Setting up a takeaway loyalty program in Australia (2026)

Published 14 October 2026 · Updated 21 October 2026 · Reviewed quarterly

For a takeaway shop, run a digital stamp card in Apple or Google Wallet: one stamp per visit, and money off worth about your most popular item, like $12 off, after 9 paid visits. Customers scan one QR at your counter while they wait for their order, and nobody needs an app. On Rewardtree it's 60 days free.

The steps#

1. Give money off with a clear limit. Orders swing from one kebab to a family feast. Money off worth about your most popular item, like "$12 off", is a free kebab to a regular and never a free family order.
2. Pay for 9, rewarded on the 10th. It's the card everyone knows. A weekly regular gets there in about two months, and a twice-a-week regular in about one.
3. Put the QR where people wait for their order. Print your free QR poster for the counter. Waiting for a pizza is the perfect few minutes to join: first name, mobile, the code we text them, and the card is in their phone's wallet.
4. Ask for the scan as they collect. Customers scan the same QR each visit as they pick up. Nobody scans their phone, and your staff type nothing in the rush.
5. Glance at your late-night stamps. If you haven't set opening hours, stamps collected late at night are still given, but they show as "Needs a look" on your page. If you trade late, look now and then.

Why takeaway shops suit a stamp card#

Takeaway regulars are creatures of habit: the Friday pizza, the lunchtime kebab, the charcoal chicken and chips on a Sunday night. They come back every week or two, often for the same order. That is exactly what a stamp card rewards.

But a regular has a few shops to choose from, and the choice is often made in the car on the way home. A card on their phone with 7 stamps on it makes the choice for them. Paper cards go home in the bag with the food and end up in the bin with it.

How often do your regulars come?#

On the classic card, 9 paid visits and the reward on the 10th:

If most of your regulars come weekly or more, 9 suits you. A shop whose best customers come fortnightly can type 6 instead, so the reward still arrives inside three months.

What does the reward really cost you?#

Say a kebab is A$16 and a large pizza A$24 on your board, and a regular's family order is around A$30. Use your own figures:

Those are example figures, so put in your own. Money off costs you exactly what it says, but it never grows with the order: the regular who brings the whole family on their 10th visit still gets $12 off, not a free feast.

Rewards that work for a takeaway shop#

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

• $12 off after 9: "Customers pay for 9 visits. Their 10th gets $12 off." About a kebab, for a kebab shop.
• $20 off after 9: "Customers pay for 9 visits. Their 10th gets $20 off." About a large pizza, for a pizza shop.
• $10 off after 9: "Customers pay for 9 visits. Their 10th gets $10 off." For a charcoal chicken shop, where one order is a quarter chicken and the next a family pack.

Prefer a free kebab? Your card names it: type "Free kebab" and it says "Customers pay for 9 visits. Their 10th visit gets a free kebab." If your kebabs come in sizes, name one, like "Free small kebab", so the customer and the counter read it the same way.

Lunch, dinner and late nights#

• The lunch rush. Workers have half an hour. The QR sits on the counter, so they scan while you wrap the kebab, and the queue never stops for it.
• Dinner for the family. One person orders and scans, so one phone collects one stamp for the whole order. Partners who take turns picking up can each join on their own phone.
• Phone orders. The customer scans as they collect, like a walk-in.
• Delivery. The card is for pick-up and eat-in: customers collect by scanning at your counter, and a stamp collected from home shows as "Needs a look".
• Late nights. Each stamp is checked against where your shop is. If you haven't set opening hours, one collected late at night is still given, but it shows as "Needs a look" on your page, and you can see and undo every stamp. If you trade past 10 pm, expect a few, and glance at them now and then. If you set your opening hours instead, a stamp collected more than 30 minutes after closing doesn't count, so set them to when you really close.
• Using the reward. It comes off the visit after the card fills, never the one that fills it. Their phone asks "Use it now?", they tap, and you see a live screen with the reward, their first name and a moving clock. Take the money off and hand over the bag.

Getting customers to join#

1. One sentence as they order: "Scan this while you wait: every 10th visit gets $12 off."
2. The QR where people wait: on the counter, near the drinks fridge, and a sticker beside the menu board.
3. Your link online. Put your shop's link on your Google Business Profile and in your Instagram bio, so phone-order regulars can join before they arrive.
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. For a charcoal chicken shop with Arabic-speaking regulars, or a pizza shop with Italian ones, that matters.

Mistakes to avoid#

• Promising a free order. "Free 10th visit" on a takeaway card means a free family feast one night. Give money off with a number on it.
• Asking only when it's quiet. The Friday rush is when your regulars are all there.
• A card that's too long. Fifteen visits is more than three months for a weekly regular.

The worked example: a takeaway shop on Rewardtree in a few minutes#

1. Your shop's name and mobile at rewardtree.com.au/signup, then the code we text you.
2. Your reward, in one sentence. Pick Other, type 9 and "$12 off", and your card reads "Customers pay for 9 visits. Their 10th gets $12 off."
3. Your shop's address. Check the pin sits on your shopfront, not the car park behind it.
4. Go live, and print your free QR poster. Tape it where people stand while their order is cooking.

The Australian rules, in plain words#

This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

• Your board prices include GST. The law asks for one total price on everything you sell to the public (ACCC: Price displays, checked 29 September 2026), so "$12 off" comes off the board price. Ask your accountant or BAS agent how to record the discount.
• Offers need a yes first (Spam Act 2003). A Tuesday family-deal message needs the customer's consent, your shop's name and an unsubscribe that works, and an unsubscribe must be honoured within 5 working days (ACMA: Avoid sending spam, checked 29 September 2026). Your shop's page has its own "can text me offers" box, and it starts unticked. More in do I need permission to text or email my customers offers?
• Privacy Act 1988. A takeaway shop with an annual turnover of A$3 million or less usually isn't covered, though some small businesses are (OAIC: Small business, checked 14 October 2026). Either way, keep only what you need. Customers joining your card are told your shop will see their first name, mobile and visits.

What it costs#

On Rewardtree it's 60 days free with no credit card, then A$9.99 a month per shop, or A$99 a year. 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. Pricing has the details, and Rewardtree for takeaway shops the short version. You keep your till and your ordering apps, because Rewardtree sits beside them instead of plugging in: Rewardtree vs Square Loyalty compares that with a POS loyalty add-on. Sit-down trade too? The restaurant guide covers bigger bills.

Every kind of shop starts from the same plan: how to set up a loyalty program in Australia. We make Rewardtree, so weigh our advice with that in mind.

Questions, answered#

Run a takeaway shop? See Rewardtree for takeaway shops.