Vouchers vs Points: Which One Customers Actually Use

By Alva Chew · Updated 2026-11-02

In short On vouchers vs points, customers use points more reliably once they hold a balance, because a balance shows progress and has one rule. Vouchers handed out cold are redeemed rarely, in one field test only 171 of 9,880 (1.7%) were used within a month. Neither reward is redeemed by everyone, so pick the one with the fewest rules, which is points.

What is the difference between vouchers and points?

A voucher is a single reward issued to a customer. It might say “US$5 off your next visit” or “free cake with any coffee”, and it usually carries a code, an expiry date and a condition. A points balance is a running total. Each dollar spent adds points, and the customer chooses when to swap them for a reward.

Both give something back for coming again. The difference is in what the customer has to do. With a voucher they must find it, remember the conditions and use it before it lapses. With points they only need to know their balance.

Which do customers actually use?

No study we found compares vouchers and points head to head in the same shop, so a direct answer would be invented. What exists is evidence on each side, and it points the same way.

Reward	Finding	Scope
Vouchers handed out cold	171 of 9,880 coupons redeemed, about 1.7%, within the one-month validity	Subway coupons handed out on the street in Berlin, discounts of €1 to €2
Voucher distance effect	Redemption at 10 metres from the restaurant was 5 times that at 800 metres	Same Berlin study
Points balance, redemption	3% of purchases carried a redemption, and 60% of members never redeemed in 43 months	One Latin American home and hardware retailer, 1% of spend earned as points
Points balance, members who redeem	Redeemers’ baskets were 25% larger and visits 141% more frequent, an association rather than proof of cause	Same retailer

Sources: Spiekermann, Rothensee and Klafft, Street Marketing: How Proximity and Context drive Coupon Redemption (submitted draft, April 2010). Stourm, Bradlow and Fader, Journal of Marketing Research, April 2015.

Read the two rows with care. The Berlin coupons went to passers-by who had never signed up for anything, so 1.7% is a cold-handout figure and not what a voucher sent to your own members would reach. The points data comes from a retailer whose members earned only 1% of spend, a thin reward. Neither number is a benchmark for your shop. Together they show that low redemption is normal for both designs, and that the gap is not a reason to add complexity.

Why do vouchers get ignored?

A voucher asks the customer to do five things in order:

Notice it arrived.
Keep it somewhere findable.
Remember it on the day they visit.
Check the conditions and expiry.
Present it at the counter.

Each step drops some people. The Berlin test shows the first step at work. Redemption fell as the handout point moved away from the restaurant, even though the face value stayed the same. The distance to the restaurant mattered more than a larger discount once people were far away. A voucher is easiest to use when the customer is already standing at your door, which is exactly when they would have bought anyway.

Digital vouchers remove paper but not the other steps. The customer still has to find the right voucher among the others and check what it applies to.

Why do points get used more reliably?

A points balance removes the first four steps. The balance is always on the card, it grows without the customer doing anything, and it has no expiry date to track. The customer only has to decide when to spend it.

Research on how people spend points backs a simple design. Kwong, Soman and Ho, in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2011, found that people spend points more readily when it is easy to work out the percentage saving. A reward of 100 points for US$5 off is easy to value. A menu of rewards at odd point prices is not.

The retailer data shows the other risk. Stourm, Bradlow and Fader found that most unspent points stayed unspent for mostly psychological reasons, and the authors link the hoarding to cognitive and psychological motives. Points are not automatically redeemed. They are redeemed more often when the reward is close, clear and worth having. Our guide to loyalty rewards customers actually redeem covers how to set that up.

How do vouchers and points compare for your shop?

Question	Voucher	Points
What the customer holds	A code with conditions	A balance
Rules to learn	Value, expiry, what it applies to, one per visit	Spend, earn, redeem
Who decides when it is used	The expiry date	The customer
Paid for by	Your margin on the next visit	A share of spend already made
Reward grows with a bigger bill	No, the voucher is fixed	Yes, points follow the bill
Several outlets	Needs a rule per outlet	One balance can serve all
Cost if ignored	Nothing, and nothing earned	Nothing paid until redeemed

Source: Gimify comparison of how each design works. Example prices in US$ for illustration.

Vouchers do have a real use. A one-off voucher can pull in someone who has never visited, and it costs you only when it is used. That is acquisition. It does not build the habit of coming back, because the voucher ends when it is spent, and the next purchase starts from zero.

Can points do what a voucher does?

Yes. A voucher is a fixed reward at a fixed price, and points can be set to the same thing.

Say you want to offer US$5 off. At 1 point per US$1 spent, set the reward at 100 points. A customer who spends US$100 earns the discount. Stamp-style and voucher-style offers can all be expressed this way, which is why a points balance is the more flexible tool. See how to set your points earn rate for the arithmetic.

Compare this to the voucher run as a mailer. The mailer costs printing or sending, gets used by about 1.7% of cold recipients in the study above, and pays the same US$5 whether the customer spent US$8 or US$80. The points reward costs you 5% of spend, paid only after the customer has spent US$100.

What about expiry?

Voucher expiry is how vouchers control cost. It also loses goodwill when a customer arrives a day late. Points can expire too, but each expiry rule is one more thing for the customer to remember. The simplest design is a balance with no expiry on the points themselves.

If you carry unredeemed points on your books, accounting standards treat the unused part as breakage. IFRS 15 and US ASC 606 both address it, and our glossary entry on breakage explains the basics. Ask your accountant how it applies to you.

What should you do?

Run points as your main programme and use the redemption rate as your check. If you want a voucher-like offer, make it a points reward with a clear price, such as 100 points for US$5 off. Track how many members spend a reward in their first three months, and lower the reward threshold if few do. Our redemption rate entry shows how to measure it, and the case for points only sets out why one simple rule beats several.

Gimify is points only, so there are no vouchers to issue or expire. The card lives in Google Wallet, staff add or redeem points on any phone, and one balance works across every outlet. The Free plan covers one outlet with unlimited members.

Questions owners ask

Do customers use vouchers or points more?

No study we found compares the two head to head in a shop. Separate evidence shows cold vouchers are redeemed by under 2% of recipients, while members who hold a points balance do redeem, though many never do. Points give the customer one rule to learn, which helps.

Why do customers not redeem vouchers?

The voucher has to be remembered, kept, matched to a visit and used before it expires. Each step loses some people. In a Berlin field test, redemption fell to a fifth as the handout point moved from 10 metres to 800 metres from the restaurant.

Can points work like a voucher?

Yes. Set a reward such as 100 points for US$5 off. The customer sees a balance moving towards a fixed reward, which is what a voucher offers, without a separate code to carry or lose.

Are vouchers cheaper for the business than points?

Not reliably. Vouchers cost nothing when unused, but a voucher also earns nothing from the customer who ignores it. Points are earned on spend, so the reward is paid out of money the customer already spent.

Do points expire like vouchers?

Only if you set a rule for it. Expiry adds a rule customers have to remember, so the simplest design has no expiry on the balance. Whether to expire points is your decision, and it affects how unused rewards are accounted for.