Whitepaper
The repeat customer report: 18 months of loyalty card data
Anonymized data from 1,200 independent businesses running loyalty cards on HardCards. The findings on win-back, frequency, and margin change the baseline for small-business loyalty.
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HardCards research March 28, 2026 32-page PDF
whitepaper
Anonymized data from 1,200 independent businesses running loyalty cards on HardCards. The findings on win-back, frequency, and margin change the baseline for small-business loyalty.
Key findings
- • Card holders visit 2.4x more often than non-card customers in the same cohort
- • Win-back push notifications convert at 14% within 7 days — six times higher than email
- • The median independent business breaks even on loyalty in under 90 days
- • Gross margin on repeat-customer visits runs 8–12 points higher than new-customer visits
- • Card holders who redeem a reward in month one have a 73% 12-month retention rate
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A loyalty card that pays for itself the first time it wins a customer back.
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