Give people a reason to buy from the shop, not the tab they left open.
Online is cheaper and it never closes. What it cannot do is recognize a customer and hand them something for coming back. Loyalty is the part of retail the internet is worst at.
See your own card before you pay.
The pass sits in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. There is nothing for your customer to install.
One point per dollar. Three hundred points is fifteen dollars off.
Set the threshold at about two average baskets, so the reward is reachable on the second visit and not the sixth. A balance the customer can never spend is worse than no program at all.
Where to start
Points
Earn per dollar spent, spend points on rewards.
Two or three visits a year, each worth real money. Points keep a balance alive between them, which a stamp card never does when the gap is five months long.
Also worth running here
- VIP tiersSilver, gold, and a reason to climb.
- ReferralCustomers earn a reward for the friends they bring.
What changes on the sales floor.
- The balance follows them home
- Someone who spends ninety dollars walks out with ninety points on their phone. That balance is the reason the next purchase happens here rather than in a browser tab.
- You learn what a good customer is worth
- Spend and visit history sit against each customer, so the top of the list becomes a fact rather than a feeling about who comes in a lot.
- Past buyers have a reason to come back
- A message to the card reaches the people who have already bought from you, with their points balance or the reward waiting for them. There is no list to buy, and no post that has to fight an algorithm.
“Our customers buy twice a year, not twice a week.”
Then points beat stamps outright. A ninety dollar basket earns ninety points whether it lands in March or October, and the balance is still on the card when they come back. The card also keeps your shop on their phone in between, which is the part a paper receipt cannot do.
Loyalisto runs alongside any register: Square, Clover, or a cash drawer and a notebook. There is no POS integration to do, nothing to install on your hardware, and nothing that breaks the day your card terminal changes.
The same card, set up for another trade.
Nothing here is specific to retail and boutiques. What changes between trades is how often people come back and what they spend when they do.
- CafesStamp cards for a daily habit, filled in one scan while the drink is made.
- RestaurantsPoints that work across a twelve dollar lunch and a ninety dollar dinner.
- BakeriesA card that completes in under a month, because bread is bought three times a week.
- Hair salonsA stamp per appointment, and a list of who is past their usual six weeks.
- BarbershopsEvery sixth cut free, counted without a booking system.
- Gyms and studiosAttendance as the number that predicts renewal.
- Car washesOne scan through the window, and the ninth wash is free.
- Pet groomersKeeping the six-week groom from stretching to twelve.
- Bike shopsPoints from the bike that pay for the first service.
- Trades and servicesReferral and repeat work, started from the invoice.