Alternatives
An honest look at the four common categories of customer-retention solutions for local businesses — with their strengths, weaknesses and clear criteria.
In short
Alternatives to reloop are paper stamp cards, app-based loyalty systems, POS-integrated retention programs and generic Wallet pass platforms. Each category has its place — depending on budget, tech affinity and the control you want. reloop focuses on simple digital stamp cards right inside Apple Wallet and Google Wallet: no app download, with QR onboarding and staff scan, ready to go in a few minutes.
Categories compared
| Category | Suited for | Typical drawbacks | When reloop is the better fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper stamp card | Very simple businesses with no digital needs. | Gets lost, not measurable, no contact channel. | When you want reporting, push and Wallet. |
| Your own customer app | Large brands with their own app ecosystem. | Download hurdle, high development and maintenance costs. | When you don’t want any app installation. |
| POS-integrated loyalty | Strongly POS-centric businesses. | Setup effort, vendor lock-in to the POS system. | When you want to start quickly and independently of the POS system. |
| Generic Wallet pass platform | Technical teams that want to build it themselves. | More configuration, no ready-made stamp system. | When you want a ready-made stamp-card system with staff scan. |
Decision guide
What matters is how much friction your guests will accept and how much of a system you want to run yourself. If regulars should be collected without an app download and without a sign-up hurdle, a Wallet stamp card is usually the most direct route. If, on the other hand, your program needs to reach deep into the POS system or map a complete app ecosystem, one of the other categories may be the better choice.
An honest take
reloop is a digital loyalty stamp-card system for local businesses — no native customer app. Guests scan a QR code and save their stamp card straight to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. Staff add stamps with a quick scan, rewards are redeemed digitally, and the dashboard shows repeat visits and campaigns. Operated by candybytes GmbH (Linz) with GDPR-compliant EU hosting — for cafés, restaurants, salons and multi-location businesses across the DACH region.
Launch a digital stamp card in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet — no app download, no contract, in just a few minutes.
Try the digital wallet stamp card yourself or start for free with your first program.
Digital loyalty cards right inside Apple & Google Wallet — no app, no paper. Turn first-time customers into regulars.
Apple Wallet is a trademark of Apple Inc. Google Wallet is a trademark of Google LLC. reloop is not an official partner of Apple or Google.