Do I own the customer list, contractually? If the answer is vague, your customers belong to the platform. At Fidelyz, the hand-back is written in black and white, one-click CSV export.
- Is there a hidden commitment? Beware of exit fees and vague terms. Clear monthly and yearly prices, a free trial to judge for yourself and one-click cancellation can be explained in a single line.
- Is it built for my trade? A restaurant does not build loyalty like a hair salon. See our dedicated pages: restaurant & café, hair & barbershop, beauty & salon.
The simplest step is to see it live: book a demo — we'll show you exactly what your customers will experience. And if you are coming from cardboard, we wrote a guide on how to replace the paper stamp card without losing your regulars.