You choose the reward.
Aster does the counting.
This is the most common misunderstanding, so let us settle it right away: Aster does not build your loyalty program. You decide what you offer, after how many visits, and to whom. Aster counts, shows the card on your customer's phone, and keeps it current. Nothing more, but it does that part well.
You decide
- The reward you offer, and what it is worth
- How many visits it takes to earn it
- The program type: stamps, points or passes
- Your prices, your sales, your register
- The wording of your promotions and their dates
- Who gets the reward, and when
Aster handles
- Counting visits, with no lost card and no mistakes
- Showing the card in the customer's browser
- Adding it to Google Wallet or Apple Wallet
- Keeping the counter current in real time
- Sending the notification when you launch a promotion
- Showing your numbers: visits, new customers, completed cards
The corner coffee shop, in five lines
The same mechanism works for a salon, a barber, a car wash or a studio.
- You decide: the tenth coffee is free. Your offer, your margin, your call.
- You create the program in the app: stamp card, threshold 10, reward "One free coffee".
- You display your QR code at the counter. The customer scans it, leaves a first name and phone number, and their card opens.
- On every visit, you scan their card. Aster adds a stamp. The counter moves on their phone.
- At the tenth, Aster tells you the threshold is reached. You hand over the coffee. The counter resets.
Saint-Louis Coffee
One free coffee
7 of 10, three visits to go
The merchant scans
this code on every visit
What Aster does not do
We would rather say it ourselves, in writing, than let you find out after signing up.
The money your customers pay you never passes through Aster, in any form. They pay at the counter as usual. Aster never sees those amounts.
No sale is ever recorded. Aster counts visits, not commercial transactions. You keep your register and your invoicing system.
Aster takes nothing from your revenue. The only amount you pay is your subscription, known in advance, and the free plan costs nothing.
The free tenth coffee comes out of your margin, not ours. So set a threshold that stays profitable for you. That calculation is yours alone.
Your customers are your customers. They do not collect points valid elsewhere, and no other business sees your list. Each program lives in its own shop.
No advertising, no ad trackers, no resale. Data is hosted in Canada and used only to run your program.
"What about my register and my sales?"
A fair concern, and the answer fits in one line: Aster touches none of it.
No sale is recorded
When you scan a customer's card, Aster writes down exactly one thing: one more visit on that card. Not an amount collected, not an item sold, not a payment method. Your register keeps doing its job, and Aster has no access to it.
Revenue figures are an estimate
Aster can show you approximate revenue. It is calculated from an average price that you enter once, when creating the program, multiplied by the number of visits. Nothing is ever entered at the counter. It is an order of magnitude to help you decide, not accounting.
The only payment is your subscription
If you move to the Solo plan, your monthly subscription is handled by Stripe, exactly like any other software you pay for. It is the only flow of money inside Aster, and it goes from you to us, never from your customers to you through Aster.
Aster runs alongside your register
Aster does not plug into your point of sale and does not try to replace it. In practice: the customer pays at the register, then you scan their loyalty card. Two separate gestures, two separate systems.
What Aster asks your customers: two things
A first name and a phone number. That is all, and it is deliberately the minimum.
No account, no password
Your customer creates no account and remembers no password. They scan, enter a first name and phone number, and the card opens. Ten seconds.
No app to install
The card opens in the browser they already have. If they want, they add it to Google Wallet or Apple Wallet, next to their tickets and bank cards.
No banking details
Aster never asks your customers for a credit card, because no payment goes through it. There is nothing financial to protect, because there is nothing financial at all.
Two separate consents
The customer first agrees to have their first name and number kept. That is required to create the card, and required by Quebec's Law 25. Receiving your promotions is a separate checkbox, ticked or not, as Canadian anti-spam law requires. Both consents are timestamped.
They can leave whenever they want
From their own card, your customer can request deletion of their data, without going through you and without writing to anyone. It is their right, and Aster makes it one tap away rather than burying it in terms of service.
Now that the roles are clear
See the mechanism in detail, on both sides of the counter, or go straight to the user guide, screen by screen.