A digital loyalty card for your boutique

A boutique sees its regulars a few times a season, but each visit can be €80 or €300. A stamp per visit treats the customer who buys one scarf like the one who buys a coat, and a paper card is easy to lose between September and the January sales. What works for clothes, shoes, gifts and concept stores is a card that counts spend, recognises your best clients, and gives you a way to tell them when the new collection is in.

What to reward, and after how many stamps?

In retail, the reward is usually money off a future purchase or a small exclusive perk. Both bring the customer back into the shop, where they tend to buy more than the reward.

• €15 off your next purchaseAt 300 points, with 1 point per euro.
• 5 % cashback on everythingA balance spent on the next visit.
• Free alterations or gift wrappingA Gold VIP perk listed on the pass.
• 6A free accessory or candleStamp card version, for gift shops with small baskets.

Example calculation. With 1 point per euro and €15 off at 300 points, the customer gets 5 % of their spend back, at retail value. If your margin on clothing is around 50 %, the real cost to you is closer to 2.5 %, because the €15 is spent on items you bought at half the price. These are example figures; your margins differ by category.

If you run a gift or concept store where people buy small things often, a stamp card can work: between 3 and 30 stamps, with a reward after 6 to 10 visits. Changing the number only affects new cards; running cards keep theirs.

Which card type fits a boutique?

Points (Pro) give you the most room: up to six rewards at different levels, from a small gift at 100 points to €50 off at 1,000.

Cashback (Pro) is easier for customers to understand: “5 % of everything you buy goes on your card”. At the till, the customer can choose to pay part of the bill with their balance.

VIP levels (Pro), by spend, are where a boutique card gets interesting. Set up to three, such as Silver from €500 and Gold from €1,500, with perks like free alterations or a private shopping appointment. When someone reaches a level, the pass and the scanner show “New level”, so staff can congratulate them.

How does stamping work during the rush?

A boutique’s rush is a Saturday afternoon, the first days of the sales and the week before Christmas. Most of the time, you have more time per customer than any food shop, which makes typing an amount easy.

• Keep a phone or tablet at the cash desk, logged in with a staff PIN, or let staff use their own phones with their own logins.
• After the customer pays by Bancontact, Payconiq, card or cash, type the amount from the receipt and scan the pass. The balance or points update on the customer’s phone within seconds.
• Typed the wrong amount? The owner or a manager corrects the card in the dashboard with Adjust stamps; the reason and who made the change are logged.
• If a customer returns an item, a manager or owner can correct the card and note the reason.
• When a customer pays with their cashback balance, staff choose “Pay with balance” in the scanner.

Customers who shop together each scan their own card for their own purchase.

Seasonal and occasion ideas

Belgian retail runs on a few fixed dates:

• January and July: the sales (soldes, solden). The periods are set by law; keep your loyalty offers within the rules for your sector.
• February: Valentine’s Day, for gift and lingerie shops.
• March and September: new collections, the best moments for an e-mail.
• Second Sunday of May and second Sunday of June: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
• Late August: back to school, for shoes and children’s clothes.
• Late November: Black Friday, if you take part.
• 6 December and Christmas: Saint Nicholas and Christmas gifts, with longer opening hours.

What to send by push or e-mail

For a boutique, e-mail is the main channel: you can show photos, and customers like to see what is new. Push is for short, timely notes. Both are Pro and only reach customers who ticked the news box.

E-mail idea: a “New collection” e-mail in March and September with six photos, using the newsletter template or a first draft from AI. It goes out under your shop’s name, and replies land in your dashboard inbox, which is handy for “Do you have it in a 38?”.

Push examples:

• Title: “The new collection is in” Message: “Spring has arrived on our rails: linen, light knits and new sandals. Come and try them on this week.”
• Title: “Late opening on Thursday” Message: “We’re open until 21:00 this Thursday for Christmas shopping. Gift wrapping is free for cardholders.”
• Title: “We miss you” Message: “New arrivals since your last visit. Drop by this month, your points are waiting on your card.”

Push audiences are all customers, those with a reward waiting, those not seen in 30 days, or one card’s holders. You cannot send a message to Gold clients only. Sending previews to all cardholders works well, because they are your regulars. Two e-mails and two or three pushes a month is plenty.

Common objections

“Our till already has a customer database.” Then you may not need another one. Fidelia’s strengths are the card in the phone’s wallet, the lock-screen messages and the VIP levels shown on the pass. If your till system does that, stay with it.

“Typing amounts takes time.” It takes a few seconds after payment, and boutique customers are rarely in a hurry at the till.

“Most of our sales are online.” Fidelia counts in-store purchases only. If the shop is a showroom for your web shop, it will cover just part of your customers.

“Discounts cheapen the brand.” Use perks instead of money off: free alterations, early access to the sales, a private appointment. VIP levels let you do that without touching your prices.

What does it cost?

Essential, at €29 a month excl. VAT, gives you one stamp card for one shop, fine for a gift shop with small baskets. Most fashion and shoe shops will want Pro, at €59 a month, for points or cashback by amount, VIP levels, e-mails and stats with CSV export. A second shop costs €19 a month. Try Pro free for 14 days; early Belgian merchants can keep the founding price of €19 a month for life.