Points vs Stamp Cards: Which Loyalty Programme Suits Your Business?
By Zawadi team Updated 4 min read
The short answer
Stamp cards suit businesses where customers buy the same thing each visit, like barbershops, car washes and cafés, because 'sixth one free' is instantly clear. Points suit businesses where spend varies, like butcheries, restaurants and pharmacies, because bigger baskets earn more. Many businesses run both: points on spend plus a stamp card for one signature item.
Every loyalty programme comes down to one choice before anything else: do you count stamps or points? Both work. They suit different businesses, and choosing the wrong one makes your programme harder to understand and less likely to stick.
The short version
| Stamp card | Points | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | One stamp per visit, reward when the card is full | Points based on what the customer spends |
| Best for | Same purchase each time | Purchases that vary in size |
| Easy to explain? | Very: "6th wash free" | Needs a sentence: "1 point per KES 100" |
| Rewards big spenders more? | No | Yes |
| Typical businesses | Barbershops, car washes, cafés, nail bars | Butcheries, restaurants, pharmacies, supermarkets |
When stamp cards win
A stamp card counts visits. Each time the customer comes in, they get one stamp, and when the card is full they get the reward.
Stamp cards work best when three things are true:
- The purchase is similar each time. A haircut is a haircut. A full wash is a full wash.
- Frequency is what you want more of. You'd rather the client came every two weeks than every three.
- You want the offer to spread by word of mouth. "My car wash gives every sixth wash free" is the kind of sentence people repeat.
The weakness of a stamp card is that it treats every visit the same. The customer who has a full wash, interior clean and engine wash gets the same single stamp as the customer who has an exterior rinse. If that difference matters to you, run a second card for the big service, or use points.
Digital beats paper
Paper stamp cards have well-known problems: they get lost, left at home, washed in a pocket, or stamped by someone with a borrowed rubber stamp. A digital stamp card tied to the customer's phone number fixes all of these. Staff add the stamp when they record the visit, and the customer never has to carry anything.
When points win
Points count spend. A common starting rate is one point for every KES 100, with rewards at set point totals.
Points work best when:
- Basket sizes vary. At a butchery, one customer buys a quarter kilo and the next buys for a family of six. Points reward the bigger basket fairly.
- You sell many different things. A pharmacy or supermarket can't put every product on a stamp card.
- You want flexible rewards. Points can be spent on different rewards at different levels, from a small discount at 100 points to a bigger one at 500.
The weakness of points is that they're abstract. "You have 85 points" means little unless you also say what it gets them. Always show the next reward: "85 points. 15 more for KES 200 off."
Working out the cost
Whichever you choose, check what you're giving back as a share of what customers spend.
Stamp card example. A car wash charges KES 500 for a full wash and gives the sixth free. A customer pays for five washes (KES 2,500) and gets one worth KES 500. That's a lot on paper, but the real cost is your water, product and the attendant's time on that one wash, not the full price.
Points example. A restaurant gives one point per KES 100 and a KES 200 voucher at 100 points. The customer spends KES 10,000 to earn KES 200 back: 2% of spend.
A free service often costs you less than its price suggests, especially in quiet hours when the staff and equipment would otherwise be idle.
Running both at once
You don't have to choose. Many businesses get the best of both:
- A café gives points on every order and runs a coffee stamp card, so the morning regular sees "free coffee after nine" while the lunch customer builds points.
- A car wash runs a stamp card for full washes and gives points on spend for extras like waxing and interior cleaning.
- A salon gives points on every visit and runs a separate stamp card for braids, where a full free service would otherwise take too long to earn.
In Zawadi, every visit your staff record can add a stamp to each active stamp card and earn points at the same time, so running both doesn't add work at the counter.
Quick decision guide
- Same service every time, customers come often? Start with a stamp card.
- Basket size varies a lot? Start with points.
- One signature item plus lots of variety? Points on spend, plus a stamp card for the signature item.
Whatever you choose, tell customers where they stand after every visit. A reward people can see coming is the one that brings them back.
Read more: how digital stamp cards work in Zawadi, or our step-by-step guide to starting a loyalty programme.