Will Plastic Loyalty Cards Work With Your Till?

How does a till read a plastic card?

The card carries a number. The scanner reads it and passes it to the till, just as if someone had typed it in, and the till looks the number up: a customer’s loyalty account, or a gift card’s balance. The card itself doesn’t store points, so a lost card doesn’t have to mean lost points: if your system allows it, they move to a new card.

1. PrintEvery card is printed with its own number, as a barcode, a QR code or both, with the number printed underneath.
2. LinkWhen the card is handed over or sold, the number is added to a customer’s profile or loaded as a gift card.
3. ScanAt the till, the scanner reads the card and the till finds the customer or the balance.
4. RecordPoints are added, or the gift card balance goes down, in your system.

Barcode, QR code or magnetic strip?

Use whichever your till already reads. All three do the same job, carrying the card’s number, but each needs its own kind of reader.

• 1D or 2D? A 1D scanner reads barcodes made of lines. A 2D scanner reads those and QR codes too. If you’re not sure which you have, hold it over a QR code: a 1D scanner won’t read it.
• Which barcode? The one your system expects. Code 39 is the most popular barcode on the cards we supply; Code 128 is more compact, and Lightspeed recommends it for gift cards.
• Give it room. A barcode scans best on a white box with clear space around it. Our barcodes page and how to add a barcode to a loyalty card cover size and placement.
• Magnetic strips only work with a swipe reader. Our guide to magnetic stripe cards explains what they hold and HiCo v LoCo which strip to choose.

Not sure between a barcode and a QR code? See QR codes v barcodes on loyalty cards.

Where do the card numbers come from?

• Format the Excel column as Text, so leading zeros aren’t lost.
• A high start number, such as 10001, avoids leading zeros altogether.
• Print the number under the barcode, so staff can type it in if a scan fails.
• For gift cards, use codes that can’t be guessed. Lightspeed recommends unique, non-sequential codes of at least eight characters, and Shopify needs 8 to 20 letters and numbers.
• Re-orders carry on from the last number issued.

Our guide to numbered plastic cards covers number formats and how to lay out the Excel file.

What do Square, Shopify and other tills say?

We read each system’s own help pages in October 2026. Features change, so confirm with your provider before you order. Where the help pages don’t say, we’ve said so.

If your system only works with its own cards, or finds customers by phone number, a plastic stamp card still works alongside it. Our guide to digital vs plastic loyalty cards compares the two.

How can you test a card before ordering?

We can’t test a barcode or QR code on your till, because every till and scanner is different. Two ways to check before the full order:

• Print the email proof at actual size and try the barcode on your scanner. It’s free, and a quick first check of the barcode type and size.
• Order a postal proof: a printed card posted to you before the full order is made, so you can scan or swipe it on your own till. A postal proof is £65 +vat and takes around 5 working days; a revised one is £35 +vat.

A sample pack shows the card types and finishes, and its cost is deducted from your order if you order within 30 days.

Questions to ask your EPOS provider

• Can the till find a customer, or a gift card balance, from a scanned card number?
• Does it accept cards from any printer, or only its own?
• Which barcode types does it read: Code 39, Code 128, EAN or QR?
• Is our scanner 1D or 2D?
• Who sets the card numbers, and are there rules on length or characters?
• Can we import a list of card numbers, or is each card added as it’s handed over?
• If a customer loses a card, can their points move to a new one?

Send us the answers with your quote request and we’ll supply cards to match.