Setting up a café loyalty program in Australia (2026)

Published 19 August 2026 · Updated 21 October 2026 · Reviewed quarterly

For a café, run a digital stamp card in Apple or Google Wallet: one stamp per visit, the 10th coffee free, joined by scanning one QR on your counter. Keep the reward certain, let regulars finish their old paper cards, and put the QR where the queue waits. On Rewardtree, setup takes a few minutes and it's 60 days free.

The steps#

1. Set the classic card. Buy 9, get the 10th free: at sign-up you type 9, and your card reads "Customers pay for 9 coffees. Their 10th is free." A daily regular finishes it in about a fortnight; a twice-a-week customer in about a month. 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.
3. Let paper regulars finish their old card. Put your Rewardtree QR by the till. Let regulars finish their old card; from today they collect on Rewardtree. When the last paper cards are used up, you never print another.
4. Put the QR where the queue waits. The poster by the till, a sticker on the machine. Customers scan it with their phone camera while the milk steams: first name, mobile, the code we text them, and the card is in their phone's wallet.
5. Remind them to scan each visit. Each visit, the customer scans the same QR for one stamp. Nobody scans their phone, so staff just say "Don't forget your stamp".

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 filled in by the one bloke with a look-alike stamp, reprinting every few months, and no idea who your regulars are.

A digital card fixes the paper and keeps the idea. It lives in the wallet app on the phone they're already holding, and for the first time your regulars are a list of names and visits you can see.

How a daily habit shapes the card#

A barber's clients come every few weeks. Yours might come every morning. Here's when a regular reaches the free coffee on the classic card, pay for 9, the 10th free:

For your daily regulars, a free coffee every fortnight is often enough to feel certain, and it gives them a reason to choose you over the place next door. Customers also come back sooner as a reward gets closer (Kivetz, Urminsky and Zheng, 2006): stamp 8 is a reason to come in tomorrow.

If most of your trade is weekly, say a weekend café, 6 or 7 brings the reward closer. Don't go past 9: a 15-stamp card takes a weekly customer more than three months, and they stop counting.

What the free coffee really costs you#

Say a coffee is A$5.60 on your board and a large is A$6.40. Use your own figures:

"Costs you" for a free coffee is the beans, milk and cup. Money off costs exactly what it says, which is why a free coffee is the cheaper reward to give and the nicer one to get. The full sum is in how much does a free-coffee loyalty card really cost a café?

Rewards that fit a café#

Pick one. Each is written the way your card will say it:

• Free coffee after 9: "Customers pay for 9 coffees. Their 10th is free." The one everyone knows.
• Free large coffee after 7: "Customers pay for 7 coffees. Their 8th visit gets a free large coffee." A little closer, a little bigger.
• Money off after 5: "Customers pay for 5 coffees. Their 6th gets $4 off." Simple, but dearer to give.

Say exactly what the reward is. Your card counts coffees, and it names any other reward. Type "Free pastry" with 9 coffees and the card says "Customers pay for 9 coffees. Their 10th visit gets a free pastry." Nobody will read that as a free coffee.

Moving regulars off paper cards#

Put your Rewardtree QR by the till. Let regulars finish their old card; from today they collect on Rewardtree. If someone hands you a full paper card, give them the free coffee first, then they start on their new card. When the last paper cards are used up, you never print another.

At the counter#

• Nothing slows down. Nobody scans the customer's phone, and staff type nothing. The customer scans while the milk steams, and the card on their phone updates before they pick up the cup.
• One stamp per visit. A visit is 4 hours by default, so a regular who pops back for a second coffee an hour later doesn't collect twice.
• Fake stamps. Each stamp is checked against where your café is. A stamp from far away is still given but shows as "Needs a look" on your page, and you can see and undo every stamp. Set your opening hours and a stamp collected more than 30 minutes outside them doesn't count. It's much harder to fake than paper.
• The Wi-Fi drops. Customers use their own phone's data, and your poster is paper.
• The free coffee. The visit that fills the card is paid as normal. On the next visit the customer's phone asks "Use it now?", and they show you a live screen with the reward, their first name and a moving clock. You hand over the coffee.

Getting customers to join#

1. One sentence, every time, as they pay: "Want your 10th coffee free? Scan this and it goes in your phone's wallet."
2. The QR where the queue waits: the poster by the till, a sticker on the machine.
3. Your shop's link online. Put it in your Instagram bio and on your Google Business Profile, so people can join before their first visit.
4. Their language. The page customers join on works in English, Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Serbian and Croatian, and opens in the language their phone uses.

More ideas are in how to get customers to join your loyalty program.

Mistakes to avoid#

• The wrong number. For buy 9, get the 10th free, type 9: the number you type is the coffees they pay for.
• A card that's too long. Fifteen stamps is a long way for anyone but a daily regular.
• Staff who don't mention it. A poster on its own is easy to walk past.
• Paper and digital forever. Finish the old cards, then stop printing.
• A reward that changes every month. You can change it any time, and the QR stays the same, but regulars should know what they're working towards.

Going live in a morning#

1. Your café's name and mobile at rewardtree.com.au/signup. We text you a code to check it's your number.
2. Your reward, in one sentence. Pick Café, and your card starts at "Customers pay for 9 coffees. Their 10th is free."
3. Your café's address. Type it and check the pin on the map. More than one café? Add them right there; one card works at all of them.
4. Go live, and print your free QR poster. An A4 poster for the till, with a page of four stickers for the machine.
5. Tell staff one sentence: "Scan the QR for your stamp."

It all fits between the morning rush and lunch.

What it costs#

The pricing page has the details, and Rewardtree for cafés has the short version. Already on Square at the till? Rewardtree works beside it, and Rewardtree vs Square Loyalty compares the two. If you're weighing free options, read the best free loyalty program for a café. Selling bread too? The bakery guide covers weekly buyers, and how to set up a loyalty program in Australia has the plan for any business.

Rewardtree is 60 days free with no credit card, then A$9.99 a month per shop. That's our end-of-year special for businesses that sign up by 31 December 2026: you keep it for every shop, including shops you add later, for as long as you stay. From 1 January 2027, businesses that sign up pay A$19.99 a month or A$199 a year. We make Rewardtree, so weigh our advice with that in mind.

Questions, answered#

Run a café? See Rewardtree for cafés.