How many stamps should a loyalty card have?
Short enough that people reach the reward, long enough that it pays for itself. A simple way to choose the number, with a calculator for your own prices.
2 min read · Updated October 19, 2026
The short answer
Between six and ten stamps works for most businesses that customers visit every week. Use fewer for a business people visit once a month, more for one they visit every day. The right number is the one your regulars actually reach.
Start from how often they come
Think about how often a typical regular comes in, and aim for a reward they reach within a few weeks if they come often, and within the year if they come rarely. A reward that is always a few visits away is what brings people back.
- Every day (bakery, the café on the way to work): 10 to 15 stamps
- Every week (restaurant, café, shop): 8 to 10 stamps
- Every few weeks (barbershop): 6 to 8 stamps
- Every month or two (hair salon, beauty): 5 or 6 visits
What the reward really costs
A reward is a discount spread over every visit that earned it. If a coffee sells for €1.80 and the tenth is free, the customer spent €16.20 on nine coffees before getting one back. What that costs you is the ingredients of one coffee, not its price.
Divide what the reward costs you by what the customer spent to earn it. For most cards that comes to a few percent, less than a typical discount, and only your regulars get it.
Work it out for your prices
Enter what a typical visit spends, what the reward costs you and the number of stamps. The examples are only a starting point.
Stamp calculator
Spent to earn the reward
€40.00
The reward costs you
2.5%
of what the customer spent
Make the reward worth it
A reward people don't want is no reward. Choose something your regulars already buy, and say it on the card in plain words: a free coffee, a free cut, 10% off. The value they see is the price; what you pay is less.
Start them off with a stamp
A card that starts with a stamp already given feels closer to the reward than one that starts empty, and people are more likely to finish it. In a 2006 study, Joseph Nunes and Xavier Drèze gave car-wash customers either an eight-stamp card or a ten-stamp card with two stamps already filled in. Both needed eight more washes, but the second group finished far more often.
Giving the first stamp on the day someone joins costs you almost nothing and gets the card moving.
Adjust after a month or two
Look at how many people reach the reward. If almost nobody has after two months, shorten the card or improve the reward. If most people reach it within a couple of weeks, you can add stamps. With a digital card you see these numbers in the dashboard instead of guessing.