Loyalty cards for a bakery
A bakery's problem is not getting people in, it is that bread is bought wherever is nearest. A stamp card is the cheapest way to make nearest mean you.
Daily bread, occasional cake
Bakeries have two customers in one shop. The daily bread buyer comes five times a week and spends little; the cake buyer comes for an occasion and spends a lot.
Build the card for the daily buyer. They are the habit you are protecting, and the occasion buyer will collect stamps anyway without needing to be courted.
Eight to twelve stamps suits a daily visit. A card that takes a month to fill for someone who comes every morning is not asking much of them.
Count items, not visits
This is the setting that matters most for a bakery, and it is where a generic loyalty programme fails you.
Someone buying six pastries for the office should not walk out with the same single stamp as someone buying one baguette. Switch the rule to per item and the cashier enters the count, the code is worth that many stamps.
It is capped at the length of the card, so one large order can never complete a card outright. A wedding cake does not empty your reward budget.
| Rule | Better for |
|---|---|
| Per purchase | A shop where most baskets are similar |
| Per item | A bakery, where basket size swings widely |
The reward that costs you least
Make the reward something you bake rather than something you buy in. Your margin on your own bread is the highest thing in the shop, so a free loaf costs you least and reads as most generous.
Avoid making it the most expensive item. A free celebration cake against a card of daily baguettes is a discount you will feel.
Setting it up
The croissant, cupcake, dessert and macaron stamps are all in the 27, and the right one makes the card recognisable at a glance.
Print the QR poster for the counter and, if you have a window, the sticker, a bakery gets passing trade that a café does not, and the card is a reason to come in.