How to Sell Prepaid Coffee Bundles at Your Café

Your regulars buy the same coffees every week — prepaid bundles just get you paid for them today. Cash flow is the quiet problem behind most cafés: steady customers, but money that trickles in one cup at a time. A prepaid bundle flips the timing — a customer pays for ten coffees up front, you bank the cash now, and they keep coming back to drink it down. Here's how to set one up, how to promote it, what it costs, and the honest limits.

#Why is this about cash flow, not loyalty?

A loyalty card brings customers back; a prepaid bundle brings the money in — now. When a regular buys a 10-coffee bundle, you've sold a week of coffees in a single sale: the cash is collected up front instead of trickling in one cup at a time. That's revenue you can plan rent, a supplier, or the week's stock around.

That matters because most cafés run on a thin buffer. If your regulars keep coming but pay one coffee at a time, your month is a guess. If ten of them buy bundles, you know what next week looks like. It's your cash flow on a schedule, not a marketing campaign.

#What bundles should I offer?

Start simple — you can add options later:

• "Buy 10, get 1 free" — the proven one. It costs you a single coffee, and the up-front cash covers a week of visits.
• "10 for the price of 9" — the same maths, framed as a straight discount some customers prefer.
• "5-coffee starter" — a smaller commitment for people not ready for ten. Lower barrier, still cash up front.
• "Weekday pass" — five weekday coffees at one price, made for the office crowd who come every morning.

Don't overthink it. Your regulars already buy these coffees; you're just asking them to pay ahead, with a small thank-you for doing it — and you can set a bundle up in a few minutes.

#Do customers really spend more than the bundle?

Often, yes — six out of ten people who buy prepaid spend more than the card's value. They come in for the coffee they've already paid for and add a pastry, a sandwich, or a second drink for a friend. The prepaid balance gets them through the door; the rest of the order is spend you wouldn't have had that morning.

#What about coffees they never use?

Some balances go unused — treat that as a small bonus, never the plan. A café that banks on people forgetting their coffees has it backwards: the wins are the cash up front and the repeat visits, so make redeeming easy and nudge people when they're running low.

#How do I promote it?

You don't need a campaign — a QR code and a sentence:

• At the counter: a small sign by the till — "Buy 10, get 1 free. Scan to start" — and a line at checkout: "You're in most days — want your next ten, with the 11th free?"
• On Instagram: a quick story showing the card, link in bio.
• On WhatsApp: text your regulars the link directly.
• On receipts: drop the QR code at the bottom. Costs nothing, works quietly.

Your best customers buy it because they already spend that money with you every week. You're just making it official.

#What does the customer see on their phone?

Their prepaid bundle lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, right next to their bank cards: your café's logo, their balance ("7 of 10 coffees left"), and how close they are to the free one. When they're running low, a notification lands on their lock screen — "2 coffees left — top up your bundle?" No app to open, no email, no code to remember. It's just there.

“

Once they scan it, we are always with them. Even when they pay for something else, they see our card.

“

Ofek, Owner of Tune In & Figa Garden, Croatia

Read their story →

#What does it cost, and where does it work?

There's no monthly fee — you only pay when you make a sale. That's it: 6.5% per transaction when a customer buys a bundle, and lower still if you're already on a loyalty plan. Payouts go straight to your bank through Stripe; no hardware, no contract.

One honest limit: prepaid cards currently work across Europe only. Outside Europe, a loyalty card for your coffee shop gives you the repeat-visit half — "buy 9, get the 10th free" — today, while prepaid rolls out further. See pricing for the full breakdown.

#Is 6.5% a lot?

It looks higher than your card-reader fee, but it's a different thing. Say a coffee is €3, so a ten-coffee bundle sells for €30 (your regular gets the eleventh free). The fee is 6.5% of that — €1.95 — so you collect €28.05 up front, for eleven visits you'd otherwise take one cup at a time over a month. Two things make that worth it:

• You pay it once, on the sale — not on every coffee they redeem. It's a single €1.95 fee, not a cut of each cup.
• It's on money you get up front. You're paying a little to pull a week of revenue forward — cheaper than an overdraft, and it steadies the cash flow that actually sinks cafés.

If you'd rather not absorb it, price the bundle at €32 and the fee's covered. Either way, prepaid won't rescue a café people don't want to come back to — it rewards a place already worth the walk, so get the coffee and the welcome right first.