Cartia

Digital loyalty card for bakeries

A loyalty card that never slows the line, even at the lunch rush.

Choose a stamp program, one stamp per visit, and put the QR code where the customer waits for their change. They scan it, fill in a short form on their phone, and their card installs in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet — your team has nothing to enter.

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Free plan: up to 50 customers, no credit card.

Last updated October 23, 2026.

The short answer

What kind of loyalty program works for a bakery?

In a bakery, the right loyalty card is first of all one that doesn’t slow the line. Your customers come often — several times a week for the regulars — and leave with a ticket of just €2 or €3. Anything that adds ten seconds at the register ends up abandoned by the team within a week, however good the tool is.

That’s what dooms the paper card: you have to find it in the bag, stamp it, hand it back. And it’s what dooms solutions that ask customers to install an app, too: nobody downloads anything with six people waiting behind them.

The format that holds up at the counter is the shortest possible one: a QR code displayed at the register, one scan, one stamp. The card then lives in the customer’s phone, in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, right next to their bank card. Nothing to install, nothing to find, nothing to dig out of a pocket.

The problem

Your paper card does what it can. Which is not much.

No more crumpled stamp cards forgotten at the bottom of a bag. Your customers save their card straight to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. You check people out faster and build a real customer list without slowing the lunch rush.

  • At rush hour

    One scan, one stamp, one confirmation. Your team keeps the line moving without hunting for a crumpled paper card.

  • For the neighborhood regular

    Their progress stays on their phone. No more “I forgot my card” when they come in for their daily bread, no more card to replace.

  • For the bakery

    No more drawer full of half-stamped cards the team keeps “just in case.” You see who really comes back, and who has stopped coming.

  • The paper card

    Reordering paper cards and ink stamps is a recurring cost, and many of the cards end up lost or run through the wash. You pay to hand out paper that doesn’t even tell you who comes back for their baguette.

  • With Cartia

    You start for free (no charge up to 50 customers, no credit card). Your customers scan, fill in a short form, and the card installs on their phone — no app, no password. That form is exactly what the paper card never gave you: you know who comes back.

The recommended program

How many visits before the reward at a bakery?

It’s the question we get most often, and it has an arithmetic answer rather than a habit-based one.

Start from the real cost of the reward, not its selling price. A baguette (the classic French stick loaf) sold for €1.20 doesn’t cost you €1.20: it costs you flour, time, and oven. Let’s say €0.35 — replace it with your own figure. Then compare that cost with the total spent to earn it: with a €3 average basket and a reward on the 10th visit, the customer spends €30 for a reward that costs you €0.35. You’re giving up a little over 1%.

In other words, the classic setting is often too cautious. If you can go down to 8 visits, the reward becomes visible to the customer — two to three weeks for a regular — without the real discount exceeding what you already give away in small goodwill gestures.

Visits or points: which to choose

  • Stamps / visits

    Stamps. Tickets look alike from one customer to the next, progress reads without explanation, and nobody has to key in an amount in the rush.

  • Points on spend

    Points, only if lunchtime snacking weighs heavily for you: between a baguette and a sandwich-drink-dessert combo, the gap gets big enough for a stamp to feel unfair.

Default: stamps. Move to points only if the lunch trade is a real share of your visits.

A simple program your customers understand without explanation

10 stamps (1 stamp per visit or lunch deal purchased). The 11th traditional-style baguette (the classic French stick loaf) or a pastry, free.

What you can send next, from the Pro plan

A sudden downpour? A batch of pastries to move? Send a notification to your regulars’ lock screen at 11:30 a.m. to announce the lunch deal.

  • Today’s lunch dealScheduled send at 11:30 a.m. · fill the lunch service
  • Only 2 stamps to goSegment “Close to a reward” · 70% of the threshold reached
  • The almond-apple tarts are outSeasonal manual send · whole customer list

Segments and sends: Pro and Business plans

Setting up

Set up your loyalty card at your bakery

  • Choose the reward

    A free loaf or pastry after X visits. Pick something you bake yourself: your margin is better than on a product you resell.

  • Set the threshold

    Start from the real cost of the reward compared with your average basket, not from its selling price. The calculation is detailed below.

  • Put the QR code where customers wait

    On the counter, next to the register — not in the window. The customer scans while you hand back their change: it’s the only moment their hands are free.

  • Scan at every visit

    From a phone or a browser with Cartia Counter. The customer shows their card, you scan it, and the stamp is confirmed in front of them.

The scan fits in while you hand back change

  • At the counter

    The customer shows their Wallet pass, you scan it from Cartia Counter on your phone. The gesture fits within the time of payment: nothing to look for in a drawer, no stamp that smudges.

  • In the Wallet, not in an app

    The card sits next to the bank card, in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The customer scans the QR code, fills in a short form, and adds it — there is no app to install.

In your business, concretely

The QR code only works in one place: where the customer waits for their change

In a bakery, loyalty isn’t lost on the idea, it’s lost in the last few feet between the register and the door. A QR code in the window is seen by someone walking. A QR code on the display is seen by someone choosing. The only moment the customer has free hands and available attention is while they get their change or put their bank card away.

That’s also what separates the first sign-up from the visits that follow. The form is filled in only once, on the customer’s phone, while they wait. After that there’s only a card already in their phone, to show during payment — the team scans, it doesn’t key anything in.

  1. First visitThe customer scans the QR code at the register, fills in a short form from their browser, adds the card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. They do it while they wait, not while you ring them up.
  2. Later visitsThey show the card already in their phone, you scan it from Cartia Counter during payment. Nothing to find, nothing to stamp, nothing to re-enter.
  3. Reward reachedThe pass shows a full card. You hand over the reward and reset the counter from Cartia Counter.
  • The neighborhood regularSeveral visits a week, often the same product. They’re the one who fills the card, and the threshold has to stay reachable for them: a reward you never see coming changes no behavior.
  • The occasional visit and the pre-orderThe Sunday customer or the one who reserves a holiday tart will never have the regular’s rhythm. The same program covers them, but don’t build your threshold around them — otherwise you give a reward to a customer you didn’t need to retain.
  • The reward that doesn’t cost muchPick a product you make: the margin is better than on a resold item, and the perceived value is that of the listed price. It’s the only lever that works on both cost and effect.

The calculation

How many extra visits would cover the subscription?

With the assumptions below — €4.50 basket, 65% gross margin — 11 extra visits per month would cover the monthly cost of the Pro plan. These are assumptions, not a measurement: replace them with your own figures and the calculation updates.

Adjust my assumptions

If 10% of visits repeat one more time thanks to the card · €2.93 margin per visit

With these assumptions, the break-even point is

11 visits / month

Beyond this threshold, the margin generated would cover the cost of the Pro plan. Formula: plan price ÷ (average basket × gross margin) = €29.90 ÷ €2.93.

  • +2,496visits over the year
  • €936more revenue each month, with this assumption
  • €0.98per day for the Pro subscription
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Illustrative estimate, not a revenue promise. Starting assumptions at your bakery: average basket €4.50, 65% gross margin, 26 days open per month. Cartia measures neither your revenue nor your return on investment: replace these values with your own.

Frequently asked questions

Replacing the paper card at your bakery

How do I replace my paper loyalty card at a bakery?

You generate a QR code to put on the counter. Your customers scan it, join the program, and collect digital stamps at every visit — no cardboard card and no app to install.

How many stamps before giving away a loaf or a pastry?

The usual setting is between 8 and 10 visits. The right calculation is to compare the production cost of the reward with the total spent to earn it: at a €3 average basket, a reward on the 10th visit covers €30 in sales. You choose the threshold and the reward freely, and you can adjust them later.

Will it slow down the line at rush hour?

Scanning a card that already exists fits in the time it takes to hand back change. Signing up happens on the customer’s phone. If your team has to say more than “it’s on your phone, it’s not an app,” they’ll stop offering it at the first lunch rush. One sentence, not a sales pitch.

My customers already have a stamped paper card. Do we throw everything away?

No. When they show the old card, you carry the stamps they’ve already earned over to the digital card, then retire the paper. Keeping both in parallel for a few weeks avoids the feeling of having lost what they earned. Those who no longer have the card start from zero — same principle as with a lost paper card.

Do my customers have to download an app?

No. They scan the QR code displayed at the counter, join the program from their browser, then add their card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. No app to install, no password to remember.

What about customers who don’t have a smartphone?

They won’t be able to carry their card in their phone — that’s a real limit, and no digital solution gets around it. In practice, two options: you keep a few paper cards for those customers, or your team looks up their record at the counter by name. A digital program doesn’t force anyone to change phones.

How much does a loyalty card for a bakery cost?

Cartia is free up to 50 customers at one shop, no credit card required. Beyond that, the Pro plan is €29.90/month, tax included, with unlimited customers and a 14-day free trial (credit card required to start it), with no setup fees and no per-volume billing.

I have two or three bakeries: does the price stay the same?

The Pro plan covers one shop, with unlimited customers, at €29.90/month, tax included. For several locations, there’s the Business plan, €59.90/month, tax included, with 3 locations included. Beyond that, each additional shop costs €10/month, tax included, added or removed from the dashboard, with no limit on the number.

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Bakery loyalty card

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