The chains have a loyalty app. Now you can too.

Independent vs chain — the loyalty gap

Walk down any UK high street and you’ll see the same pattern. The chains have full loyalty programmes — tiered rewards, mobile order-ahead, birthday treats, push notifications, geo-located offers. Independent businesses, however good their product, compete with a hand-stamped paper card or no loyalty offer at all.

That’s not because independents don’t want loyalty programmes. It’s because building one takes engineers, money, and time none of them have. Pointify is the alternative: shared infrastructure, your business, your rewards, no development needed.

Built for the UK high street

Pointify works for the businesses that make up Britain’s independent retail and hospitality scene:

• Independent coffee shops & cafes — the ones doing better coffee than the chain across the street, but losing footfall to the chain’s app
• Pubs & gastropubs — reward regulars who come in for Sunday lunch, run quiz-night reward campaigns, fill quiet weekday lunchtimes
• Takeaways — chippies, kebab shops, curry houses, bakeries — encourage repeat orders without third-party delivery apps taking 30%
• Hairdressers, barbers & beauty salons — reward repeat bookings, run pre-Christmas promotions, drive midweek bookings
• Gyms, studios & fitness — member retention, class-pack rewards, referral bonuses
• High-street independents — bookshops, gift shops, hardware, florists, anything where regulars matter

A digital stamp card that actually works

Paper punch cards get lost, left at home, or quietly tossed. A digital stamp card lives on your customer’s phone — always available, never misplaced. Pointify replaces the paper loyalty card with a QR-based digital punch card that earns points automatically at every visit.

• No printing costs. No replacing worn-out stamp cards every few months.
• No forgery. Every QR scan is verified server-side — no fake stamps.
• No carry weight. Customers’ phones are already in their hand at the till.
• Real data. Unlike a paper card, every digital punch tells you who visited, when, and how often.

Pointify is a full loyalty programme, not just a stamp card digitised — but if you’re replacing paper cards, it is the easiest upgrade you can make.

Run promotions like the big brands

Chain loyalty programmes are mostly about timing. So is Pointify’s campaign engine. You can run:

• Bank holiday weekend specials — an exclusive percentage-off reward valid only Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with the campaign auto-expiring after
• Lunchtime push — a free side or small treat redeemable between 12–2pm, to fill the slow midweek lunch period
• Quiet-day rescue — a fixed-amount discount reward, only on Tuesday afternoons when footfall drops
• Pre-Christmas / January detox — seasonal campaign rewards with start and end dates baked in
• Loyalty surprises — time-limited free-item rewards for repeat customers, configured in your dashboard

You set the rules in your dashboard. Pointify handles the rest.

Pricing, hardware, contracts — the awkward questions

How it works at the till

1. Customer arrives, opens the Pointify app, taps “show QR”.
2. You scan their QR code from the smartphone or tablet you already have at the till.
3. Points credited instantly — the customer sees their balance update in real time.
4. When they have enough points, they redeem in-app for a percentage discount, fixed amount off, or a free item — whatever you set up.

Total time at the till: under five seconds. Faster than handing back a stamp card.

Pointify across the entire UK

Pointify is available everywhere in the United Kingdom — no geographic restriction. Whether you run a café in central London, a barber shop in a Highland village, a takeaway in Belfast, a pub in the Yorkshire Dales, or a florist on a Cornish high street — the technical requirements are exactly the same: a smartphone (iOS or Android), tablet, or computer with internet. That’s it.

There’s no “supported cities” list your business has to be on. No minimum daily customers, no postcode restrictions. Every UK business with an internet connection can launch Pointify today — in a major city, a market town, or a village.

English-language support and full localisation are available for businesses in every UK city, town, and village — from London to the smallest hamlet. Example locations (not an exclusive list): London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton, Cambridge, Oxford, York, Bath — and every other town and village in the country.

What independent owners say about Pointify

Quotes from owners participating in the pilot programme. First names used with written permission.

Example: a Manchester coffee shop

A small independent coffee shop in the Northern Quarter, open six days a week, averaging 140 customers per day. Average spend £6.40, around 35% repeat customers.

Pointify setup: 4 points per £1 spent (the platform’s standard rate — same for every currency). Rewards: 320 points = 10% off, 800 points = free coffee, 1600 points = free coffee + pastry. A “double points Wednesday” campaign launched after week two.

Result after 90 days: 521 registered customers. Repeat customer share (defined as visiting at least once per week) rose from 35% to 48%. Wednesday revenue grew 20% versus the previous quarter. Programme cost: £0 in the first month; ongoing reward redemption cost ≈ £55/month (mostly the marginal cost of a coffee given away for points).

This is a hypothetical example — real numbers depend on a lot of variables. But it gives a sense of how a simple digital loyalty programme can translate into actual takings on a UK independent high street.

Want to try it?

The first month is free. After that, you decide if it’s worth keeping. Send us a message and we’ll get you set up — usually within 24 hours.

Become a partner →

Frequently asked questions

Is Pointify UK GDPR-compliant?
Yes. Data is hosted in the EU and protected under both EU GDPR and UK GDPR (Data Protection Act 2018). We collect the minimum — email address and points history. No third-party trackers, no Google Analytics, no advertising pixels. Customers have full access to their data via the app and can export or delete it at any time. Full details in our privacy policy.

Does Pointify work with UK card readers like Square, SumUp, Zettle, or Dojo?
Pointify doesn’t need to integrate with your card reader. The app runs alongside — staff scan the customer’s QR code on a separate phone or tablet, completely independent of how the customer pays. Square, SumUp, Zettle, Dojo, traditional EPOS — doesn’t matter. The card terminal does payment; Pointify handles loyalty.

Pricing — is it really free for the first month?
Yes. No setup fees, no card on file required, no minimum term. After the trial, billing is monthly with no fixed contract — cancel from the dashboard at any point.

Will I get a UK VAT invoice?
Yes. After the trial we issue a standard B2B invoice with VAT shown. Invoices are issued in GBP for UK businesses.

Can I run promotions like the chain coffee shops do?
Yes — campaigns is a core feature. Set start and end dates, configure point multipliers (e.g., double points Mondays), or run limited-time bonus rewards. Customers see active campaigns inside the app, so the cost of communicating to existing regulars is effectively zero.

Does my staff need training?
No — the workflow is “scan a QR code”. Five minutes is enough. The Pointify business app is in English by default.

More Q&A in our FAQ.

Have questions?

• Email: support@pointify.org
• Contact form: contact us
• Common questions: FAQ
• About the team: about us