Setting up a café loyalty program in Australia (2026)

Published 19 August 2026 · Updated 28 September 2026 · Reviewed quarterly

For a café, run a digital stamp card in Apple/Google Wallet: one stamp per visit, free coffee after 9, joined via a counter QR in about 20 seconds. Give new members 2 head-start stamps, honour old paper-card balances, and keep the reward certain. On Rewardtree this is free — setup takes about 5 minutes.

The steps#

1. Set the classic threshold. Buy 9, get the 10th free. A daily regular finishes it in about a fortnight; a twice-a-week customer inside two months. Avoid 15-stamp cards, because a reward that far away stops pulling.
2. Stamp per visit, not per dollar. Coffees cost about the same each time, so one stamp per visit is understood straight away at the counter. Points per dollar suit places where spend varies a lot.
3. Start cards 2 stamps in. Head-start stamps make a new card feel already under way. Two stamps on a 10-stamp card is a good start.
4. Move paper regulars across without losing progress. The first time a regular joins, add their paper-card stamps plus today's stamp to their new card by hand, in one go (a manager, or staff with their own PIN, can do this in the Merchant app; by default a customer can collect once every 4 hours). One stamp of goodwill beats "sorry, new system".
5. Get the free Merchant app on the counter phone. Your staff scan cards with the free Rewardtree Merchant app, so put it on the counter phone before the QR goes up. It keeps working if the internet drops and catches up later. Your customers never need an app.
6. Put the QR where the queue waits. Tent card by the till, sticker on the machine. They join while the milk steams, in about 20 seconds: name, mobile, the code from one text, and the card is in their phone's wallet.

The café is where the stamp card was born#

People buy coffee often, and how often they come is everything for a stamp card: the reward has to arrive soon enough to feel certain. That's why buy 9, get the 10th free has lasted through every change since the rubber stamp. The idea works fine. Only the paper was broken.

You know paper's problems already: cards through the wash, cards left at home ("I'll grab a stamp next time", and they don't), cards photocopied by the one bloke who ruins it for everyone, and no customer list at all.

What the digital version changes#

The card lives in the wallet app on the phone they're already holding. Joining is a QR scan while the milk steams. Every stamp updates the card on their phone before they've picked up the cup: your logo, your colours, their progress, no effort. And for the first time your regulars are a list you can see and download.

At the counter nothing much changes: they show their card, your staff scan it with the free Rewardtree Merchant app, done. The app keeps working when the internet drops, because café Wi-Fi is café Wi-Fi, and it catches up later without doubling any stamps.

Going live in a morning#

1. Claim your link at rewardtr.ee.
2. Answer the setup questions: stamps; "Free coffee after 9"; your logo and colour.
3. Print the counter kit (tent card, countertop card, stickers and a staff cheat-sheet).
4. Put the free Rewardtree Merchant app on the counter phone.
5. Tell staff one sentence: "scan their card, tap once".

It all fits between the morning rush and lunch, and the loyalty program is free forever. We make Rewardtree, so weigh our advice with that in mind.

Questions, answered#

Run a café? See Rewardtree for cafés.