How much a loyalty programme costs (and when it pays for itself)
The fee is the small part. The reward and your staff’s time cost more, and what really decides whether it pays off is a single number: how many customers come back one more time.
The four parts of the cost
- The fee for the programme, if you use one.
- The rewards, at cost price.
- Your team's time: offering it, stamping, redeeming.
- The materials: the printed QR code and little else.
And a fifth that never shows up on an invoice: the cost of not having one, which is the customers who stop coming without you noticing.
The fee
There's everything out there: free plans with strict limits, simple stamp apps for a few tens of euros a month and complete platforms at over €100 a month per location. When comparing, look at how you're charged more than at the figure: per location per month is predictable; per customer or per message, the bill grows precisely when the programme works.
The rewards
They're counted at cost price and spread across the visits that earned them. A coffee that costs you €0.40 every 8 visits is 5 cents per visit. A €1.20 dessert every 10 visits, 12 cents. That's why you give away products rather than discounts: the customer values them at menu price and they cost you the cost price.
Your team's time
It's the most underestimated cost. If each stamp takes 20 seconds of finding the card and stamping it, in a shop with 100 stamps a day that's over half an hour a day. With the till connected, the stamp is automatic and that time disappears.
The sum: when it pays for itself
The useful question isn't «is it expensive?», but «how many extra visits do I need?». The formula fits on a napkin:
Do the sum with your own numbers before looking at prices: it'll tell you how much you can afford and what the programme has to achieve to be worth it.
etlas prices
Per location per month, no lock-in:
- Basic · 22 € a month. Stamp card with your logo and colour, reward and welcome gift, in the Wallet. Up to 300 visits a month.
- Pro · 49 € a month. Phone notifications, levels and automatic campaigns. With a set-up call.
- Unlimited · 149 € a month. Unlimited visits, partnerships and allied shops. With a strategy plan and priority support.
Pay annually and get two months free. What each plan includes is on the club page, and to choose wisely, the 12 questions to ask before you pay.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a loyalty programme cost for a restaurant?
The software fee ranges from free plans with limits to over €100 a month per location for complete solutions. On top of that comes the cost of the rewards at cost price, which in hospitality is usually a few cents per visit.
How many extra visits do I need for it to pay off?
Divide the monthly fee by the margin on one visit. With a €49 fee and a €6 margin per ticket, that's around 8 or 9 extra visits a month: fewer than two a week.
Is the reward a cost or an investment?
A cost you only pay once the customer has already come back several times. That's why it's counted at cost price and divided across the visits that earned it.