In June 2025, Platō, one of South Africa’s fastest-growing coffee shop franchises, became the first business in South Africa to launch a card-linked loyalty programme.
Fast forward one year, and the risk paid off.
Switching to a loyalty mechanic no one was using gave Platō a competitive advantage, turning a coffee run into a consistent purchasing habit.
What Platō Achieved in One Year
|
Metric |
Result |
|
Store network on the loyalty program |
132 stores |
|
Registered users |
150,000+ in under a year |
|
Share of checkout |
34.25% overall, with some stores above 50% |
|
Upsell rate |
124.58% |
The Desire to Improve The Platō Experience
Platō was never built to be another coffee brand.
“From day one, we set out to build something bigger, a brand that brings people together,” says co-founder and CEO, Stephan Bredell. “Coffee Sculpted, Community Included” isn’t just a slogan. It’s how we approach everything we do.”
Part of that ambition is looking for ways to innovate and engage their community with something different and elevated. So, rather than bolting on a generic points card, Platō wanted a rewards system that felt better, smarter, and more meaningful.
By mid-2025, Platō was already one of South Africa’s fastest-growing companies, with 98 stores open and a target of 150 by the end of the year. Scaling a loyalty programme to match Platō’s pace meant the technology had to remove friction for the customer and the barista, not add to it.
Building Loyalty into The Payment
The desire to innovate led Platō to partner with Yoyo and adopt a loyalty mechanic no one else was using: bank card-linked loyalty.
Since the 1st June 2025, every card tap at a Platō till has automatically earned 5% cashback. The reward reflects instantly in the Platō app, with no additional loyalty card, separate scan, or extra step at the counter.
Signing up for the loyalty programme only takes four steps:
- Tap a bank card to pay at any Platō cafe
- Register a mobile number on the card machine (a once-off step)
- Download the Platō app
- Earn cashback automatically on every card payment.
The mechanic is built around the idea that loyalty shouldn’t ask more of the customer than the coffee itself.
“We did not want to fix loyalty. We wanted to reinvent it,” says Bevan Ducasse, CEO of Yoyo. “So we built a system where the customer’s bank card becomes their loyalty card. No extra cards, no extra steps. Just frictionless loyalty.“
With nothing left to remember, the moment of delight arrives instantly, and the gap between the purchase and reward disappears.
How Removing Friction From Loyalty Grew Platō’s Business
A year of tap-and-go loyalty left a data trail. It tells a consistent story of fast adoption that kept climbing.
Fast Adoption and Sustained Loyalty
Within three weeks of launching, the Platō app accounted for over 30% of in-store transactions, more than double the industry standard for loyalty app adoption.
A year later, it’s still going strong. The share of checkout stands at 34.25%, with some stores exceeding 50%. Proof that the launch spike wasn’t a fad, but sustained, lasting consumer behaviour that’s still growing.
Growth With No Friction
Platō’s card-linked loyalty programme is now live in 132 stores nationwide with 150,000+ customers registered in under a year.
For a loyalty programme with no physical card, it’s a strong signal that the “tap first, register later” mechanic is working. It removes a barrier to entry, and the frictionless behaviour requires no extra steps from baristas, making the programme easy to scale and adopt with each new store opening.
Bigger Basket Sizes and Customer Engagement
One of the main reasons brands launch a loyalty programme is to grow customer spend. The card-linked loyalty mechanic has exceeded expectations, with an upsell rate of 124.58%, indicating that Platō loyalty members are spending more per basket than those without the programme.
Over the last year, Platō customers earned cashback on over 301,000 transactions and redeemed rewards more than 80,000 times. With a redemption rate of roughly 27%, loyalty members are using their rewards rather than letting them go unused in the app.
Diving further into Platō’s month-on-month data, repeat customers have consistently accounted for at least a fifth of all active users since the programme matured. The average loyalty member completes close to three transactions in a typical month, confirming that stopping for a coffee at Platō has become a habit rather than a once-off or occasional spend.
When asked if Bredell would recommend card-linked loyalty, he doesn’t hesitate: “Definitely worth it. It’s a seamless experience for the customer.”
The One Surprise Platō Didn’t Expect and What’s Next
What surprised Bredell wasn’t the incredible customer response, but the reaction from other businesses.
“The amount of like-minded brands and companies that have wanted to cross-collaborate via our and their apps,” he says. “It just shows the value that Platō’s community possesses and the type of value-adds we can offer.”
What does that mean for Platō’s loyalty programme going forward?
Bredell says the focus is on making the app more interactive. He hopes to bring in more partners to widen the rewards available to customers and to continue refining the experience.
What Platō’s Loyalty Success Means for South African Retailers
Card-linked loyalty removes two of the main reasons loyalty stalls: the friction of additional steps and the lag between a customer’s action and their reward.
By embedding the reward into the payment, participation doesn’t rely on a customer’s memory. Adoption becomes instant, just like the rewards.
For South African brands still relying on traditional loyalty methods, Platō’s first year is a testament to how quickly adoption, basket sizes, and engagement can grow when you build loyalty on top of an action a customer was already taking.
To see how card-linked loyalty can work for your business, explore Yoyo’s loyalty and rewards platform.