Digital loyalty cards: common questions
How stamp-card loyalty works for a small shop, what it costs, and what it needs. Answers apply to RevoStamp, a digital loyalty platform for independent shops in Algeria.
What is a digital loyalty card?
A digital loyalty card is a stamp card that lives on the customer's phone browser instead of in their wallet. The shop gives a stamp on each qualifying visit, and the customer earns a reward once the card is full.
The paper version has two failure modes a digital one does not: the customer loses the card, and the shop has no idea how many are in circulation. A digital card cannot be lost with a jacket, and the shop can see how many customers are two stamps from a reward.
Do customers need to download an app?
No. RevoStamp cards open in the phone's browser. A customer scans the shop's QR code, enters their name and phone number once, and their card is a web page they can bookmark or add to their home screen.
This matters more than it sounds. Asking someone to install an app for one café is the point where most loyalty programmes lose the customer, it costs them storage, an app-store trip, and an account they did not want.
How does a customer collect a stamp?
The customer scans the shop's QR code and taps to request a stamp; the cashier approves it. Approval is deliberate rather than automatic, so a stamp always corresponds to something a member of staff saw.
There is one QR code per shop, printed and displayed at the counter, not one code per customer. A per-customer code would be a second credential to protect for no benefit.
A cooldown stops the same customer claiming repeatedly in one visit. It defaults to 60 minutes and can be set anywhere from 0 to 1440 minutes (24 hours).
Can a shop give a stamp without the customer scanning at the counter?
Yes. The shop can print a one-time code on the receipt instead. Each sale gets its own code, it works exactly once, and the customer scans it on the way out or later at home, so nobody has to handle a phone during a rush.
The shop sets how long a printed code stays valid, so a code that is never scanned expires on its own rather than staying claimable forever. The printed slip carries only the shop name and the code.
A printed code can also be worth more than one stamp. If the shop counts items rather than visits, the cashier types the quantity and a six-item sale produces a code worth six stamps, which can fill a card but never overfill it or release two rewards.
How many stamps should a loyalty card need?
Eight is the RevoStamp default, and the card can be set to anywhere from 4 to 12. Fewer stamps means the reward arrives sooner and feels achievable; more stamps means each reward costs the shop less per visit.
The practical test is the price of the reward against the margin on the qualifying purchase. A free coffee after 8 coffees is a discount of roughly 11% on the run; the same reward after 5 is closer to 17%.
Can the shop keep its own branding?
Yes. Each shop gets its own page with its own logo, colours, fonts, background and stamp artwork, customers never see a generic platform page carrying someone else's name.
There are 27 stamp styles, including ones matched to the trade: coffee, dessert, cupcake, macaron, croissant, pizza, sushi, burger, nails, scissors, jewel, fitness, pet, book and car among them. A shop can also upload its own SVG or image, or use an emoji.
Six fonts are available for headings and body text, along with colour, gradient background, corner radius and layout controls.
What languages does it support?
English, French and Arabic, with full right-to-left layout in Arabic. The customer chooses, and the shop can set a default for its own page.
Right-to-left here means the layout mirrors, not just the text: navigation, icons and directional arrows all flip, which is the part most multilingual sites skip.
Does the shop need special hardware?
No. The shop needs a printed QR code and any device with a browser to approve stamps, the phone already in the cashier's pocket is enough. There is no scanner, terminal, card reader or point-of-sale integration to buy.
How long does setup take?
Under five minutes for a shop that already knows its reward and how many stamps it wants. Setup is choosing the reward, the stamp count, the colours and the logo, then printing the QR poster the platform generates.
If you would rather not do the design part, we do it for you at no extra charge, send your logo and we match the card to your brand, then you approve it before any customer sees it.
What does it cost?
RevoStamp is free while in preview. There is no card required to start and no per-customer or per-stamp fee during this period.
After that it is paid, and the price is agreed with you rather than published: send an opening request and we contact you on WhatsApp to talk through what your shop needs and what it costs. The first payment covers two years, then it renews yearly.
One published number would be wrong for a patisserie with two hundred regulars and wrong again for a salon with thirty, which is why the conversation comes first.
What customer data does a loyalty programme collect?
RevoStamp stores a customer's name and phone number, their stamp count, and the timestamps of their visits. Nothing else, no email is required, no payment details are held, and no address is asked for.
The shop is the data controller for its own customers and the platform is its processor. Visit records older than 90 days are archived. There are no third-party analytics, advertising pixels or external trackers on customer-facing pages.
Can one customer be a member at several shops?
Yes, and the shops cannot see each other. Each shop holds its own separate record, so the same phone number can be a customer at a café and a salon without either learning about the other.
What happens when a card is full?
The customer sees the reward on their card and shows it at the counter. Staff mark the reward as given, and the card resets to zero so the customer can start again.
A completed card cannot mint more than one reward. Pressing the stamp control on a card that is already full does nothing.
Is a digital stamp card better than a paper one?
For the shop, yes, on one specific count: you can see the programme. Paper tells you nothing about how many customers are close to a reward, who has stopped coming, or whether the programme is worth running at all.
For the customer, the honest answer is that paper is fine until they lose it. The digital advantage is recovery, the card is tied to their phone number, so it survives a lost wallet, a new coat and a house move.
Who is RevoStamp for?
Independent shops with repeat customers and a small enough team that nobody wants to learn software: cafés, patisseries, bakeries, salons, barbers, nail bars, florists and small restaurants.
It is a poor fit for businesses where customers visit once a year, or where the transaction is large and infrequent enough that a stamp card is the wrong instrument.