One BonusDigital loyalty card
Updated 31 August 2026
A digital loyalty card is a membership card that lives in a phone instead of a wallet — shown as a QR code or barcode, or tapped by NFC, and added to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet so it opens without unlocking an app.
How it is read at the counter
Three ways, and a business does not have to choose only one. The customer shows a code and the staff member scans it; the staff member opens the customer’s record and scans nothing; or the phone is tapped against a reader.
Speed is the whole argument. A card that takes longer to present than the payment itself will stop being presented, and a loyalty program nobody presents is a loyalty program that does not exist.
Apple Wallet and Google Wallet
A card added to the phone’s wallet app sits alongside the bank cards and boarding passes, and comes up without opening anything. That single detail is the difference between a card used every visit and a card used when someone remembers.
On One Bonus the same member card can be added to either wallet, and it carries the member’s identity across every business on the network rather than one shop’s branding.
What a digital card removes
No printing run, no minimum order, no design that is wrong six months later. No reissue when a card is lost, and no customer standing at the counter explaining that their card is at home.
It also removes the quiet cost nobody counts: the staff time spent on cards, and the customers who never joined because joining meant filling in a form on paper.
The balance is not on the card
This is the part that matters and the part plastic never had. The balance belongs to the account on the platform, not to the object. A new phone, a reinstalled app, a broken screen — none of it touches what the customer has earned.
Common questions
How does a digital loyalty card work?
The card is a member identity in an app. At the counter it is shown as a QR code or barcode, or tapped by NFC. The purchase is recorded against that member on the platform, and the balance is read back from there — nothing is stored on the phone itself.
Can a loyalty card be added to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet?
Yes. The One Bonus member card is added to either wallet, so it opens from the lock screen without unlocking an app — which is what makes it get used on every visit rather than occasionally.
Do I need special hardware to accept a digital card?
No. Staff scan the customer’s code with the phone they already have, using the One Bonus Business app. A barcode scanner or an NFC reader is optional, and useful mainly where the queue is long.
Put your loyalty card in the phone
Read next
- Bonus cardsPoints, stamps, levels and discounts explained, and why a wallet full of plastic bonus cards stops working. One Bonus is one card every shop on the network reads.
- Loyalty appWhy a standalone shop app gets deleted, and what a shared network app does instead: every balance, stamp, level and coupon from every shop in one live view.
- Gift and club cardsA gift card is prepaid money, a club card is a discount right, a membership card is access. They are confused constantly, and they suit completely different businesses.
- Plastic or digitalPrinting, reissuing, the cards left at home, and what a card in the phone changes. The comparison a business actually needs before ordering plastic.