November 11, 2026
A Free Digital Stamp Card for a Small Café: How Ours Works, With the Real Numbers
How the Brew Routes stamp card works, what it has counted at five cafés so far, and what it does not do.
If you run a small café and want a stamp card with no app for customers to download and no monthly bill, this is the one we built. Customers do need a free account to keep their stamps. It is free for our first 50 cafés, and it stays free for the cafés that join now.
Here is how it works, what it has counted so far, and what it does not do.
How It Works
A sign sits on your counter. A customer scans it with their phone camera and gets a stamp. It works right in the browser, so there is nothing to download. To keep the stamp, they save it to a free account.
One stamp per visit. One visit per person per day. Stamps count while your café is open, with half an hour either side.
You choose the reward. Any prize, after as many visits as you like. You can add a welcome bonus, extra stamps on the first visit, so a new card starts ahead. Customers who have the app get one reminder when they are two stamps or fewer from their reward and have been away a week.
Day to day, staff do nothing with the stamps. It helps when they point new customers to the sign. When someone earns a reward, staff honour it. The customer shows a live screen that lasts 60 seconds and opens once.
What You See
Counts only, never names.
How many customers come back. How many have become regulars, which means four visits in 60 days. How many have gone quiet. What people think of the coffee and the vibe.
Every Monday the app tells you last week: how many came back, and whether that is more or fewer than the week before.
The Numbers So Far
These numbers come from the five cafés named on the cafés page. The first two started in July 2026.
All time, as of November 11, 2026:
- 486 customers with their stamp card
- 1,109 stamps collected
- 123 of 123 said they would go back
These are people who scanned the sign, not every customer who walked in.
Said they would go back is an answer, not a visit count. Stamp card customers answered the question 123 times after a visit, and every answer was yes. It does not show that they returned.
Coming back is counted on its own. On October 31, 2026, the five cafés had 430 customers with a stamp card. 117 of them had come back on another day, to the same café.
One café on its own. Ahh!!! Coffee in Ottawa has had the sign since July. As of November 11, 2026, 201 customers carry its stamp card and have collected 450 stamps. The reward is one free drink after 10 stamps. On October 31, 183 people had scanned there and 49 had come back on another day.
The live count is on the cafés page.
What It Does Not Do
It does not connect to your till. A stamp means someone scanned the sign, not that they bought something. The limit is one stamp a day, and the sign sits where your staff can see it.
It does not give you a customer list. You get counts. No names, no emails.
A stamp only counts once the customer saves it, and that takes a free account. There is no download, but there is a sign-in.
Two locations run two separate stamp cards for now.
It works best where there is no punch card already. Two stamp cards at one counter split the habit. If you run one now, talk to us first.
And it is new. The first sign was scanned in July 2026. The numbers above are early, and they are real.
Why It Is Free
Our paid work is coffee routes for cities and local organisations. Cafés never pay for those, so we're giving the stamp card to our first 50 cafés for free, and it stays free for yours.
We're starting with 50 cafés that serve really good coffee and giving them everything: the sign designed with your branding, the stamp card and rewards, how many come back, how many have gone quiet, and what people think of the coffee and the vibe.
How To Start
Claim your café on the cafés page. We design the sign with your branding, and it comes print-ready.
Still have questions? Write to Jordan, who started Brew Routes.