How to add your loyalty card to Apple Wallet: a guide for businesses

What an Apple Wallet loyalty card actually is

Apple calls it a pass. It is a small signed file with your logo, your colours, a few lines of text (the customer’s name, their stamps or points, the reward they are working towards) and a barcode or QR code your staff scan at the till. When a customer taps “Add to Apple Wallet”, the iPhone checks the signature, and if it is genuine the card sits in Wallet next to their bank cards.

The part most people miss is that a pass is not a picture. It keeps a line open to whoever issued it. When a stamp is added, your system tells Apple the card changed, the iPhone fetches the new version, and the card on the phone updates by itself. If the change carries a message, it appears on the lock screen like any other notification. That is what makes Wallet useful for loyalty, rather than a nicer-looking paper card.

What Apple requires before you can issue one

Anyone who issues passes needs four things from Apple’s side. None of them is hard, but all of them are technical, and the last one is where most do-it-yourself attempts stop.

1. A membership of the Apple Developer Program, in the name of the business that issues the pass.
2. A Pass Type ID and the signing certificate that goes with it. Every pass is signed with it, and Apple refuses a pass that is not.
3. Images in the sizes Apple asks for: an icon, a logo and, for a loyalty card, usually a strip image across the middle. Each comes in more than one resolution.
4. A web service that answers the iPhone when it asks for the latest version of a card, plus a connection to Apple’s push service to tell phones when to ask. Without it the card never changes after it is saved.

Apple also reviews nothing in advance: there is no approval step for a pass. The flip side is that nobody tells you when a pass is wrong. A card that fails the signature check simply refuses to open, with no explanation for the customer.

Three ways to build it

Build it yourself

If you have a developer, Apple’s documentation and an open-source library will produce a signed pass in a day. The web service, the push connection, the stamp logic, the staff screen and the customer database take considerably longer, and they need looking after for as long as the cards exist. This route makes sense for a chain with its own app team, rarely for one venue.

Use a generic pass builder

Pass builders design and sign a pass for you, and some handle updates. They are built for tickets and membership cards in general, so the loyalty part (counting stamps, issuing the reward, letting staff mark it as used) is usually yours to arrange. Fine for a card that never changes; awkward for one that changes on every visit.

Use a loyalty platform built on Wallet

A platform such as TAPPI holds the certificate, signs every card, runs the update service and gives your staff a screen to scan the card and add the stamp. You design the card, choose the mechanic (stamps, points, levels, a prepaid balance and so on) and print a QR code for the counter. It is the shortest route for a small business, at the cost of a monthly plan.

How customers save it

The usual pattern is a QR code at the counter, on the table or on the receipt. The customer points their camera at it, a page opens with the card and an “Add to Apple Wallet” button, and one tap later it is saved. There is nothing to download: Wallet is already on every iPhone. Customers on Android get the same card through Google Wallet from the same QR code, if your system issues both.

Ask for as little as you can on that page. Every field you add before the button costs you sign-ups at the counter, where the customer is holding a coffee and a queue is forming behind them. A name and, if you want to stay in touch, an email address is plenty.

What happens after it is saved

At the till, staff scan the code on the customer’s card with the phone or tablet they already have, and the stamp is added. The card on the customer’s phone updates within seconds. When the card is full, the reward appears on it, and staff mark it as used on the next visit.

Two Wallet features do the rest of the work. A pass can carry a message, which reaches the lock screen when it changes: a reward that is ready, a quiet-hours offer, a reminder that a balance is still waiting. And a pass can name the locations it belongs to, so the iPhone can bring the card up when the customer walks nearby. The phone decides when that is appropriate, which is exactly why customers do not find it intrusive.

A checklist before you print the QR code

• Your logo works small. Wallet draws it at the size of a fingernail.
• The reward is something you already sell, and the card says what it is.
• Staff know where the scanner is and have scanned a test card.
• The QR code is where people wait, not where they pay in a hurry.
• Android customers get a card too, from the same QR code.