A digital loyalty card for your café, built for Swedish fika

A café in Stockholm, Göteborg or Malmö lives on people who come in four or five times a week. The ticket is small, often 35 to 55 kr, and there is usually another espresso bar within a couple of hundred metres. Swedes already know the deal: the paper kaffekort or klippkort, where the tenth coffee is free, has been on café counters for decades. Fidelia keeps that habit and moves it into the phone your customer already holds when they pay with card or Swish.

What to reward, and after how many stamps?

For a café, the reward has to arrive often enough to feel close. Most cafés land between 8 and 10 stamps.

• 10Free coffee of your choiceThe classic kaffekort, now in the wallet.
• 8A free fika: coffee and kanelbulleFeels more generous, still cheap to give.
• 3Free påtår for card holdersA quick win for new customers on short cards.
• 6Free pastry with your next coffeeGood for cafés that bake on site.

Work out the cost before you print the stand. Example: a latte sells for 45 kr and the milk and beans cost you around 7 kr. A customer who collects 10 stamps has spent 450 kr, so the free latte costs you about 1.5 % of what they paid. A fika reward with a kanelbulle might cost 15 kr in ingredients, still around 3 %. These are example figures; plug in your own.

You can set anywhere from 3 to 30 stamps per card, and you can turn on a welcome stamp so a new customer starts at 1. If you change the number later, only new cards follow the new rule. Cards already running keep the deal the customer signed up for.

Which card type fits a café?

The stamp card is the one most cafés start with, and it is included in Essential. One stamp per visit, a reward at the end, nothing to explain.

On Pro you can add other card types next to it:

The pack card is the closest thing to the traditional Swedish klippkort. The customer pays for 10 coffees, staff tap “Activate” once the payment has gone through, then “Use 1” per visit. When it runs out, “Sell a pack” starts another. Pro lets you run several cards at once, so a customer can hold a stamp card and a pack; the join page shows a picker. Prepaid packs mean you hold the customer’s money, so ask your accountant how to book them.

How does stamping work during the rush?

The morning rush, roughly 7:30 to 9:30, is where a loyalty card either works or gets ignored. The scan happens at payment, after the card terminal beeps or the Swish comes through: the customer holds up their phone, staff point the scanner at the pass, and the screen shows a big “+1” with “Emma · 6/10”. You can greet Emma by name while the milk steams. The pass on her phone updates within seconds.

Where the scanner lives matters. Most cafés put an old phone or a tablet on a stand next to the till and log it in with a PIN, so whoever is on the till can scan without signing in. Baristas can also use their own phone after an e-mail invite. Staff accounts only open the scanner, not the settings.

A few rules for the queue:

• Groups. When four colleagues pay together, the one who pays shows their card. The cooldown (5 minutes by default) stops the same card being stamped twice by accident. If you want to stamp per cup rather than per visit, either wait out the cooldown or lower it: decide your rule and tell the team.
• Mistakes. A barista who scans the wrong pass cannot undo it; the owner or a manager corrects the card in the dashboard with Adjust stamps, and the reason and who made the change are logged.
• Full cards. When the card is full, the pass shows “reward ready” and the customer gets a lock-screen notification. Staff tap “Claim + add today’s stamp” so the free coffee is given and today’s visit already counts on card 2.

The scanner needs internet, so keep it on the café Wi-Fi or a SIM with mobile data.

Seasonal and occasion ideas

Sweden gives cafés a full calendar of reasons to come in:

• Fettisdagen (February): semla season. Pre-orders for offices, a semla as a reward in February.
• Våffeldagen (25 March): waffles for card holders.
• Midsommar: strawberry cake orders and summer hours.
• Kanelbullens dag (4 October): the obvious day for a bun-themed message.
• Lucia (13 December): lussekatter and saffron buns, plus pepparkakor through Advent.
• Mellandagarna: quieter weeks between Christmas and New Year, a good moment to fill the café.

What to send by push or e-mail

Push messages (Pro) appear on the lock screen through the wallet pass. Some examples you could adapt:

• Example · title: “Rainy Monday? Second cup on us” · message: “Show your card before 11:00 today and your påtår is free. Stay dry.”
• Example · title: “Semlor are here” · message: “Fettisdagen is coming. Fresh semlor from today, and offices can pre-order by the dozen at the counter.”
• Example · title: “Kanelbullens dag” · message: “Today every card holder gets a stamp and a warm kanelbulle with any coffee. See you at the counter.”

For e-mail, a monthly note with the new seasonal menu or a fika-for-two offer works well, sent from your own café address with replies landing in your dashboard. The “not seen in 30 days” audience suits a café: someone who drank coffee with you every morning and stopped for a month has probably found another place. Keep it to two or three pushes a month. Only customers who ticked the news box receive messages.

Common objections

“My regulars already know me.” Some do. The card works for the people you don’t know by name yet, and the scanner shows their first name so you can learn it.

“I already have a paper klippkort.” Keep it running while you switch. When a customer moves to the digital card, a manager can correct the card and add the stamps they already have, with a reason noted.

“It will slow down the morning queue.” The scan is a separate two-second step after payment. With the scanner on a stand next to the till, it fits into the time it takes to hand over the cup.

“Fidelia doesn’t connect to my till.” That’s right, it works next to any till or card terminal. It also means nothing to install or configure in your cash register.

What does it cost?

Essential costs 299 kr a month and covers one café with a stamp card, unlimited customers and scans, the scanner for the whole team and your first QR stand. Pro costs 599 kr a month and adds the klippkort-style pack, push messages, e-mails and VIP levels. Most cafés can start on Essential; move to Pro if you want to sell prepaid coffee or fill quiet mornings with a push. Pro comes with a 14-day free trial, and prices are excl. VAT.