A bakery and a bottle shop can sit three doors apart on the same strip, serve many of the same people, and need completely different loyalty cards. Walk through both and the differences teach you how to set up almost any shop.
The regular
The bakery regular comes on Saturday morning, sometimes Wednesday too, buys a loaf and something for the kids, spends twelve to fifteen dollars, and has done so for years. They come in a hurry with a child or a dog. They want the sourdough not to have sold out.
The bottle shop regular comes on Friday after work for a six-pack or a bottle, spends thirty to forty dollars, and perhaps comes again on Saturday for something to take to dinner. They are not in a hurry. They like being asked what they are drinking and told what came in.
Same street, different rhythm. Everything else follows from that.
The target
The bakery's visits are weekly, so a long card dies. Six stamps, one per loaf, fills in six weeks for the Saturday regular and three for the person who also comes mid-week. That is the right pace.
The bottle shop's visits are weekly too, but the spend is higher and the reward will be worth more, so the card can be a little longer. Eight stamps, one per visit over twenty-five dollars, fills in two months. Any longer and people stop counting.
On the Loyalty card page both are one number in a box. Six for the bakery, eight for the bottle shop.
The reward
The bakery gives a free loaf of your choice. It is the thing the regular came for, it costs the bakery a dollar or two, and it is valued at eight or nine. Nobody needs it explained.
The bottle shop gives a bottle up to twenty-five dollars from a chosen shelf. The shelf matters: the owner picks a few wines they are proud of and happy to give, and the reward becomes a recommendation as well as a thank you. The cost is the wholesale price of the bottle; the value to the customer is the retail price and the conversation.
Both rewards are written in plain words in the reward field and appear on the join page exactly as typed.
The rule
The bakery's rule is one stamp per loaf. Simple, sayable, and it means the regular who buys two loaves on Saturday fills the card faster, which feels fair.
The bottle shop's rule is one stamp per visit over twenty-five dollars. Per bottle would be odd for a six-pack and invite arguments; per visit over a spend is easy to say and hard to dispute. The sign under the QR says so.
Where the QR goes
In the bakery, on the bread bench next to the tongs, at the height of someone reaching for a loaf. People wait there. They scan while the next customer is being served.
In the bottle shop, on the counter and inside the cool-room door, because that is where people stand and look. Nobody is rushing; the join takes a minute and they have the minute.
The messages
This is where the two shops part company most.
The bakery has one thing to say, and it is about tomorrow: what is coming out of the oven, and that the club can have a loaf put aside. On Regulars, that is an email on Friday afternoon to the members who gave an address and confirmed it. Once a fortnight is plenty. A weather text on a cold wet morning, if the bakery moves to Local Favourite for its own number, is the other message worth sending.
The bottle shop has news every few weeks: a new vintage, a small allocation, a maker visiting. Its regulars are the kind who want to be told. Local Favourite with its own number suits it: one text a month, product first, price in the message, club gets first call. The tone stays on the wine and the maker. Nothing about drinking more, and the owner checks their licence conditions on promotions before the first send.
Both shops send one message a year with nothing to sell: thanks, and the holiday hours.
The opt-outs
The bakery will see almost none, because it messages rarely and about bread. The bottle shop will see a few, because adults have opinions about texts. Both see the member marked as opted out on the Members page, still collecting stamps. Neither can message them again, and neither should want to.
What is the same
The join page: shop name, stamps to the reward, the reward, a mobile and a code. The Members page: a list, a Stamp button, a code when the card fills. The refusal to let an owner add a number by hand. The opt-out link in every message. The fact that none of it touches either shop's listing on Not a Chain.
Two very different shops, one small tool, set differently in two fields and a sign. That is usually how it goes.