Points, for businesses where every basket is different
A stamp card counts visits. A points card counts spend — and that single difference decides which one fits your business. If one customer buys a AED 12 espresso and the next rings up AED 85 of retail, brunch or treatments, stamping them identically rewards your smallest baskets and under-rewards your best ones. Points fix that: every dirham earns, so the customer who spends five times more progresses five times faster.
On Perkfull, the points card is a pass in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The balance is printed on the card itself and updates live the moment staff award points — no app, no login, no "let me check my account". When the balance crosses a reward threshold, the pass tells the customer with a push message.
Setting your earn rate
The earn rate — points per dirham — is mostly presentation; what matters is the redemption value you give back. A clean way to reason about it:
- Decide your give-back first. Most healthy programs return 4–8% of spend as reward value. Below 3% customers stop caring; above 10% you're discounting, not running loyalty.
- Pick a round earn rate. 1 point per AED 1 is the easiest to explain at the counter and on the pass.
- Price the catalogue to match. At 1 point/AED and a 5% give-back, a AED 15 drink should cost about 300 points.
Resist the temptation to run double-points promotions constantly — occasional boosts (a quiet weekday, a launch week) move behaviour precisely because they're rare.
Designing a catalogue people actually redeem from
The rewards catalogue is where points programs are won or lost. A single distant reward reads as unreachable and the card goes dead. The structure that keeps customers engaged has three layers:
| Layer | Points price | Job it does |
|---|---|---|
| Quick win | Reachable in 2–4 visits | Proves the program pays out — gets the first redemption done fast |
| Core reward | Reachable in a month of normal visits | The steady reason to keep choosing you |
| Aspirational | 2–3× the core reward | Gives heavy spenders something to save for |
First redemptions matter more than any other event in the program — a customer who has redeemed once believes the program is real and behaves differently afterwards. Perkfull's welcome bonus can start every new member with points on the pass so that first redemption arrives sooner.
Stamps or points — a 30-second decision guide
| Your situation | Better fit |
|---|---|
| Everyone buys roughly the same thing (daily coffee, weekly wash) | Stamp card — simpler to explain, faster to run |
| Baskets vary widely (retail, mixed menu, treatments) | Points — rewards scale with spend |
| You want one flexible reward menu, not one fixed freebie | Points with a catalogue |
| Distinct product categories with different margins | Multi-stamp card — separate tracks per category |
You don't have to choose forever. Programs are independent on Perkfull, so a café-retail hybrid can run a stamp card for drinks and points for the shelf — and customers can hold both passes.
The part paper never did: coupons and campaigns
Because the points card is a live wallet pass, it doubles as a channel. Push a bonus-points weekend to every holder before a quiet week. Send a birthday coupon automatically. Let the win-back automation offer double points to anyone who hasn't visited in a month — it fires on its own once you switch it on. Every send lands as a wallet notification, with no SMS costs and no phone-number collecting at the counter.
What it costs, in dirhams
The points card with a full rewards catalogue is included in every Perkfull plan — from AED 149/month on Starter with unlimited customers and staff accounts, wallet passes for both platforms, the welcome bonus and birthday club. Growth at AED 249/month adds customer segments (VIP, at-risk, new), multi-stamp cards and more monthly broadcasts. No per-customer fees, no per-point fees; annual billing is two months free.
