Google Wallet loyalty card builder: how it works on Android and how to make yours

What a Google Wallet loyalty card is

Whatever Google Wallet loyalty card builder you use, the result is a digital pass your customer keeps in the Google Wallet app on their Android phone, next to payment cards, tickets and boarding passes. Google calls it a Loyalty card and describes it in its developer documentation as a way for customers to save a merchant's card, see their points and rewards and stop carrying the plastic one.

The customer installs nothing: Google Wallet already comes on most Android phones with Google services. If your customers use iPhones, the equivalent is covered in our Apple Wallet loyalty card guide.

Classes and objects in two lines

Google splits passes into two pieces, and knowing that helps you understand what can change:

• The class is your program's shared template: business name, program name, logo, colors. It's the same for every customer.
• The object is each customer's card: their code, points or stamps, their balance.

According to Google's explanation of how classes and objects work, when you change the class, the change reaches every card linked to it; customers see it the next time their wallet syncs. In plain terms: change your logo and it changes on every phone without anyone doing anything.

How your customer sees it on Android

Saving it

The customer scans the QR on your poster, fills in the minimum and taps Add to Google Wallet. Google also lets people add loyalty cards from inside the Wallet app or from a merchant's website, as its help page on loyalty and gift cards explains. For a local shop, a QR on the counter is the most direct route.

Using it at the till

They open Google Wallet, tap your card and show the code. Your staff scan it and add the stamp or points.

Seeing it update

Stamps, points or balance change on the customer's card when you add them. Some changes (like a points balance) can come with a notification.

Reminders nearby

Google lets you attach locations to a pass so a notification can appear when the customer is close. According to Google's guide on push notifications, you can set up to 10 locations per class and another 10 per object, but Google decides the distance and how long the notice shows, and it controls the wording too. It's a helpful nudge, not a guaranteed alert.

Issuer account and Google approval

If you wanted to issue passes yourself, here's what Google asks for:

1. Create an Issuer account for the Google Wallet API. If you don't work through an Android app, you also need a Google Cloud account. It's explained in Set up an Issuer account.
2. Work in demo mode. New accounts start in demo mode and can only issue passes to test users.
3. Request publishing access. You need a Business Profile and at least one class created. The Google Wallet team reviews those requirements before lifting the restriction, according to its guide to requesting publishing access.
4. Build the integration: create the class and one object per customer through the REST API, generate the "Add to Google Wallet" link or button, and update the objects every time you add a stamp.

On top of that: a tool for your staff to scan, a customer database that respects privacy law, and the equivalent work for Apple, which takes a different route (signing certificates and your own server).

Messages and notifications: Google's rules

This is one of the differences you'll notice day to day. According to Google Wallet's notification documentation:

• You can add a message to the card and, if you flag it to notify, the customer gets a push notification.
• The limit is 3 notifying messages per pass every 24 hours. Go over it and the message can still be added to the card, just without the alert.
• Some field updates (for example, points balance or tier) can trigger a notification, with their own limit of 3 every 24 hours.
• Google may throttle notifications if it thinks you're bothering users.
• The customer must have pass notifications turned on.

Practical advice: the technical limit hardly matters. A local shop sending more than one message a week starts to wear thin. Fewer, more useful ones work better: "double stamps this afternoon", "the seasonal tart is back", "1 stamp to your reward".

How to get your Google Wallet card with Stampaz

With Stampaz you touch none of the above: no issuer account, no classes, no API. The process is the same as for iPhone:

1. Choose the card type: stamps, points (with optional tiers), tiered discount, cashback, gift card or membership.
2. Design the card: logo, background photo, colors, labels and stamps with your own icon.
3. Print the QR poster Stampaz generates.
4. Scan with any phone: no accounts or apps for your staff, with double-scan protection.

Android customers save the card to Google Wallet; iPhone customers to Apple Wallet; and anyone using neither gets it as a web card. Change the design and it updates on every phone, with no one losing stamps, points or balance.

From the dashboard you send push notifications (4 campaigns a month on Local; no Stampaz limit on Pro and Chain, though always within each wallet's rules) and, on Pro and Chain, turn on automations (birthday, welcome, "we miss you") and location reminders.

Starting from scratch? Follow how to create a loyalty card for your business: it helps you pick the reward and launch it in your shop.

Apple Wallet vs Google Wallet: practical differences

For customers, both do the same job: store the card, show it at the till and receive notifications. Under the hood they work differently:

The practical takeaway: don't pick one over the other. Your customers carry both kinds of phone, and your card has to work on both without double the work for you.

What about customers who don't use Google Wallet?

Not every Android phone has Google Wallet, and not everyone wants to use it. Cases you'll come across:

• Phones without Google services. Some models ship without them and can't use Google Wallet. For those customers, the Stampaz web card works in the browser.
• Customers who don't want to set anything up. Google Wallet usually comes preinstalled, but some people have never opened it. Tell them they only need to tap the button; they don't have to add a payment card.
• Notifications turned off. If pass notifications are off, they won't see your push messages, though they'll see them on the card when they open it.

The goal is that nobody gets left out because of the phone they carry. A loyalty program that only works for some of your customers creates more questions at the till than sales.

Best practices for Android

• A simple, square logo. Google Wallet shows it small; it needs to be recognizable.
• A background color with personality. In the list of cards, color is what customers spot first.
• A clear program name: "Martina's Coffee Club" says more than "Points program".
• Few, well-chosen messages. Google's limit exists for a reason.
• Test on a real Android phone before printing the poster: sign up, stamp and redeem.