Someone who buys six bottles at the farm gate twice a year is worth more to you than a passing customer — and should notice it. A loyalty programme makes that appreciation visible: points for every purchase, a discount once enough have built up, and a reward for your most loyal customers. This guide shows how to plan a programme that pays off, and how it runs in Vinosoft.
Stamp card, points or levels?
- The stamp card. "Ten cases, and the eleventh is free." Easy to explain, but hard to analyse, and it tends to get lost.
- Points. Every franc or every bottle earns points that are later redeemed as a discount. The customer sees their balance; you see who buys how much.
- Levels. Whoever reaches a points threshold moves up — say from "Friend" to "Connoisseur" — and gets a reward for it. Levels reward loyalty over years, not just the single purchase.
Most programmes combine points for everyday purchases with two or three levels for the best customers.
What a point should be worth
Work the numbers before you hand out the first card. An example: 1 point per franc spent, and 100 points are worth CHF 5 when redeemed. That is a 5% discount on everything that runs through the card — provided the points are redeemed. Check that your margin can carry it, especially on wines you already sell at club prices.
Points per bottle instead of per franc reward volume rather than price; that can make sense for a house wine, less so for rarities. Also decide whether discounted items earn points.
The card
A customer card needs a barcode the till can read and a number that can be given on an invoice. Have plastic cards produced by a printer from a list of numbers; for a start, a cardboard print with a barcode does the job too. Hand the card out actively — at the tasting, in the parcel, at the till — and record who it belongs to.
How it works in Vinosoft
The loyalty programme is an extension you add from the Vinosoft marketplace; without it there are no loyalty cards.
Issuing cards. Under Shop → Loyalty you create a batch of cards, with a count and an optional prefix. Each card gets a number and a code; you export the list as CSV or Excel for the card printer, and Vinosoft shows the code as a barcode (Code 128). You link a card to a customer address; it becomes active on first use, and a lost card can be blocked.
Earning points. How many points a purchase earns is set per currency and refined per article category or per article, each per franc, per item or both. The most specific setting wins: an article with its own rate beats its category, and the category beats the currency. So the house wine can earn points per bottle, for example, and the rarities none at all.
- On invoices and orders you enter the card number. The points are credited as soon as the invoice is paid.
- At the till you scan the card, see the balance and redeem points as a discount; such a sale also credits the new points. For a till sale without a redemption, the app does not attach the card today — add those points in the office if needed.
- In the webshop no points are earned or redeemed today, and customers don't see their balance there.
Credit notes and refunds at the till take the points back. Points do not expire.
Redeeming points. How many points make a franc is set per currency. Points are redeemed as a discount on an invoice, an order or at the till. There is no rewards catalogue with gift items.
Levels. Each level has a name and a points threshold. It counts all points ever earned, not the current balance — so redeeming points doesn't drop anyone back, and nobody is moved down. On reaching a level, the customer gets a one-off reward: a voucher for an amount or a percentage, optionally with a minimum order and a validity period, or bonus points. An optional congratulations email can go out; you write the text yourself. The customer redeems the voucher in the webshop when signed in with the account linked to the card, or at the till, where the code is typed in. It does not apply to invoices.
Reporting. The statistics compare a period with the one before: cards by status, outstanding points, points earned and redeemed, the top cards, and till sales with and without a card. For each card you see the full points history with a link to the invoice, and you fix a wrong balance with a logged correction. The details are in the help article Loyalty cards and point balances.
What the programme can't do
- Cards in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, QR codes or an app of its own
- Earning, redeeming or showing points in the webshop
- Standing discounts, free shipping or faster earning for higher levels
- Birthday, sign-up or referral bonuses
Checklist
- Point value worked out: how much discount do you effectively give through the card?
- Earning rules set: per franc or per bottle, which wines are excluded
- Two or three levels defined with thresholds and rewards
- Loyalty extension added, card batch created and printed
- Every card handed out is linked to the customer address
- Loyalty switched on at every till (it starts off per device)
- An office routine: record the card number on invoices
More about the module itself on the loyalty programme page. How the till, the wine club and the loyalty programme fit together is covered in the overview Direct sales at the winery.
As of October 2026.
