Pastry shops and patisseries · from the croissant to the cake made to order
Pastry shop loyalty card: stamps or points, from orders to holidays
A pastry shop loyalty card works when its rule copes with very different spends: a croissant at the counter, a tray of pastries sold by weight, a cake ordered days ahead. With Iterum the customer opens the card from the QR code, with no app; staff confirm a stamp or type the points at collection, once the order is paid. Iterum does not handle orders or deposits.
Updated by Radman Sattari, Founder of Iterum
How a pastry shop loyalty card works
A pastry shop loyalty card records the purchases of customers who come back and, once they reach the threshold you choose, earns them a reward. Compared with a bakery or a café, what changes is the range of spending: on the same morning the till sees someone buying a brioche, someone taking away a tray for Sunday lunch and someone collecting the birthday cake they ordered the week before.
So the first choice is what counts: the visit, the amount or the order. If most of your customers come for breakfast at the counter, the page on the café loyalty card covers coffee and croissants; for everyday bread there is the guide for bakeries. This page is about the display counter, trays, cakes made to order and holiday sweets.
Put the QR code at the till and where you wrap
Next to the till and on the counter where trays are wrapped: waiting for the box to be tied is the right moment to join. You print the QR code from the dashboard; sizes and placement are in the guide to the QR code loyalty card.
The customer opens the card
They scan the QR code and open the card in their phone’s browser, with no app, account or password; on supported phones they add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.
A stamp or points at payment
Whoever is on the till opens the counter app, scans the QR code on the card or types its code, and confirms a stamp, or types the points for the amount.
Reward at the counter
Once the threshold is reached, the customer collects the reward on their next visit, under the rule written on the card.
Stamps or points in a pastry shop: from the croissant to the cake
In a pastry shop a points card is usually the fairest, because a cake made to order can cost as much as many breakfasts: with points you decide what a point is worth, for example one point per euro, and staff type it into the counter app. A stamp card is still the easiest to explain if you mostly sell over the counter, with a minimum spend written on the card so that a coffee does not count the same as a tray.
Iterum does not read the till, the scales or the receipt: staff enter the points, a «Maximum points per operation» limit prevents the biggest typing errors and a mistaken addition can be undone within 10 minutes. The card type is chosen before you invite customers and cannot be changed once the card has customers; on Pro and Premium you can keep two or three active cards, for example a stamp card for breakfast and a points card for trays and cakes. The guide to stamps vs points loyalty cards explains the choice in general.
| What you sell | Stamp card | Points card | Decide beforehand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast at the counter, pastry and coffee | One stamp per visit | A poor fit: small amounts | Whether a coffee on its own earns a stamp |
| Mini pastries and trays sold by weight | One stamp above a minimum spend | Points per euro | What minimum spend, written on the card |
| Cakes and semifreddi made to order | One stamp per order, unfair between cakes at different prices | Points per euro, at collection | Whether the deposit earns points at once or on the balance |
| Panettone, colomba and other holiday bakes | One stamp per purchase | Points per euro | Whether corporate orders count too |
| Biscuits and gift boxes | One stamp above a minimum spend | Points per euro | Whether a gift for someone else earns points for the payer |
Cake ordered on Tuesday, collected on Saturday: when do you give the stamp?
In a pastry shop the stamp or points for a cake made to order are given at collection, once the order is paid in full: it is the simplest rule to apply and the only one that does not leave you chasing points given for an order that then falls through. Iterum does not handle orders, deposits or payments, so it does not know a cake has been ordered; whoever hands it over confirms the stamp or the points, once, and a mistaken addition can be undone within 10 minutes, not later.
Write the rule in the «what a visit is worth» field, for example «points on the cake total, at collection»: staff and customers can read it, but it is not an automatic check, so the person confirming decides. If someone else comes to collect, the points go on the card shown at the till: tell the customer when you take the order.
| Situation | What to do | What to write in the rule |
|---|---|---|
| Order by phone or chat, collected in the shop | A stamp or points at collection, when the customer pays and shows the card | That points are given at collection |
| Deposit with the order, balance at collection | Points on the total at collection, not on the deposit | That the deposit earns no separate points |
| A relative or colleague collects | The points go on the card shown at the till; if there is none, decide whether they can be made up next time | Which card an order’s points go on |
| Order cancelled after the deposit | No points to remove, because none have been given yet | No points before collection |
| Delivery by one of your own staff | The courier confirms from their own phone in the counter app, if they have an account; a connection is needed | Whether deliveries earn points too |
Panettone, colomba and holiday orders: the pastry shop calendar
In a pastry shop the holidays pack a lot of orders into a few weeks, and that is where a card can bring customers back after the peak. Before each season decide three things: whether holiday sweets earn points like everything else, whether the reward can be collected on the busiest days and what to tell the customers who have joined.
With Iterum the messages you write yourself are 2, 4 or 8 a month per location, depending on the plan, and they reach the card saved in Wallet only for customers who have consented: enough to announce that Christmas or Easter orders are open and the last day to order, not a daily reminder. Corporate panettone orders can be worth a lot of points in one go: set the points-per-operation limit before December, or write on the card that those orders earn no points.
| Occasion | When | What to decide |
|---|---|---|
| All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, with the traditional sweets where they are made | 1–2 November 2026 | Whether a product sold for a few days has a separate rule |
| Christmas: panettone, pandoro and regional sweets | Orders in the weeks before 25 December 2026 | Whether corporate orders earn points, and with what limit per operation |
| Carnival: chiacchiere, frappe, castagnole | Until Shrove Tuesday, 9 February 2027 | Whether a seasonal purchase earns a stamp like any other |
| Saint Joseph’s Day and Father’s Day in Italy: zeppole and choux buns | 19 March 2027 | Whether the reward can be collected on that day |
| Easter: colomba (the dove-shaped cake) and regional sweets | 28 March 2027 | The last day to order, announced with a message |
| Mother’s Day in Italy | 9 May 2027 | Whether rewards apply on the busiest days too |
| First Communions, Confirmations and weddings | Often between spring and summer | How long a reward stays valid for customers who return months later |
Birthdays and ceremonies: the person who pays for the cake is not always the one celebrating
A birthday cake is often bought by someone for another person, so the stamp or the points go to whoever pays and shows the card, not to the person celebrating. The date of birth on an Iterum card is optional: customers add it, if they wish, in the «Completa la tua carta» (complete your card) panel, and it only makes sense to ask for it if you really offer a birthday reward.
Under «Automazioni» (automations) you can switch on «Buon compleanno» (happy birthday), a message that goes out by itself, and «Ci manchi» (we miss you) for customers who have not come for 14, 30, 60, 90 or 180 days. These are promotional messages, so they reach only customers who gave consent, and how many automations you can keep active depends on the plan; how to collect that consent is covered in the guide to loyalty card GDPR.
First Communions, Confirmations and weddings bring large orders and customers who may only come back a year later. For a reward already earned, Iterum lets you choose no expiry or 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days: for someone who orders once a year, a short expiry takes the point out of the card.
How many points should a pastry shop ask for a reward?
In a pastry shop a points threshold works when it gives back a small share of spending and a regular reaches the reward within a few months. With one point per euro the sum is simple: divide what the reward costs you by the points required and you get the share of spending you give back. Replace the figures in the table with your own.
With a stamp card the sum is similar: divide the reward cost by the visits required; in Iterum a stamp card asks for 1 to 20 stamps. A reward ladder, for example a single pastry at 60 points and a tray at 150, needs several rewards active at once, included on Pro and Premium. The reward cost calculator spreads the cost you enter over the visits required, but it does not estimate new visits or revenue.
| Type of customer | Spending per month | Example reward and threshold | Share given back | Time to reward |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sunday tray | About 60 euros | Half-kilo tray at 150 points, if it costs you 6 euros | 4% | About 2½ months |
| Breakfast and the odd cake | About 30 euros | Single pastry at 60 points, if it costs you 1.50 euros | 2.5% | About 2 months |
| Two cakes a year | About 8 euros on average | Small tart at 100 points, if it costs you 4 euros | 4% | More than a year |
Butter, eggs, sugar: how prices changed in a year
The cost of a pastry shop reward depends on its ingredients, and over the past year they have not all moved the same way. According to the harmonised index of consumer prices published by Eurostat, in September 2026 butter in Italy cost 14.7% less than a year earlier, eggs 7.3% more and fresh berries 17.1% more (Eurostat, prc_hicp_minr, data updated on 16 October 2026).
These are prices paid by households in shops, not your workshop’s wholesale price lists: use them as a signal to recheck the cost of your rewards, not as a cost to enter. If a reward uses a lot of eggs or fresh fruit, recalculate it with the calculator before the holidays.
| Item | Change over one year |
|---|---|
| Butter and other oils and fats derived from milk | −14.7% |
| Eggs | +7.3% |
| Raw and whole milk | −2.2% |
| Cane sugar and beet sugar | −3.0% |
| Chocolate, cocoa and cocoa-based food products | −3.9% |
| Nuts, in shell or shelled | +2.9% |
| Fresh berries | +17.1% |
| Bread and bakery products | +0.9% |
| Restaurants, cafés and the like | +2.9% |
What reward should a pastry shop give?
The best pastry shop reward is something you already make that lets the customer try something new: a single pastry, a tray of mini pastries, a seasonal cake. If a reward cannot be collected on the busiest days, write that on the card.
More ideas are in the guide to loyalty card reward ideas; if you are thinking of a gift other than what you sell, read the guide to loyalty card rules in Italy first. You can look at the demo pastry shop design: its name, stamps and reward are illustrative, not the scheme of a client pastry shop.
| Reward | Cost to you | Good when | Write on the card |
|---|---|---|---|
| A single pastry or one of your choice | Low | You sell a lot over the counter | Which pastries are included |
| A half-kilo tray of mini pastries | Medium | You have regular weekend customers | Weight and selection |
| A seasonal cake | Medium, varies with the ingredients | You want customers to try a new product | While stocks last, if it is made that day |
| A small cake made to order | High | The threshold is long and you reward frequent orders | Notice needed for the order and excluded days |
What Iterum does for a pastry shop, and what it does not
Iterum is a digital loyalty card for local businesses: for a pastry shop it covers joining from the QR code, purchases confirmed by staff, points and rewards, not orders, deposits or payments. If you have several shops, each can be a location on the same account, at a separate cost shown on the pricing page. The demo designs on this page show made-up data: they are not real customers or results.
Set up the card before paying
In the card designer you set the design, stamps or points and the reward, and see a preview.
Try it for 7 days
Activate the 7-day free trial: you pay €0 today, a payment card is required and, unless you cancel, the selected plan continues after the trial. Base includes 300 new customers a month and 1 active card, Pro 1,000 and 2 cards, Premium 5,000 and 3 cards, with unlimited customers in total; prices are on the pricing page.
- Does: a stamp or points card on the customer’s phone, from the QR code or the link, with Apple Wallet and Google Wallet on supported devices.
- Does: confirmation in the counter app on a phone, tablet or computer, accounts for the whole team, a points-per-operation limit, undoing an addition within 10 minutes.
- Does: a customer list with each customer’s last visit, statistics, messages on the card, 2, 4 or 8 a month per location depending on the plan, and automations such as «Buon compleanno» (happy birthday), the promotional ones only for customers who consented.
- Does not: orders and deposits, payments, reading the till or the scales, stamping without a connection.
Sources and method
Sources read on 19 October 2026: Eurostat, harmonised index of consumer prices, ECOICOP version 2, monthly data (dataset prc_hicp_minr, Italy, annual rate of change for September 2026, data updated on 16 October 2026). Holiday dates are calendar dates; the sweets named are examples and vary from region to region.
Situations, rules, thresholds, spending and rewards in the tables are examples, not data collected from real pastry shops. The information on Iterum describes the product as of 19 October 2026, as shown on its public pages and in the dashboard, and does not promise more customers or more sales. Iterum is loyalty card software and has no connection with Eurostat.
Frequently asked questions
- How does a pastry shop loyalty card work?
- The customer scans the QR code at the till and opens the card in the browser, with no app. On each purchase, whoever is on the till confirms a stamp or types the points in the counter app; once the threshold is reached, the reward is collected at the counter under the rule written on the card.
- Is a stamp card or a points card better for a pastry shop?
- If you mostly sell breakfasts at the counter, stamps are simpler; if you sell trays, cakes and holiday sweets, points per euro are fairer, because spending varies a lot from one customer to the next. On Pro and Premium you can keep two or three active cards.
- Is the stamp given when the customer orders the cake or when they collect it?
- At collection is better, once the order is paid in full, and only once. Iterum does not handle orders or deposits, and an addition of points can only be undone within 10 minutes: if you give points with the order and the cake is never collected, you cannot remove them afterwards.
- Do panettone and corporate orders earn points too?
- You decide and write it on the card. For large orders set a «Maximum points per operation» limit: nobody can add more points than that in one go, and the limit also protects against typing errors.
- Does the customer have to download an app?
- No. They open the card from the QR code or a link and, on supported phones, add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. Without Wallet the card stays available from the link.
- How much does it cost to try Iterum with a pastry shop?
- The trial lasts 7 days and you pay €0 today; a payment card is required to activate it. The price of the selected plan is shown before you confirm, and the plan continues after the trial unless you cancel.
Find your sector.
These are demonstration previews made with the Iterum card catalog. Names, rewards and stamps are examples.