How a digital loyalty card works with no app
The single biggest reason loyalty schemes fail is that joining them costs the customer more than the reward is worth. Removing the install step removes almost all of that cost, and it turns out you can do it without giving up much at all.
Start your free trial →The camera is the app
Every phone sold in the last decade reads QR codes from the normal camera, with no separate scanner and no install. That is the whole client side — the customer points, a web page opens, the stamp is already credited, and there was never a decision to make.
No account means nothing to abandon
Sign-up forms are where schemes lose people, because an email address and a password are a real cost paid before any benefit. Here the card exists from the first scan with no account at all, so there is no form for anyone to abandon halfway.
The shop installs nothing either
The kiosk is a web page on a screen you already own — a tablet, a monitor, an old laptop. Nothing is installed on your side, nothing integrates with your till, and there is no hardware to buy, so the whole scheme can be running before the end of a shift.
Why the install step is fatal
Think about what you are asking for. A customer buying a €3 coffee is offered a free one after ten visits — about €3 of value, delivered weeks from now, with some probability they will not get there at all.
Against that, an app install costs them: opening a store, searching your name, downloading, creating an account, verifying an email, and dismissing a notification prompt. That is several minutes of real effort for a maybe-€3 payoff, decided in the ten seconds they are standing at your counter.
Most people, quite rationally, say no. The scheme is not badly designed; it is just priced wrong.
What replaces it
The whole customer side is:
- Point the phone camera at the screen by the till.
- Tap the notification that appears.
- The stamp card opens, already showing one more stamp.
There is no step four. No account is created, no email is asked for, and nothing is installed. The card is remembered on that phone, so the next visit is a single scan again.
What you give up
Being straight about the trade-offs:
- No push notifications. You cannot message customers on their lock screen. There is no way around this without an install.
- Device-bound by default. A customer who clears their browser or changes phone starts over, unless they linked an account.
Both are real. The reason most local businesses take the trade anyway is that notifications only reach people who installed the app, and if the install rate is 5%, a notification channel to 5% of customers is worth less than a stamp card that 60% of them actually use.
The upgrade path, in the right order
The interesting part is that customers can opt into the durable version after they have seen the value. Any customer who wants their stamps to outlive the device links a Google, Facebook or email account with one tap, from their own screen, and their existing stamps move across.
That is the same account step an app demands — just moved to after the benefit instead of before it, and made optional. Nobody is ever blocked from earning a stamp by refusing it.
The questions everyone asks
Where are the stamps stored if there is no account?
On the customer's own device, remembered for a year. That is what makes the no-account version possible. If they want the stamps to survive a new phone or a cleared browser, they can link a Google, Facebook or email account in one tap from their own screen — always optional.
What is the catch compared to an app?
Two things, and they are worth knowing. You cannot send push notifications, and stamps live on one device until the customer chooses to link an account. In exchange, a far larger share of your customers actually take part, which for most local businesses is the better trade.
Do they need to download anything the first time?
No, and that is the entire point. The QR code opens a normal web page in whatever browser their phone already has, in the same way as a restaurant menu. There is no install prompt, no app store and no permission dialog anywhere in the flow.
Does it work on both iPhone and Android?
Yes, along with anything else that has a camera and a browser. Because there is no app, there is no minimum OS version, no store approval and no device that quietly stops being supported — if the phone can open a web page, the stamp card works.
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Unlimited stamps · Unlimited customers · No per-scan fees
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