Glossary
Loyalty card and shop messaging terms, in plain words
The words that come up when a shop runs a stamp card and sends news to its regulars, each defined plainly, with what it means at a real counter and, where it applies, how Counter Club handles it.
A
- Average transaction value
- Total sales divided by the number of sales over the same period, the average amount a customer spends each time they pay at the till.
B
- Basket size
- The number of items in a typical sale, or in some shops its dollar value, used to see whether customers buy one thing or several each visit.
- Breakage
- Loyalty value that customers earn but never claim, such as stamps on cards that are never filled or rewards that are never collected.
C
- Churn
- The share of customers who stop buying over a given period, the flip side of retention, usually given as a percentage per month or per year.
- Consent
- A person's agreement to receive marketing from a business, which Australian law requires before that business sends them commercial emails or texts.
- Customer lifetime value
- The total a customer is expected to spend with a shop over the whole time they keep coming, often shortened to lifetime value or CLV.
D
- Double-stamp day
- A promotion where each qualifying visit earns two stamps instead of one for a set day or window, usually run to fill a quiet stretch.
F
- Foot traffic
- The number of people who walk past or into a shop over a period, the raw flow of possible customers before anyone has bought anything.
L
- Lapsed member
- A loyalty member who joined and collected stamps for a while, then stopped coming in, but is still on the list and has not opted out.
- Loyalty points
- A reward currency earned per dollar spent, such as one point per dollar, saved up and later swapped for a discount, a product or a voucher.
- Loyalty program
- Any scheme that rewards customers for coming back, from a paper stamp card at a cafe to the points schemes run by supermarkets and airlines.
M
- Member
- A customer who has chosen to join a shop's loyalty club, so their visits are counted and the shop may contact them in the ways they agreed to.
O
- Opt-out
- A customer's choice to stop receiving marketing messages from a business, and the link or reply word they use to make that choice.
P
- Perceived value
- What a customer believes something is worth, usually its shelf price or what they would gladly pay, as opposed to what it costs the shop to supply.
- Punch card
- A paper loyalty card marked with a hole punch rather than an ink stamp, where each punched hole counts as one visit or purchase towards a reward.
Q
- QR code
- A square barcode that a phone camera reads to open a link, used at shop counters to let customers join a list or open a page without typing.
R
- Redemption
- The moment a loyalty member claims the reward they earned, and also the share of earned rewards that customers actually go on to claim.
- Regular
- A customer who comes back on a steady rhythm, often on the same days with the same order, and whose face and habits the staff know.
- Repeat rate
- The share of customers who come back and buy again within a set period, most often measured from a first visit to a second.
- Retention
- How well a shop keeps its customers coming back over months and years, usually given as the share still buying at the end of a set period.
- Reward
- What a loyalty member receives for filling their card, such as a free coffee or ten dollars off, stated before they begin collecting.
- Reward code
- A short code issued when a loyalty card fills, recording that the customer has earned the reward and is owed it.
- Reward cost
- What it actually costs a shop to hand over one loyalty reward, counted at cost price rather than at the shelf price the customer sees.
S
- Sender ID
- The name or number shown as the sender when a text arrives, which tells the person who the message is from before they open it.
- SMS campaign
- One marketing text message sent to everyone on a shop's list who agreed to receive texts, usually about news, an offer or changed hours.
- Spam Act
- The Spam Act 2003, the Australian law that sets the rules for commercial emails and texts: consent, identifying the sender, and a working unsubscribe.
- Stamp card
- A loyalty card that counts visits or purchases with one stamp each, and gives a set reward once the customer reaches a target number of stamps.
U
- Unsubscribe
- The working way out that every marketing email or text must offer, so the person who received it can stop further messages from that sender.
V
- Visit frequency
- How often a typical customer comes back, written as visits per week or per month, which sets how long a loyalty card should take to fill.
Put the QR by the till this week
Setting the card takes two minutes. The first fifty members are free, paid for by a marketing consent instead of a card, and the card runs in full from day one.