Digital stamp card or points: which suits your shop
One decision, made in five minutes, and it shapes everything after it. The test is not what you prefer. It is how much your baskets vary.
The rule in one line
If your customers all spend about the same, count visits. If they do not, count money.
Why a stamp card annoys your best customer
A stamp card treats a three pound coffee and a thirty pound lunch order the same. That is fine in a coffee shop where nearly every sale is a coffee. In a shop where baskets run from two pounds to forty, the person spending forty gets the same stamp as the person spending two, notices, and stops caring.
| Scheme | Small baskets, £20 each | One big basket, £60, and four of £10 |
|---|---|---|
| Stamps, one per visit | 5 stamps | 5 stamps |
| Points, 2 per pound | 200 points | 200 points |
| What the customer feels | Fair either way | Stamps feel wrong to the big spender |
Both schemes give the same total in the left column, which is why stamps work for a café. In the right column the stamp card has told somebody who spent sixty pounds in one go that it counted the same as a ten pound top up.
Where stamps are genuinely better
- A single product shop: coffee, sandwiches, car washes, haircuts.
- Anywhere the reward is naturally the tenth of the thing: buy nine, get one free.
- Staff who are rushed. A stamp needs no total typed, which is two seconds faster at a queue.
Where points are the only sensible answer
- Convenience stores, off licences, butchers, greengrocers, hardware: anywhere a basket ranges widely.
- Any shop that also sells online, because an online order is rarely the same size as a counter sale.
- Any shop that wants to reward spend rather than footfall, for example to shift a quiet Tuesday with double points rather than a free item.
A third option most shops miss
Both at once. Points per pound as the main scheme, plus a visit reward every fifth visit, so a customer who comes often is rewarded for the habit and a customer who spends heavily is rewarded for the money. The two measure different things and there is no reason to choose only one.
Related
Written for shopkeepers rather than for a search engine. The arithmetic here is yours to check, and if a figure looks wrong for your trade, tell us and we will correct it.