Plastic card or Apple Wallet loyalty card: 7 criteria

Plastic card, or a digital loyalty card that drops into Apple Wallet via QR code? The decision doesn't come down to one thing. It depends on how the card reaches your customer, what happens when it gets lost and what you can measure. Check the seven criteria below against your own business and the answer becomes clear.

1. How the card reaches the customer

With a plastic card, the customer comes to the counter, takes a card and puts it in their wallet. When you run out, you reprint. With a digital card, the customer scans the QR code on the table or at the counter with their phone camera and the card is added to Apple Wallet. It never runs out, and you change the card type and goal in the dashboard.

2. Lost and forgotten cards

When a customer leaves their plastic card at home, no stamp gets added and that visit is lost. A digital card is there as long as their phone is. To be fair, some customers will turn up without their phone; for them, the QR code at the counter lets them create the card the same day.

3. Costs

Plastic cards come with printing, distribution and reprinting costs. The exact amount depends on quantity and printer, so I'm not putting a number here. Get your own quote and multiply by your yearly volume. On the digital side, the only things you print are the QR table card and poster, and both are included in the 7-day free trial. For ongoing costs, see the pricing section.

4. Customer data

Plastic cards are usually anonymous: you don't know who is on which visit, you only see stamps. In the digital flow, the customer appears in your list when they save the card to Apple Wallet, and no payment card details are collected. Consent for marketing messages and data processing under GDPR are handled separately.

5. Tracking

If you count stamps in a notebook by the till, you can't see which customers come back. The dashboard shows today's stamps, saved cards and the share of returning customers on one screen, and staff tracking shows who added each stamp.

6. Campaigns and automation

With plastic cards, a campaign means giving verbal instructions to whoever is at the till. With a digital card, you can set up an automated campaign for customers who haven't visited in, say, 60 days. It's not a one-off: it runs whenever the condition is met.

7. Compliance and support

If your loyalty program processes personal data, GDPR applies, and sending marketing emails or push messages requires your customers' consent. Because the digital flow collects only limited data, your compliance paperwork stays simple. Support matters too for a small business: when you get stuck during setup, you want a quick answer.

Quick decision list

• If you don't need a customer list and don't mind reprinting cards, a plastic stamp card does the job.
• If you want to measure repeat visits, see customers in a list and run campaigns, the digital card wins.
• You can also use both: introduce the QR card to your plastic-card customers with the table card at the counter.

Want to try it in your own business? 7 days free: start at https://dokun.io/en/signup and compare plans at https://dokun.io/en#pricing. What happens in the first week of a loyalty program and which numbers to watch in the dashboard are covered on the blog: https://dokun.io/en/blog