How do you use the calculator?
- Customers who use the card each month: regulars who would carry it, not everyone who walks in.
- Their usual visits per month: how often each of them comes today, without the card.
- Extra visits per customer per month: what the card adds. 0.5 means one extra visit every two months. Start low.
- Average spend per visit and gross margin: what is left of a sale once the goods are paid for.
- Reward cost per stamped visit: take it from the reward cost calculator (reward cost ÷ stamps).
- Fidelia plan: Essential or Pro, at the monthly price excl. VAT.
How do you read the result?
- Extra sales: customers × extra visits × average spend.
- Extra gross margin: those sales × your margin. This is what the card earns, not the till total.
- Rewards given: every stamped visit, usual and extra, × the reward cost per visit.
- Estimated gain per month: margin − rewards − plan. A negative number means the card costs more than it brings with these figures.
- Break-even: the extra visits per customer per month at which the gain is zero. It is the most useful figure: ask yourself whether your regulars would come that much more often.
The tool leaves out what is hard to put a number on: customers who come back instead of trying the place next door, the e-mail addresses you collect, the messages you can send. Those are upside, not part of the estimate.
Worked example
What makes the extra visits happen?
A card in a drawer brings nothing. What moves the number:
- The card is always on the phone: in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet it can’t be forgotten at home, unlike a paper card or a stamp app nobody opens.
- Reminders: a push notification on the lock screen on a quiet afternoon, or a reminder when the customer walks past your shop (Pro).
- A reward that is close: customers speed up when the card is nearly full, so a 10-stamp card beats a 20-stamp one.
Start with prudent figures, then check them in your stats after two or three months.