A wallet member card is a digital loyalty card a customer keeps on their phone: either a pass saved into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, or a hosted member page that opens in any browser with nothing to install.
See the rhythm
Three views of the same promise: recognize the visit, show progress, and give the team a clear next step.
A welcoming card keeps the next reward close, without asking customers to learn a new system.
See the useful thread across visits, orders, and rewards so the counter feels personal.
A calm operating view turns visits and rewards into signals your team can act on today.
The sample illustrates information hierarchy only; it does not represent a live member, balance, or pass state.
Your brand, carried closer
The morning coffee spot. The favourite salon. The shop around the corner. Explore a different member-card look for every kind of regular.
See the member cardShowing Coffee shop · 1 of 6
Design examples, not live passes. Wallet availability depends on merchant configuration. Review Wallet & card settings
Same lovely customer. A different next chapter.
See what changes when the reward—and the relationship—has a place to live.
An illustrative workflow comparison, not a performance benchmark. Program settings and configured connections determine availability.
Explore the full comparisonTwo different things get called the same name, and the difference decides what you can run this month.
A wallet pass is a small signed file the business issues. The customer saves it once, and it sits in the Apple Wallet or Google Wallet app already on their phone, next to their boarding passes and transit cards. There is no separate app to install and nothing to search for in a store.
A hosted member page is a web page for one customer at one shop. It opens in whatever browser the phone already has, shows the same balance and rewards, and can be added to the home screen so it behaves like an app. Rewardfinity gives every member one of these at a fixed address.
Both are the customer’s copy of a relationship the shop already has. Neither replaces the counter: the point of either card is that a customer can prove who they are in one scan while a queue is forming behind them.
The most common question about Apple Wallet loyalty cards has an unwelcome answer: a customer cannot add an arbitrary shop’s card on their own, and no setting is hiding it.
A wallet pass is issued and cryptographically signed by the business that owns it. Apple requires a pass type identifier and a signing certificate tied to a paid developer account, plus Apple’s own intermediate certificate, before a phone will accept the file at all. Google requires an issuer account and a service-account key before it will mint a save link. A phone rejects an unsigned pass, which is exactly what stops anyone from forging a card that grants rewards.
So the practical answer to “can I add my local café’s loyalty card to Apple Wallet” is: only if that café’s loyalty software issues one. The shop is the issuer. That is also why large chains with their own development teams have wallet passes and most independent shops do not.
This is the honest state of each option rather than a feature list. Two of the five rows are not something a shop can switch on today, and it is better to read that here than to discover it after printing signage.
| Card option | State today | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted member page | Available | A browser. Members open their card from an emailed sign-in link — no password, and nothing to install. |
| Add to home screen | Available | The browser’s own install action. The installed card still needs a connection; it is not an offline copy. |
| Web push reminders | Available with permission | The member granting notification permission in their browser. Permission is per member and revocable. |
| Google Wallet pass | A configured path | Google Wallet issuer credentials configured for the account before any save link can be produced. |
| Apple Wallet pass | Dark for public launch | Apple Wallet public launch remains dark pending its physical canary. The badge stays hidden while it is dark. |
Read “a configured path” as built and credential-gated, not as switched on. Confirm the exact state for your account before promising a customer a wallet pass.
Wallet passes are often sold on an ability they do not uniformly have, so these are the boundaries as built.
A saved pass is not a live window onto a balance. Rewardfinity’s Google Wallet object carries the points balance recorded at the moment the member saved it; it changes when the member saves the card again, not on the next purchase. The Apple pass is built to update on every earn and redemption, and its delivery leg stays gated with the rest of the Apple path.
The two passes also carry different barcodes. The Apple pass carries the signed credential the counter scanner accepts. The Google pass carries the member’s own card link instead, so it is a way back to the card rather than a counter-scan credential.
Rewardfinity cannot push a message into a saved pass. Some loyalty tools can, and if wallet-native messaging is the reason you are buying loyalty software, weigh that seriously. Reminders here reach the member page through web push, for members who granted permission.
The hosted member page is the option with no gate in front of it, and for a shop opening a program this month it is the one that matters.
A customer scans a printed QR code at the counter, gives an email address, and opens their card from the link that arrives. No install, no app-store review, no password to reset later. It renders the same on a four-year-old Android as on a new iPhone, which a wallet pass does not — a pass depends on which wallet app the customer carries.
The counter flow is one scan. The member shows the QR on their card, a staff member scans it, and the earn or redemption is attributed. That works whether or not a wallet pass is ever issued.
On the Free plan a shop can hold 100 members before choosing a paid plan. A shop adding ten members a week reaches that in ten weeks — 100 ÷ 10 = 10. Illustrative example, not a customer result: ten a week is an assumption, and the arithmetic is there so you can substitute your own number.
For your team at the counter
Give staff one focused place to find a member, record a visit and help with a reward. Customers use their member card—they do not need the staff app.
For iPhone. Account setup and device pairing are completed separately.
Start from the merchant sign-in flow, or contact support to evaluate the operating path that fits your store.