Free loyalty card template: make a printable stamp card

A loyalty card doesn't need a designer. It needs your name, a reward people want, the right number of boxes, and a size that fits a wallet. Most templates you'll find online are pretty, but they leave the important part to you: how many stamps, what the small print says, and how to print them so the boxes line up.

The template maker below does all of that. Pick your type of business, type your name and reward, choose your colours, and download a PDF with a full sheet of stamp cards and cut marks, ready for your home printer or a print shop. It's free and you don't need an account. Below the tool you'll find what to put on the card, how many stamps to use, a small trick that gets more cards filled, and how to print them well.

What to put on a loyalty card

A good punch card answers three questions at a glance: whose card is this, what do I get, and how far am I. Everything else is optional.

• Your business name, big enough to read across the counter. If a customer finds the card in a coat pocket months later, it should be obvious where it's from.
• The offer in one line. "Collect 10 stamps, get a free coffee" beats "Loyalty rewards programme". The tool writes this line for you from your reward and stamp count.
• Numbered boxes. Numbers show progress, and progress is what keeps people coming back to fill the card.
• A clearly marked reward box, so nobody argues about whether the reward comes on the 10th visit or after it.
• Short small print. "One stamp per visit. No cash value." covers most businesses. Add an expiry date only if you'll enforce it, and keep it short enough to fit on one line.

If you have a print shop make your cards, you can also use the back for your address, opening hours, website or booking link. The tool prints a single-sided card, so it works on any home printer.

How many stamps should a stamp card have?

Fewer than most people think. The card should be fillable in a few months by a regular, and the reward should give back a sensible share of what they spent to earn it.

• Cafés, bakeries and takeaways: regulars come often, so 8 to 10 stamps for a free drink or pastry works well. See our coffee shop loyalty card guide.
• Barbers, salons and studios: clients come every four to eight weeks, so 5 or 6 stamps for a smaller extra (a beard trim, a blow-dry, nail art) keeps the reward within reach. Our nail salon loyalty program guide shows the maths.
• Car washes, groomers and gyms: it depends on how often people come. Check how long a regular takes to fill the card before you print 500 of them.

Not sure what reward to offer? Our loyalty card ideas generator suggests rewards and stamp counts from your own prices and visit numbers, and the punch card reward ideas guide compares what each reward really costs you.

The head-start trick: give two stamps for free

This is the one setting in the tool worth trying. Instead of an 8-stamp card, print a 10-stamp card with the first two boxes already stamped. The customer still needs eight visits, but the card feels started rather than empty.

It's backed by a well-known field study. Researchers Joseph Nunes and Xavier Drèze gave 300 car wash customers a loyalty card. Half got a card needing eight stamps; the other half got a ten-stamp card with two stamps already filled in. Both needed eight more washes for the same reward. About 19% of the first group earned their reward, against 34% of the head-start group, who also finished faster (Nunes & Drèze, Journal of Consumer Research, 2006; summary at Knowledge at Wharton).

One study at one car wash doesn't promise the same result at your shop, but it costs you nothing to try. Set "Head start" to two free stamps in the tool and the first boxes print pre-stamped and marked "FREE".

How to print your loyalty cards

The PDF is laid out for the two common sizes:

• 85 × 55 mm, the usual business card size in Europe, the UK and Australia (10 cards per A4 sheet).
• 3.5 × 2 inches, the US and Canadian size (10 cards per Letter sheet).

A few tips for good results:

1. Print at 100% or "actual size". "Fit to page" shrinks the cards and the cut marks stop lining up.
2. Use thick card. Around 300–350 gsm (or 14–16 pt card stock) survives a few months in a wallet. Thin paper tears and curls.
3. Choose a matte or uncoated finish if you'll use an ink stamp. Glossy card can smear ink stamps (4over4's loyalty card guide says the same).
4. Cut with a ruler and a craft knife or a guillotine along the grey marks. The cards are butted together, so one cut separates two cards.
5. Light colours save ink. A dark card looks great but uses a lot of toner. For a dark design, a print shop is often cheaper than your office printer.
6. Use a stamp or punch that's hard to copy. A custom rubber stamp or a shaped hole punch stops people filling in their own boxes with a pen.

The honest downside of paper stamp cards

Paper cards work, and plenty of businesses run them for years. But you'll meet the same problems sooner or later:

• They get lost or left at home. A customer who forgets their card can't collect the stamp, and some give up on the card altogether.
• They can be copied. A pen, a similar stamp or a stack of spare cards from the counter is all it takes.
• You don't know who your regulars are. A paper card doesn't tell you who's one visit from a reward, or who used to come every week and stopped. Our guide to customer retention explains why that matters.

None of these means you shouldn't print cards. It's a good reason to also offer a version on the customer's phone, which is where the next section comes in.

Put the same card in your customers' phone wallet

The card you just designed can also live in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. That's what Zilo does. Customers scan a QR code at your counter, enter their email address, tap the confirmation link we email them, and add the card to their phone's wallet. No app to download and no password. Staff stamp from a web dashboard by scanning the card's QR code or searching by email, and the card on the customer's phone updates after each stamp.

You choose the card's colours, reward and number of stamps, just like in the tool above, so your printed cards and wallet cards can match. In the dashboard you can see who's close to a reward and email reminders and offers to customers who opted in. Zilo doesn't send messages to the wallet card itself; it only updates the stamp count. Our Apple Wallet and Google Wallet guide explains how wallet cards work on each phone.

Many owners keep a few paper cards by the till for customers who prefer them and offer the wallet card to everyone else. Zilo is free during the beta, so you can try both side by side. Create your free wallet stamp card.