Digital loyalty cards in Belgium: what is different for cafes, salons and shops

A digital loyalty card works in Belgium exactly as it does in the Netherlands: the customer scans a QR code, puts the card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and gets a stamp on every visit. What differs are the words, the cash register rules, the VAT, the payment habits, and one Dutch word that means something else in Belgium. Below are the six things a Belgian cafe, salon or shop should know.

In short

• Print the word your customers use: getrouwheidskaart in Flanders, carte de fidélité in the French-speaking part.
• The white cash register is separate from the loyalty card, nothing has to be connected.
• Wallet works in Belgium as it does anywhere else; near the language border you make one card per language.

1. The word: getrouwheidskaart, not klantenkaart

In the Netherlands everyone says "klantenkaart" or "stempelkaart". In Flanders the common word is "getrouwheidskaart", with "spaarkaart" and "klantenkaart" second and third. That sounds like a detail, but it decides whether your customers understand what you are offering.

So the card at the counter should read "Onze getrouwheidskaart, nu op je gsm". Not "stempelkaart", and certainly not "kom stempelen". Point 5 explains why not.

Flemish vocabulary matters the same way: a phone is a "gsm" and not a "mobiel", coffee comes in a "tas" and not a "kopje", and a hairdresser is also a "coiffeur", certainly in Brussels and Limburg. A digital coffee card that says "10 tassen koffie, de 11e gratis" reads as local. In Wallonia and Brussels the word is "carte de fidélité", and that is also what people type into a search box.

2. The white cash register: no connection needed

Belgian hospitality businesses with more than 25,000 euro of revenue from meals have to work with a registered cash register system (GKS), known locally as the white cash register. Many owners therefore assume that every system at the counter has to be tied into it.

That does not apply to a loyalty card. The white cash register records the sale (the coffee, the menu); the loyalty card records the visit (the stamp). The two are separate, exactly as a paper card was separate from the till.

The free coffee at the tenth stamp goes into the cash register system as a free product or as a discount, the way you already do it. The receipt is right, the VAT is right, and the loyalty card does not need to know anything about the till.

Hairdressers, nail salons and shops do not fall under the white cash register, so for them this does not come up at all.

3. VAT and invoicing: watch the VAT number

Most providers of digital loyalty cards are Dutch and show prices excluding VAT. For a Belgian business with a VAT number the VAT is then reverse charged: you pay the net price and handle the VAT yourself in your return, as an intra-community service. Without a VAT number, for example a small business under the exemption scheme, you pay the Belgian 21 percent on top.

At checkout, look at whether your VAT number is asked for and whether the invoice states it. With Beepify you enter the VAT number at checkout and the system works out the right VAT; the prices are shown excluding VAT.

4. Paying: Payconiq and Bancontact, not iDEAL

Belgian customers pay with Bancontact and Payconiq, not with iDEAL. For the loyalty card itself that changes nothing, because the card is free for the customer, but it matters in two places:

• A prepaid pass or membership. That payment runs through your own till or card terminal, not through the loyalty card. Let the customer pay by card or with Payconiq, then put the card in their wallet.
• Your own subscription with the provider. Check whether you can pay with a Belgian card or by SEPA. With Beepify both work, any credit card and SEPA direct debit.

5. The Dutch word for stamping means something else in Belgium

This is the trap every business in Belgium should know about. In Belgium "stempelen" is also the word for drawing unemployment benefit, and the electronic control card for it is called the eC3 at the RVA. Type "digitale stempelkaart" into Google in Belgium and you get the RVA and the trade unions at the top of the page.

That is why Flemish copy avoids the word. Use "sparen", "getrouwheidskaart" or "spaarkaart". Say "je krijgt een punt bij elk bezoek", not "je mag stempelen". On the card itself the stamps can stay stamps; what matters is the invitation at the counter and on your Instagram.

French has the same trap with a different word. "Pointer" is what people do at the unemployment office, so the term to print and the term people search for is "carte de fidélité".

6. Language near the language border and in Brussels

In Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven Dutch is enough. In Brussels, along the language border and in tourist cities like Bruges you have customers who read French or English. A card that exists only in Dutch misses that group.

The fix: two cards, one Dutch and one French, each with its own QR code at the counter. The French-speaking customer scans the code for "10 cafés, le 11e offert", the Dutch-speaking one the code for "10 koffies, de 11e gratis". The two cards count separately, and your overview shows which group is growing. With Beepify you pick the language per card out of sixteen languages, Dutch, French and English among them, so a card in English for tourists in Bruges is a third QR code and not a second system.

How to move the paper card across

Most Belgian cafes and salons already have a paper loyalty card in circulation. You do not have to throw it away, you convert it in three steps.

1. Two months side by side. New customers get the digital card straight away. Customers with a paper card show it; you put the same number of stamps on their new card in the wallet and take the paper card in.
2. One sentence at the counter. "We have moved to the card on your phone, so you can never lose it again. Shall I move your stamps across?" Almost everyone says yes, because the paper card was already at the bottom of a bag somewhere.
3. Stop with paper after two months. Anyone who still has a paper card still gets their stamps moved across, but no new paper cards go out.

Worked example for a coffee bar in Ghent with 300 customers on a paper card: at a switch rate of 70 percent there are 210 cards in customers' wallets after two months. From then on every stamp is a notification on their phone, and you fill a quiet Tuesday with one message to exactly those 210 people.

What is the same

• Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. Available on every iPhone and Android in Belgium, no app needed, notifications on the screen.
• The GDPR. The same rules as in the Netherlands; the regulator is the Data Protection Authority. Say what you store, ask permission for messages, do not keep it longer than you need.
• The number of stamps and the reward. Ten cups of coffee for a free one, six haircuts for a free wash: the examples in stamp card examples per trade hold without change.
• The launch. At the counter, one sentence, every customer. Not on Facebook.

The comparison in one table

| | Netherlands | Belgium | |---|---|---| | Common word | Klantenkaart, stempelkaart | Getrouwheidskaart, spaarkaart; carte de fidélité in French | | "Stempelen" | Putting a stamp on a card | Unemployment benefit (RVA, eC3) | | Cash register | No obligation | White cash register (GKS) for hospitality above 25,000 euro of meal revenue; separate from the loyalty card | | VAT on the subscription | 21 percent, Dutch invoice | Reverse charged with a VAT number, otherwise 21 percent | | Customer payment | iDEAL, card | Bancontact, Payconiq | | Language of the card | Dutch | Dutch, French, sometimes English; one card per language with its own QR code | | Wallet | Apple Wallet, Google Wallet | The same | | Privacy | GDPR, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens | GDPR, Data Protection Authority |

Frequently asked questions

Does a digital loyalty card work in Belgium?

Yes. Apple Wallet and Google Wallet work in Belgium exactly as they do in the Netherlands, and the card needs no app. With the provider, check the language of the card (Dutch, French or both), invoicing with a Belgian VAT number, and whether prices are shown excluding VAT.

What is the difference between a getrouwheidskaart and a stempelkaart?

Nothing in how they work. Getrouwheidskaart is the Belgian word for what the Dutch call a klantenkaart or spaarkaart; a stempelkaart is a getrouwheidskaart that gets a stamp per visit. Print the word your own customers use.

Does a digital loyalty card have to be connected to the white cash register?

No. The registered cash register system (GKS) records the sale; a loyalty card records the visit. They are separate. You book the free coffee at the tenth stamp in the cash register system as a free product or a discount, the same as with a paper card.

Does a digital stamp card have anything to do with stempelen at the RVA?

No. In Belgium the Dutch word stempelen also means filling in the electronic control card eC3 for unemployment benefit. A digital stamp card from a cafe or a hairdresser is something else entirely: a loyalty card in the customer's wallet. Avoid the word stempelen in your communication and say sparen.

Can the card be in Dutch and in French?

With most providers you pick one language per card. For Brussels and the language border you then make two cards, one Dutch and one French, each with its own QR code at the counter. Beepify supports sixteen languages, Dutch and French among them, and you pick the language per card.

Want to try it yourself?

Make a loyalty card for your business in five minutes and test it on your own phone. For cafes and coffee bars that starts with the digital coffee card, for restaurants with the stamp card for restaurants. Free to start, an invoice with your Belgian VAT number, and your customers install nothing.