Reward ideas for your loyalty programme, trade by trade

Two questions are enough to judge a reward idea. The first: what does it actually cost me? Not the shelf price, the cost price. A free coffee does not cost you what is chalked on the board, it costs you the beans, the milk and the cup. Thinking in selling prices makes you give up on rewards that, in practice, weigh almost nothing.

The second question: when do you hand it over? A free pizza on a Friday at eight takes an oven slot while the phone is ringing. The same pizza, collected on a Tuesday, costs you next to nothing. The reward is identical, its real cost has nothing in common from one slot to the other. Write the rule down before service, not in the middle of it.

Then there is the rhythm. Small and soon beats big and far away, and the counter shows it every week: a pastry after ten visits brings people back, a large voucher after forty brings nobody back, because nobody can picture themselves getting there. A regular should reach the reward in weeks, not in seasons.

Digikart's free plan allows one reward, which is plenty to start with. The Plus plan allows up to three tiers in the same cycle, and that is where the setting gets precise: a small gesture early, the real reward at the end, the customer deciding at the counter whether to take the first one or carry on collecting. The ideas below are sorted by trade, each with what it costs you and the moment to give it.

These are the easiest trades to set up: the customer comes often, and the product you give away costs little in raw materials.

• Bakery. The free pastry, scone or loaf on the tenth visit. Cost: your cost price, nothing like the ticket price. When: no restriction, including the Saturday morning rush, one more pastry takes nobody's place. See the bakery loyalty card page.
• Coffee shop. The tenth coffee free. Cost: the beans, the milk, the cup. When: any time of day, but write “a free coffee” and not “a free drink”, or the reward changes category with the first sharp customer. See the coffee shop loyalty card page.
• Tea room. A free cake with the tea on the eleventh visit. Cost: the slice, plus the space it was taking in the display. When: midweek for preference. On a Sunday afternoon, when you are turning people away, this is the reward that costs you most. See the tea room loyalty card page.
• Ice cream shop. The eleventh ice cream free. Cost: one scoop and a cone. When: all season, as long as the poster says “one scoop in a cone”, or someone will ask for the litre tub. See the ice cream shop loyalty card page.

In these four trades, the threshold matters more than the gift: a regular should get their reward in a few weeks, not in six months. The Plus plan's welcome bonus helps a lot, the card starts with one or two stamps already on it, and a card that has been started gets finished.

One rule here before all the others: never give away the main course. Give away whatever has the widest gap between selling price and cost price. The reward will look generous to the customer and stay light for you.

• Restaurant. A free starter or dessert, in points mode (one pound spent, one point, one euro in Ireland), at around 150 points. Cost: the cost price of a dessert, the lowest on your menu. When: announced when the order is taken, never after the bill, or it serves no purpose. See the restaurant loyalty card page.
• Pizzeria. Ten pizzas, the eleventh free. Cost: dough, sauce, cheese. When: keep it for collection or for midweek. A free pizza on a Friday night takes an oven slot you would have sold. See the pizzeria loyalty card page.
• Crêperie or dessert shop. The set of one savoury galette, one sweet crêpe and a drink at 100 points. Cost: flour, egg, a simple filling. When: weekday lunchtimes. Specify the one from the short menu, not the loaded one. See the crêperie loyalty card page.
• Food truck or takeaway. Eight meals, the ninth free. Cost: a whole meal, the most expensive reward on this list. Own it: it is also the most motivating. When: away from the lunchtime peak if the queue is building, offer the customer to take it the next day. See the takeaway loyalty card page.
• Pub. A free half or soft drink on the tenth visit. Cost: very low on draught and on soft drinks. And write “a half or a soft drink”, or the reward becomes a cocktail. Two points of law before the poster is printed. In England and Wales, the mandatory conditions of the Licensing Act 2003 ban irresponsible promotions, including free or discounted drink given as a prize to reward drinking over a period of 24 hours or less, so a card that runs over weeks is one thing and a same-night race is another. In Ireland, the regulations made under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, in force since 11 January 2021, ban awarding or using loyalty points on alcohol altogether: point the reward at food or a soft drink. See the pub loyalty card page.

The common principle: the reward has to be named precisely on the card and on the poster. “A free drink” gets negotiated at the bar, “a free half or soft drink” does not. You spare yourself the discussion during service, which is to say at the worst moment of the day.

In food shops the basket varies too much to count visits: points mode, one pound spent equals one point, is the only fair way. And the reward can do a second job, getting a customer to taste something they would never have picked up on their own.

• Butcher's. Ten pounds off the basket, or the Sunday roasting chicken, at around 200 points. Cost: the two are not equal. Ten pounds off the basket costs you ten full pounds; the chicken costs you only what you paid for it, so far less than its label. When: the chicken works better on a Saturday, because it decides the next day's lunch. See the butcher's loyalty card page.
• Cheese shop. Cheese of their choice up to a cap you set, twelve pounds for instance, at 120 points. Cost: your buying price, plus the cutting. When: all year round. It is the reward that sells best: a customer who tastes a cheese they did not know comes back for it. See the cheese shop loyalty card page.
• Greengrocer. The seasonal veg box at twelve visits. Cost: whatever you have in abundance that week, since you are the one filling the box. When: in full season, not in midwinter when everything is dear. See the greengrocer loyalty card page.
• Wine shop. A bottle from a selection you define, at around 300 points. Cost: your buying price on that selection, so an amount you control entirely. When: at the counter, taking the time to explain the bottle. In Ireland, points on alcohol have been off the table since January 2021, so reward with glasses, a corkscrew or a food product instead. In the UK, a free bottle goes out under the same age checks as a sold one, Challenge 25 included. See the wine shop loyalty card page.
• Delicatessen. The signature product at 200 points: your olive oil, or that pâté you describe so well. Cost: your buying price, probably the most profitable discovery budget in the shop. When: after Christmas, when the average basket comes back down. See the delicatessen loyalty card page.

What these five rewards have in common: they are capped. “A free cheese” with no limit means a wedge of the thirty-six month cheddar on a Saturday morning. Write the cap, in pounds or as a named product, and the question will never come up at the counter again.

In appointment trades, the scarce resource is not the product, it is the chair. A free service costs you a slot you could have sold. A free product costs you one dose. Choose by the state of your diary, not by what looks most generous on the poster.

• Hair salon. The eleventh service at half price, or a free treatment. Cost: the half price service costs a whole slot, the treatment costs a dose and ten minutes. When: diary full, give the treatment. Quiet Tuesdays, give the service and steer it towards those days. See the hair salon loyalty card page.
• Barbershop. The ninth service free. Cost: one turn in the chair. Light version: a free neck and beard tidy between two cuts, a few minutes only, and it brings the customer back between appointments, which is the whole point. When: midweek, early afternoon. See the barbershop loyalty card page.
• Beauty salon. The express treatment at 200 points. Cost: a room for a short while, plus the product. When: on a slot you offer, not at the moment the client asks for it. See the beauty salon loyalty card page.
• Nail salon. The seventh service at half price, or free nail art on the set being done. Cost: nail art costs almost nothing in product, only a few minutes of work. When: nail art has a decisive advantage, it is given straight away, which makes it more effective than a discount promised for next time. See the nail salon loyalty card page.

These are also the trades where the Pro plan's birthday reward finds its best ground: on the day, your gesture goes out on the client's card by itself, without you having to think about it. Few shops do it, and the person who receives it remembers it for a long time.

These two trades escape the logic above, for exactly opposite reasons: with one, the reward can cost a great deal, with the other it costs almost nothing.

• Florist. A free bouquet at around 150 points. The trap is well known: a bouquet has no fixed price. Set a cap, or give a fixed amount off the bouquet instead, or the seasonal bunch. Cost: your buying price, which varies a lot by flower, hence the cap. When: above all not in Mother's Day week, which falls in March in the UK and Ireland, nor in Valentine's week, when every stem sells at full price. See the florist loyalty card page.
• Gym. Twenty sessions checked in, then the reward. Cost: close to nothing as long as the gym is not full. A month of locker hire, a drink, a guest pass for a friend: none of that comes out of your till. A personal training session, on the other hand, costs a coach's slot, so keep it for the top tier. When: any time, a gym has no rush to protect. And think about the Pro plan's automatic nudge for inactive members, which messages them after the number of days without a visit that you set (30 days by default): on a membership, bringing someone back before they drop off counts as much as the gift itself. See the gym loyalty card page.

For trades not on this list, the all trades page and the loyalty card app for small businesses page follow the same logic. And one rule holds everywhere: give away what you sell. The keyring, the tote bag or the mug bought in from somewhere else cost you real money, bring nobody back and say nothing about your shop.

The threshold is not picked at random, it follows from the real rhythm of your customers. Take your average regular and count: if they come once a week, ten stamps make two and a half months, that works. If they come once a month, ten stamps make almost a year, and nobody holds on for a year for a pastry. In that case, lower the threshold, or switch to points so that the amount counts as much as the visit.

If your programme is already running, tiers change things. The Plus plan allows up to three tiers in the same cycle: a small gesture early, a medium reward in the middle, the good one right at the end. When a tier is reached, the customer chooses at the counter: take the reward, and their counter goes back to zero, or carry on collecting towards the next tier. That choice is the whole point: the customer in a hurry leaves happy at the first tier, the patient one aims for the big prize, and you never pay for all three.

Changing the reward along the way is allowed, but it has to be announced. A customer who was aiming for the free cheese and finds a discount in its place feels short changed, even if the value is close. The CAP Code, which the ASA applies to sales promotions, asks you to state the significant conditions up front, to award what you advertised or a reasonable equivalent, and to amend a running promotion only exceptionally; since 6 April 2025 the unfair commercial practices rules of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 have put the same idea into law. In practice, with the Pro plan one notification goes out to every card at once, with no billed SMS: give two weeks' notice, honour the old reward for those already well advanced, and nobody will mind.

Start small: one reward, a reachable threshold, written in black and white on the counter poster. Digikart's free plan is enough for that, with no card details and no limit on customers. After a month you will know whether the threshold is right, and you will adjust it. Prices are set out on the pricing page (Plus is 17 € including VAT a month, roughly £15, billed in euros wherever you are), and the automatic messages (birthday, win-back, Google reviews) on the automations page.