A loyalty program for coffee shops, without the paper punch cards

What a loyalty program changes in a coffee shop

A card that fills up and then pays out is nothing new. Paper punch cards have done this for decades, except they tear, get left at home, and tell you nothing about your customers.

Stampino moves the card into the phone. The customer opens it, you scan it, the stamp lands. Nothing to dig out of a drawer, nothing to reprint.

You get two offer types: stamps and Cashback. Which one fits depends on how often your customers come in and how much your bills vary.

In the reports you see how often customers come back and how many reach the reward.

The number of customers is unlimited on every plan, so a month with lots of sign-ups does not cost you more.

By the end of 2025 the 78 businesses on Stampino had handed out 636,299 stamps and 129,954 rewards to 57,210 active customers.

The stamp offer: 5+1 or 9+1

With 5+1, the sixth coffee is on the house. With 9+1, the tenth.

On the sixth order the reward shows up on their screen, you scan it, and the coffee goes over the counter. Nothing to ask for and nothing to prove.

The difference that matters is not the cost, it is how fast the customer reaches the reward. Reach it fast and they remember the offer and talk about it. Make them wait two months and they forget the card exists.

How long it takes, by how often they come in:

• Three times a week: 5 stamps in two weeks, 9 in three. Either works.
• Twice a week: 5 stamps in two and a half weeks, 9 in four and a half.
• Once a week: 5 stamps in five weeks, 9 in nine. Only 5+1 makes sense here.

That is why we recommend 5+1 in most cases. Yes, you give the reward more often, but the offer gets noticed. A card that never fills up does not make anyone loyal.

A stamp does not depend on how much the customer spent, and the rule explains itself at the counter in one sentence. That is its strength.

Cashback: when it beats stamps

With Cashback, the customer builds up money on the card. You choose how much: 1 EUR for every 10 EUR spent, which is 10%, or 50 cents, which is 5%.

It fits when your bills vary a lot, because you also sell brunch, cakes, bags of beans, or orders for two and three people.

With stamps, an espresso and an 18-EUR order get exactly the same thing: one stamp. With Cashback, the big order builds up five times as much.

Anything added to the order raises the amount built up, so the cake or the second coffee has one more reason to go on the bill.

One thing to watch: what the money can be spent on. On drinks you make yourself, the reward costs you raw materials. On bottled or packaged goods, where you earn little, the same amount costs you far more. If you sell a lot of those, set 5%.

Starting from scratch, begin with stamps. They are simpler to explain. Your own till receipts already tell you how much your bills vary, and whether Cashback is worth a try. You can also run both on the same card, depending on your plan.

What a free coffee actually costs you

A coffee you sell for 3.50 EUR costs you 0.80 to 1.20 EUR: beans, milk, cup, lid. It depends on your beans and your cup size.

The coffee you give away costs you the same, not 3.50. Those 3.50 EUR were never collected, so you are not losing them.

The reward is paid out of raw materials, not out of the price. That is why one coffee on the house for every five sold does not break your margin.

Put your own figures in and you can see where you stand.

How to set the threshold and the reward

Set the threshold by how often the customer comes in, not by how much you are willing to give away. The rule of thumb: a regular should reach the reward in about four weeks.

• Three times a week: set 8 to 10 stamps.
• Twice a week: set 6 to 8.
• Once a week: set 4.

Rewards that do not cost you much:

• Your standard coffee. It is also the product they come back for, so the reward reinforces the exact habit you want.
• Plant milk, an extra shot, the syrup of their choice. You charge for these separately, so the customer feels a real gain while it costs you less than the surcharge you normally collect.

Rewards to avoid:

• A branded mug or any promotional object. You pay for that in cash, not in beans and milk.
• A discount on the whole bill, because it also catches the items you barely earn on.
• Resold goods: bottled drinks, packaged snacks. There the selling price sits close to the cost.

After the first month, look at the reports. If stamps go up but rewards stay flat, the threshold is too high and nobody is reaching the end. You change it from the panel, it is not final.

You can also set an expiry period

You can leave the offer with no expiry, or set a limit in days, weeks or months. The date shows on the customer's card, so they can see how long they have.

When the limit passes, the card resets and the customer starts from zero, with the next scan landing on the fresh card.

The customer is notified automatically 7 days before and once more the day before, so nobody loses their stamps without warning.

A short limit creates a reason to come back. Too short, though, and the customer loses their stamps and gives up on the card.

Choose it the way you choose the threshold: enough time to reach the reward at their usual pace, plus a margin. At two visits a week and a threshold of 6 stamps, two months is generous and two weeks is brutal.

Expiry comes with the Standard plan and up.

Loyalty card for coffee shops: how it works day to day

The customer installs the free Stampino app once, from the App Store, Google Play or AppGallery, searches for the coffee shop and gets the card on the spot. The coffee shop's loyalty card can also be kept in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

On each order the customer opens the card and turns the screen towards you. You scan it with the phone on the counter, in the time it takes the espresso to run.

The number of customers is unlimited on every plan. Other loyalty apps set caps: cards or customers at 100 or 500, and some even cap the stamps or points you are allowed to give. None of those caps exist here.

A loyalty program produces neither retention nor visits on its own. It needs an offer the customer actually wants, and people at the counter who ask on every order whether they have the card, and invite the ones who do not into the program.

Cafizzio, Nish Coffee, Mabo Coffee, Tamper Coffee and many other coffee shops run their cards on Stampino.

The plan pays for itself in 13 coffees a month

A coffee you sell for 3.50 EUR leaves you around 2.40 EUR once you take out the materials.

A plan starts at 36.50 EUR a month, plus VAT where applicable, so it pays for itself with about 15 extra coffees across a whole month. That is one coffee every two days.

Above that line, everything the program brings in is gain. And if you do not cross it, the reports show you after the first month, not after a year.

Push notifications and the birthday reward

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Push notifications land on the phone screens of the customers who signed up. It is the most direct line you have to people who already know where you are, with no ad budget and no algorithm in between.

Only send when you have something concrete to say: a new product on the bar, holiday opening hours, a change of schedule. Messages with nothing useful in them lower the open rate of the ones that follow.

The birthday reward looks after itself. It appears on their card on the day itself, and they claim it at the counter within the window you set. You keep no dates in a calendar.