48% of consumers have four or more loyalty cards saved in digital wallets
Forty-three per cent of consumers would prefer to manage their current points balances or available rewards via a digital loyalty card rather than download a brand’s mobile app for the same purpose, according to research published by Vibes.
Based in Chicago, where it provides mobile marketing applications, Vibes surveyed more than 1,100 people to produce its 2026 Mobile Consumer Insights Report.
Storing loyalty cards in digital wallets instead of an app was also appealing to 38 per cent based who would like to get notifications of rewards they could use at a brand’s nearby location. The same percentage would also like to get alerts about expiring points balances through digital cards.
Perhaps given the number of apps they’re already managing on their smartphone, 32 per cent of consumers said digital cards made loyalty program profiles more convenient and accessible.
Already, 82 per cent of those who have a brand’s loyalty program on a digital card have used it to make a purchase. This was a significant jump from the 61 per cent who said the same thing in 2025. Overall, 73 per cent said they use their digital wallets for storing something other than credit cards.
“There’s a growing preference for app-less loyalty programs,” the report’s authors wrote. Digital wallet offers and loyalty cards significantly influence purchases.”
360 Magazine Insight
The data on loyalty program usage was only one aspect of the Vibes report, which primarily emphasized the increasing acceptance of text messaging as a customer communications channel.
Considering that brands can struggle to get customers to download their app, however, the notion of a digital card may suggest a more straightforward path to stronger loyalty program engagement. After all, most early reward programs started with little more than a printed card that consumers stuffed into physical wallets.
Unless your branded app offered sophisticated features to help initiate or participate in a customer experience (CX), a digital card offers a lightweight but viable alternative to securing a place in consumers’ smartphones.
Vibes’ gated 15-page report offers little in the way of analysis about the stats it has collected. It would have been helpful to talk about the process of not only setting up a digital loyalty card but how to ensure consumers add it to their digital wallet, or any strategies to use them to compete with brands that take the app route.
The data on texting shows that consumers are not simply focused on shipping alerts and special offers but are expecting the same kind of personalization brands are starting to offer in other channels. When this is done well, the payoff could be significant: 78 per cent said they had made a purchase in response to a brand’s text message.
