Stamp Card Christmas: Campaigns for December & January
December brings customers on its own — January loses them. If you're not using a stamp card now, you're wasting both months.
The stamp card at Christmas is a tool many shops leave unused in December. Yet that's when more customers walk through your door than any other month of the year. And January after that is when those same customers vanish.
This post shows concrete campaigns for both periods: How to turn one-time shoppers into stamp card holders during advent. And how to win back regulars in January with the digital card in their wallet when they're staying home after the holidays.
Why December and January belong together
December brings traffic you don't have to earn. Gift shoppers, holiday parties, advent coffee. People with more time and more spending power. Many come exactly once.
Your job in December isn't to sell more. It's to bind these people to your stamp card.
January is the opposite. After the holidays, wallets are empty, resolutions are strict, and shops are quiet. If you've put cards in wallets in December, you have a channel in January: push notifications on the home screen. They remind people exactly when business is slowest.
How seasonal campaigns are planned across the year is shown in Seasonal Campaigns: The Annual Calendar for Small Shops.
Advent campaigns
Double-stamp days
On fixed days, customers get two stamps instead of one. For example, on each Sunday of Advent or on the four Fridays before Christmas.
It's simple to communicate. It costs you only one extra stamp per visit. And it gives customers a reason to choose that day.
Push text: "Double stamps today for the second Sunday of Advent. Come by, we have gingerbread."
Advent card with shorter path
For December, run a card with fewer stamps needed to earn a reward. For example, 6 instead of 10.
New customers see the reward is within reach. And they start collecting. From January, the normal card applies again. Existing stamps carry over.
Digitally, you change the number once. All cards show it immediately.
The Christmas stamp
One bonus stamp for everyone who visits between December 20 and 24.
That's the week when gift shoppers and advent coffee drinkers are in your shop. People you'd never see otherwise. The extra stamp is the reason to scan the card.
Gift cards with a stamp
Anyone who buys a gift card for someone else gets a stamp themselves.
The recipient gets shown the QR code when they redeem it. And creates their own card. Two customers for one sale.
Getting the card into customers' hands in December
The best campaign is useless if new customers in December don't even know about the card. Three things help:
The counter sign matters more in December than any other time. It sits at checkout. Shows the Christmas campaign and the QR code. With stampa, AI creates a print-ready sign. You update it for advent with the current campaign.
One sentence at payment. "Scan quick, then you already have two stamps today." Your team says it to everyone who pays. That's the lever a sign alone doesn't have.
The card shows the campaign. With stampa, you enable holiday campaigns per holiday. The card in the wallet shows the right design and campaign. The customer sees Christmas on the card, not just on the sign.
The January booster
Now comes the part only a digital stamp card can do.
All customers who created a card in December are reachable in January. Not by email, which nobody opens. But by wallet notification on the home screen.
| Week | Campaign | Push text |
|---|---|---|
| January 2–8 | Fresh start stamp | "Happy New Year. Your first visit in January earns a bonus stamp." |
| January 9–15 | Double-stamp week | "Every visit this week counts double. We've got the heat on." |
| January 16–22 | Almost-full reminder | "Just 2 stamps left until your free coffee." |
| January 23–31 | Flash sale | "Today only until 6 PM: 2 for 1 on all hot drinks." |
The almost-full reminder is the most effective message. Because it doesn't go to everyone. Only to customers close to earning their reward. Digitally, the card knows who that is.
How this reactivation works in detail is explained in Win Back Inactive Customers.
Important: Push notifications with campaigns are advertising. They need the customer's marketing consent. With stampa, that's a separate checkbox when creating the card, off by default. Messages only go to customers who've enabled it.
Take the self-test: Are you losing regulars right now?
- In December more customers come through your door than any other time, but you don't know who comes back.
- You have no way to remind customers in January without being annoying.
- Your Christmas campaign runs on signs at the counter, and you don't know how many saw them.
- January is quiet, and you wait for customers to come back on their own.
If you checked two or more boxes: A digital stamp card with push notifications brings these customers back. Without guessing whether it works.
What the campaigns cost
A sample calculation for a café with a 10-stamp card and free coffee as the reward. Cost of goods: €0.80:
- Double stamps on four Sundays of Advent: A customer visiting all four gets four stamps closer to the reward. That costs you roughly €0.32 per customer, spread over four visits.
- Christmas stamp from December 20–24: One extra stamp per customer, roughly €0.08.
- January double-stamp week: Like advent, €0.08 per extra stamp.
For campaigns that bring customers in during the slowest weeks of the year, these are amounts that pay for themselves with a single extra coffee.
Whether they do, you see in the dashboard. stampa measures with a random control group how many extra visits a campaign brought. And tells you honestly if the number isn't reliable yet.
The timeline
- By November 25: Decide on campaigns, update signs, brief your team.
- First Sunday of Advent: First push notification with the advent campaign to existing customers.
- December 20–24: Christmas stamp, team talks to every customer.
- January 2: Fresh start push to all cards created in December.
- Mid-January: Almost-full reminder and double-stamp week.
- End of January: Flash sale with time limit as the finale.
What happens if you change nothing
In December customers come on their own. You sell well. But you don't know who comes back.
In January it's quiet. Regulars stay home. You have no way to remind them without being pushy.
Every week without a stamp card, regulars disappear without you noticing. Because they simply go somewhere else. And you have no channel to bring them back.
Conclusion
The stamp card at Christmas has two jobs. In December, bind the many one-time shoppers to your card. In January, win back regulars with targeted messages.
Double-stamp days, Christmas stamps, and a January booster with almost-full reminders cost you cents per customer. And fill the slowest weeks of the year.
This only works with a card that lives on the phone and receives messages. With stampa, you set up holiday campaigns and push notifications in minutes. Free up to 100 active customers, no credit card. Start free now.