How to Start a Customer Loyalty Programme for Your NZ Small Business (No App, No Developer)

Most guides to “starting a loyalty programme” assume you’ve already got a budget, a marketing person, and time to evaluate software. If you’re running a café, a barber shop or a small retailer and you just want regulars to come back more often, here’s the actual process — what to decide, what to set up, and what it costs to run.

Step 1: Decide what you’re rewarding

There are two common models, and they’re not the same thing.

Visit-based. The customer gets a stamp for showing up — walking in and getting scanned, regardless of what they buy. This suits places where the visit itself is the point: cafés, bars, gyms, salons. It’s the simplest to run because there’s no link to a till transaction.

Purchase-based. The stamp is tied to buying a specific thing — buy nine coffees, get the tenth free. This is the classic model, and it works well when you want the reward to map to a specific product rather than any visit.

You can run either, or both at once — a general visit stamp and a separate purchase-linked card for your best-selling item. Decide this before you set anything up, because it shapes what your staff actually scan.

Step 2: Decide how many stamps and what the reward is

Ten stamps for a free coffee is the classic ratio, but it’s not a rule. The maths that actually matters: the reward should cost you meaningfully less than the goodwill and repeat visits it buys. A free coffee after nine paid ones is roughly a 10% discount spread across ten visits — cheap for you, and a genuine reason for a customer to choose your shop over the one next door on a day they’re deciding where to go.

Don’t overthink this at the start. Pick a number, run it for a few months, and adjust once you can see actual redemption data.

Step 3: Choose how the customer carries the card

This is the decision that determines whether the scheme actually gets used. Three real options exist:

For most small businesses, the wallet pass option gets you the best of both — digital record-keeping, physical-card-level simplicity for the customer.

Step 4: Set up the scanning workflow for your staff

Whatever platform you choose, the actual counter process needs to be something any staff member can do on their first shift, with no training day. The workable pattern is:

  1. A QR code sits at the counter (or the till has one for purchase-based stamps).
  2. A new customer scans it once — their card is created automatically, no form to fill in.
  3. On return visits, staff scan the customer’s code on the card itself — takes about two seconds, using a phone camera, no separate scanner or tablet needed.

If your chosen platform needs a card reader, a tablet permanently mounted at the till, or POS integration to get this working, that’s extra hardware and extra things that can break. It’s worth asking directly whether a phone camera is enough.

Step 5: Decide if you want to reach customers again

A stamp card that only counts stamps is doing half the job. The other half is being able to message your regulars directly — “free upsize until 3pm today,” or “we’re open Boxing Day.” A paper card can’t do this at all. Some digital platforms charge extra for it; some include it.

If you’re choosing a platform, check whether messaging customers is a built-in feature or a separate add-on with its own price, because this is genuinely where a loyalty scheme starts paying for itself — not the stamps themselves, but the ability to reach people who’ve already shown up once.

Step 6: Check what you actually own

Ask directly: if you stop using this platform, is your customer list yours to take with you? Some platforms treat the customer relationship as theirs, not yours — worth confirming in writing before you build six months of stamps on top of it.

Common questions owners actually ask

Do I need a card reader or tablet? No, not with a wallet-pass system. A phone camera scanning a QR code is enough for both signup and stamping. If a platform tells you that you need dedicated hardware, factor that cost and the “something else that can break” risk into your decision.

What if a customer doesn’t have a smartphone, or doesn’t want a digital card? Keep a small stack of paper cards behind the counter for that minority. There’s no rule that says you have to run only one system — most shops that switch to digital still have a handful of paper holdouts, and that’s fine.

How long does setup actually take? For a wallet-pass platform, realistically under an hour: choose your stamp count and reward, upload a logo if you want one, print or receive a QR code for the counter, and test it yourself before opening. Most of that hour is deciding the reward, not fighting the technology.

Do I need to train staff? If the workflow is “scan a QR code with your phone camera,” there’s nothing to train beyond showing someone once. If the platform needs a login, a separate app, or a tablet workflow, budget real time for that instead.

What it costs to run this properly

Realistic ranges for what small-business loyalty tools charge, based on published pricing:

The five-minute version

If you want to skip the research and just get a card running today: pick your stamp count and reward, get a QR code on the counter, and make sure the card lands in your customer’s wallet with nothing to install. That’s the whole workable version of a loyalty scheme — everything else (broadcasts, analytics, spin wheels) is worth having, but it’s not what makes the difference between a scheme that gets used and one that quietly dies in a drawer.

Open Locally’s loyalty card is free to set up, goes into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet from a QR scan, and staff stamp it with their own phone at the counter — no card reader, no tablet, no app for the customer to install.

Set your card up free: openlocally.com/loyalty — most shops have it running in one sitting.

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