NFC Loyalty
A loyalty program for independent cafés. The guest touches their phone to an NFC stand at the counter, a browser page opens, and their stamp card with a discount for the next visit goes to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. No app, no account, no extra hardware at the till. NFC Loyalty is a working name.
Four steps, no app.
01Tap the stand
The guest touches their phone to the NFC stand at the counter. A page opens in the browser. Nothing to install, no account.
02Open the box
Each visit gives one box. Inside is the next stamp on the card and the discount assigned to that position.
03Save the card to Wallet
The stamp card goes to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and updates itself after every visit.
04Use it next time
On the next visit, the guest taps the stand again and picks the discount on the screen. The staff see a confirmation.
Screens from the demo version, shown in the colours of its two demo brands.
What the café sees.
- Returning guests first
- The first number on the screen is how many people came back, followed by taps per hour and discounts used.
- The stamp card editor
- Ten positions, a new list every two weeks, and the cost of a full card calculated before the list is published.
- Several locations
- One business can run more than one venue. A discount from one location works in the others.
- Terms written from the data
- The public terms are generated from the same list the system uses, so the two cannot drift apart.
Rules the system enforces.
Mechanics
A fixed order, the same for everyone
The order is set in advance. The discount comes from the guest's position on a published list, and the guest can check the next boxes before opening one.
Purchase
Every discount needs a purchase
A discount always reads "X when you buy Y". The server refuses to save a list that breaks this.
Pace
One box a day
By default, a discount works from the next day for seven days, which gives the guest a reason to come back.
The tap
A tap cannot be copied
The NTAG 424 DNA chip signs every tap with a new code. A link that was photographed or forwarded does not work a second time.
Privacy
As little data as possible
No location, no e-mail, no name. A phone number is taken only with a separate marketing consent that is unticked by default.
Venues
Each café kept apart
Each business has its own colours, logo and box, and the database keeps its guests separate from every other business.
Built and tested. Not yet used by guests.
Status as of 13 October 2026
Works today
- The whole guest path, the owner panel and the terms generated from the data are built.
- Cards are saved to the real Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, on an iPhone and on Android phones.
- A physical NFC card was programmed and the full path, from tap to a used discount, works with it.
- The production installation has been running on its own domain since 10 October 2026, with the first café set up for two locations.
- More than 1,700 automated tests pass, and 62 live security checks were run on production. They found one gap, fixed the same day.
Still open
- No guest has used it in a real café yet. The first pilot is being prepared.
- Checks on real phones against the production address, iPhone and Android, in both locations.
- Setting an individual key on a physical card has been tested in code, not yet on a real chip.
- Backups stored outside the server, and an alert when the nightly backup stops.
- A lawyer's review of the terms.
- We add each café ourselves. There is no self-service sign-up and no SMS sending yet.
- The product has no final name and no price list.