Glossary

From Apple Wallet to vouchers: useful terms for your shop, simply explained.

A

Apple Wallet: Apple Wallet is Apple’s app for storing and displaying digital cards on iPhone. A customer card saved there is separate from the Apple Pay payment service.

Break-even: Break-even is the point at which the revenue considered covers the associated costs. For a loyalty programme, the relevant measure is incremental contribution, not simply all revenue from participating customers.

Campaign: A campaign is a planned communication activity with a particular purpose, audience and objective. It can consist of a single message or several related activities.
Consent: Consent is a freely given, informed and unambiguous agreement to a specific use of personal data. It is one possible legal basis for processing and can be withdrawn.
Counter stand: A counter stand is a physical holder for information or interaction points at a place of sale. For a stamp card, it might display a QR code for adding the card or provide an NFC contact point.
Customer card: A customer card is a physical or digital card that lets a business identify a customer relationship or associated transactions. It does not necessarily include rewards or a collection programme.
Customer list: A customer list is a structured overview of the customers recorded by a business. Depending on the system, it connects each person with information about their card or previous activity.
Customer retention: Customer retention concerns the ongoing relationship between a business and its customers, and efforts to maintain that relationship. Those efforts are about giving customers good reasons to come back.

Data export: A data export transfers selected information from an application into a file or another usable format. The information included depends on the particular export function.
Data processing on behalf: Data processing on behalf occurs when an organisation processes personal data for a controller. The actual tasks and instructions matter, rather than the title of a contract alone.
Digital stamp card: A digital stamp card records collected stamps electronically. It is the medium for collecting them; the stamp programme defines which purchases count and what reward follows.

Freemium: Freemium is a pricing model with an ongoing free basic tier and paid extensions. The free tier is typically limited by its features or usage allowance.

GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is the European legal framework for processing personal data. This can include information linked to an identifiable person through a customer card.
Google Wallet: Google Wallet is Google’s application for storing and displaying digital cards, including customer cards. Using it on Android requires a Google Account and the Wallet app.

Location: A location is a physical place where a business offers its services. Within a loyalty application, it can also identify where staff work and where recorded actions took place.
Loyalty card: A loyalty card supports an ongoing relationship between a business and its customers through a benefits programme. It may represent stamps, points or other loyalty benefits.
Loyalty program: A loyalty program is a structured offer through which a business provides benefits to encourage customers to return. It defines participation, how benefits are earned and how they can be used.

NFC: NFC stands for Near Field Communication, a wireless technology for exchanging data over a short distance. One use is tapping an NFC tag with a suitable smartphone.

Paper stamp card: A paper stamp card is a physical card on which a business marks qualifying purchases or visits with stamp impressions. The paper itself carries the record of progress.
Pass update: A pass update refreshes the contents of an existing Wallet pass. It can change the displayed stamp balance, for example, without issuing a new card.
Points program: A points program is a loyalty program in which participants collect points under defined rules and can use them for benefits. Different qualifying actions may earn different amounts of points.
POS integration: POS integration is a technical connection between a point-of-sale system and another application. The connection exchanges defined data or actions between them.
Push notification: A push notification is a message initiated by a service that can alert someone to new information on their device. Updated card contents alone do not amount to a visible notification.

QR code: A QR code is a two-dimensional, machine-readable pattern containing data such as a web address. Its function depends on its contents and the application that reads it.

Redemption: Redemption is the process of a customer actually claiming an available reward. Once redeemed, that reward is no longer available to use again.
Regular customer: A regular customer is someone who returns to a business and forms part of its recurring customer base. There is no universal minimum number of visits that defines this relationship.
Return visit rate: Return visit rate is the share of a defined customer group that visits again within a specified time window. Meaningful comparisons require consistent definitions of the group, a visit and the observation period.
Reward: A reward is the benefit a business promises when a defined collection target is reached. Its availability does not mean the guest has already redeemed it.
Rewards card: A rewards card highlights benefits offered by a business, such as a reward, discount or additional service. The term does not define a single collection mechanism.

Staff roles: Staff roles are predefined sets of permissions within an application. They determine which functions a signed-in person may use, independently of that person's job title in the business.
Stamp: A stamp is a single credit for an event that qualifies under a stamp programme’s rules. It advances collection progress but is neither cash credit nor a reward that has already been redeemed.
Stamp log: A stamp log is a chronological record of events involving a stamp card. It shows individual events rather than just the card's current stamp balance.
Stamp program: A stamp program is a collection mechanism that records qualifying actions as stamps. Reaching the defined target makes a specified reward available.

Visit frequency: Visit frequency describes how often a person or a defined customer group visits a business within a given period. It measures how frequently visits happen, rather than simply whether someone returns.
Voucher: A voucher records an entitlement to a particular service or benefit under its associated terms. It may relate to an amount of money, a product or a discount, for example.

Wallet pass: A Wallet pass is an individual digital card object stored and displayed by a Wallet app. It contains information supplied by its issuer and is separate from the Wallet app itself.