Apple Wallet loyalty card creator: how passes work and how to make yours

What an Apple Wallet loyalty card actually is

Any Apple Wallet loyalty card creator produces the same thing underneath: a "pass". It's a file the customer keeps in the Wallet app on their iPhone, next to boarding passes, event tickets and payment cards. It isn't an app or a website: it's an object that lives on the phone itself.

Apple groups passes into styles. The one used for loyalty is the store card. According to Apple's documentation on creating a store card pass, this style is meant for discount cards, gift cards and store loyalty cards, and it can show points, balance, terms and other useful details.

A store card can carry:

• A logo and a strip image (banner) across the card.
• Fields with what matters: stamps, points, balance or tier. Only a few fit on the front; long text gets cut off.
• A barcode (QR or other formats) your staff scan at the till.
• A back side with as much text as you need: terms, opening hours, contact details.

How your customer sees it on their iPhone

For the customer, the experience is very simple, and that's why it works.

Saving it

The customer scans the QR on your poster with the camera, fills in the minimum and taps Add. Apple's iPhone User Guide on adding and using passes explains the different ways to add passes to Wallet, including from Safari, an email or a code.

Using it at the till

They open Wallet (or double-click the side button, depending on their settings), show the card and your staff scan the code. No digging in a bag, no reciting a phone number.

Seeing it update

When you add a stamp, the pass changes on their phone. Apple calls this automatic updates, and customers can switch them on or off in each pass's details. When a field changes, the iPhone can show a lock-screen notification ("1 more stamp to your free coffee").

Showing up nearby

A pass can include relevant locations. According to Apple's guide on showing a pass on the Lock Screen, the system can surface a pass when the customer is somewhere specific, like a gym membership card at the gym. A pass supports up to 10 relevant locations. For a coffee shop, that means the card can pop up on the lock screen as someone walks past.

What it takes technically to build a pass

If you're curious (or have a developer friend with time on their hands), this is what Apple requires to issue passes. It's all in the Wallet developer documentation.

1. An Apple Developer account (paid) to access certificates.
2. A Pass Type ID, in a format like "pass.com.yourshop.loyalty". Each customer gets their own pass with its own serial number.
3. A signing certificate for that identifier, generated in Apple's portal from a certificate signing request (CSR).
4. Assemble the pass: a pass.json file with the data, images at several resolutions, a manifest with the hash of each file, and a digital signature. It's all zipped and renamed to .pkpass. Apple details it in Building a Pass.
5. An update web service. For the pass to change when you add a stamp, you need an HTTPS server that registers devices, sends a push through Apple's servers and delivers the new version of the pass. It's covered in Adding a Web Service to Update Passes.

Then there's what the docs don't mention: a way for your staff to scan and add stamps, a customer database that respects privacy law, renewing the certificate when it expires, and doing it all again for Android with Google Wallet, which works differently.

Why not build it yourself

You can, and for a large chain with developers it might make sense. For a local business, it rarely pays off:

The time you'd spend wrestling with signatures and servers is better spent on what actually brings customers back: a good reward and staff who mention the card.

How to get your Apple Wallet card with Stampaz

Here's how it goes live in about 5 minutes:

1. Choose the card type: stamps, points, tiered discount, cashback, gift card or membership. All are on every plan.
2. Customize the design: logo, background photo, colors, labels and, if you like, stamps with your own icon.
3. Print the QR poster Stampaz generates and put it by the till.
4. Scan with any phone: your staff don't need accounts or apps.

The same card saves to Apple Wallet on iPhone, to Google Wallet on Android and, for anyone using neither, works as a web card. You don't do anything different for each.

From the dashboard you can also send push notifications to the lock screen (4 campaigns a month on Local, unlimited on Pro and Chain), set up automations for birthdays, welcomes or "we miss you" (Pro and Chain) and turn on location reminders near your shop (Pro and Chain).

For the full walkthrough, from choosing the reward to what to say at the counter, see how to create a loyalty card for your business.

Design best practices for Wallet

Your card competes with ten others in the customer's wallet. These details make the difference:

The strip image

• Use a simple landscape photo of your product or shop, with no text on it.
• Wallet places information over it, so avoid busy backgrounds where stamps or points will sit.
• Note that the strip image isn't shown on Apple Watch, according to Apple's own store card guide. What matters has to be in the fields, not only in the photo.

Readability

• High contrast between text and background. White on a dark brand color usually works.
• Short labels: "Coffees", "Points", "Balance". There's little room on the front and long text gets cut.
• A logo that reads small. If yours is very detailed, use a simplified version.

The back of the pass

Put whatever doesn't fit on the front there: how the program works, terms, opening hours and contact details. Apple asks issuers to include their contact information on the back.

Notifications

Make each one worth it: a stamp to go, something new, an offer during a quiet hour. Send messages people don't care about and they'll turn off updates or delete the card.

Questions your staff will hear (and what to answer)

Once you launch, your team will get these at the till. Better to have answers ready:

• "I don't see the Add button." This usually happens when the link opened inside another app (say, from a message). Ask them to open it in Safari and try again.
• "I can't see the stamp you just gave me." The update needs a connection. If there's no signal inside, it'll arrive when they step out. The stamp is already recorded.
• "What if I change iPhones?" Wallet passes sync across devices signed in with the same Apple ID, according to Apple's iPhone guide.
• "I don't want to give my details." Explain what you ask for and why. Ask for the bare minimum: the shorter the form, the more sign-ups.

Keep a test card on the shop's phone to show how it looks. Seeing it convinces more than explaining it.

Apple Wallet vs the cardboard punch card

A Wallet card doesn't go through the washing machine, doesn't get left at home (the phone is always with them) and lets you talk to the customer after they leave. But it isn't magic: if the reward is weak or no one mentions it at the counter, it won't work either. We compare both calmly in paper punch card vs digital.