21 Jan Brewing Loyalty: How BrewPrks is Transforming Cape Town’s Coffee Culture
At Innovation City’s Fika Café, supporting local innovation is a daily brew. One such example is BrewPrks, a transformative app created by South African co-founders Cobus Meyer and Chris Green. Their vision was simple: to ditch the hassle of paper loyalty cards and introduce a digital alternative that benefits both coffee lovers and shop owners. What started as a single-store app for a coffee trailer has grown into a platform connecting over 2,000 coffee enthusiasts to their favourite cafés across Cape Town each week. In an exclusive interview, Chris, a self-proclaimed coffee nerd and professional problem-solver, shares the inspiring journey of BrewPrks, the challenges they’ve faced, and the exciting road ahead.
BrewPrks began as a single-store app developed for a coffee trailer by Green, aiming to replace paper loyalty cards with a digital alternative. The app quickly gained traction, with 80 active users in just a few weeks. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced coffee shops to close, and the idea was put on hold.
In late 2024, the concept was revived when Green, recently retrenched from the solar industry, teamed up with Meyer, a software engineer who had just returned from the Netherlands. Combining their skills, they officially launched BrewPrks with a simple mission: to eliminate paper loyalty cards.
Convincing shop owners to transition from paper to digital was initially challenging, but the results speak for themselves. In just five months, BrewPrks has grown to connect over 2,000 coffee lovers with their favorite cafés in Cape Town every week, proving the power of thoughtful innovation in creating loyal communities!
The Founding Vision Behind BrewPrks
Green’s extensive background in the coffee industry, from running a tiny mobile setup on a picnic table to managing full-fledged coffee shops and an award-winning wholesale coffee roasting business, played a pivotal role in shaping BrewPrks. The app was designed to directly address the pain points he experienced firsthand as a coffee business owner, ensuring its functionality is both practical and deeply relevant to the industry.
Overcoming Early Challenges
One of the biggest hurdles BrewPrks faced was gaining the trust of coffee shop owners when the platform was still in its infancy, with only a handful of stores onboard. As Green explains, “Nobody wants to join an empty dance floor.” The team tackled this by sharpening their sales skills and steadily building confidence in the platform, eventually filling the room with engaged users.
Operating on a bootstrapped budget also posed challenges. Even small tasks, such as printing info cards and creating table talkers, became unexpectedly difficult and costly. However, resourcefulness and determination helped the team overcome these obstacles, setting the foundation for BrewPrks’ success.
Simplifying Loyalty Through Technology
BrewPrks is built around three key components: two mobile apps and a metrics dashboard for store managers.
The user app functions as a digital wallet for loyalty cards, mimicking the familiar design of traditional paper cards. Unlike paper cards, which have a low completion rate (less than 30%), the digital format eliminates the frustration of lost cards and helps retain customer loyalty. It also features a map showcasing participating coffee shops, giving users a convenient way to discover great cafés while supporting shops that embrace the platform.
The backend app allows coffee shops to stamp users’ digital loyalty cards by scanning unique QR codes, ensuring a seamless and efficient process.
The merchant insights dashboard sets BrewPrks apart, offering detailed analytics on customer spending habits and patterns. This helps coffee shop owners make smarter decisions on staffing, inventory, and building stronger connections with their most loyal patrons.
Streamlining Simplicity for Users and Merchants
BrewPrks is dedicated to keeping things simple. For customers, the app remains a secure digital wallet and a guide to discovering great cafés through its map feature. The goal is straightforward: help users reach rewards faster, while cafés benefit from increased loyalty, consistent sales, and actionable data.
As a two-person team, Green and Meyer focus on eliminating unnecessary features to ensure a smooth experience. Users can even access their QR codes through smartwatches or mobile wallets without opening the app. For merchants, the process is equally efficient, requiring only three clicks to stamp a loyalty card.
Building a Community of Destination-Worthy Coffee Shops
BrewPrks carefully curates its partner cafés to create a network of destination-worthy spots. While quality coffee is essential, the platform also prioritises unique offerings and inclusive practices. For instance, one partner café employs deaf bakers, another is renowned globally for specialty coffee and Innovation City’s Fika Café is home to a community of tech startups, scaleups and funders!
Expanding internationally, BrewPrks plans to launch in countries like the Netherlands, Australia, and Tanzania, connecting expat communities with a globally unified coffee loyalty platform.
Success Stories
Coffee Guy Noordhoek and Tamboers Winkel have become BrewPrks champions, enthusiastically engaging their loyal customers. With nearly 4,000 and 2,600 stamps issued respectively, these cafés have collectively saved around R4,700 on printing costs alone, demonstrating the tangible benefits of the platform.
Looking Ahead: What’s Brewing?
While keeping details under wraps, BrewPrks has an exciting merchant update coming soon, along with enhanced navigation tools like quick action buttons for Waze and Google Maps. These updates will further solidify the app’s role as a coffee guide and loyalty tool.
As Green and Meyer continue to innovate, BrewPrks remains focused on simplifying coffee shop experiences and fostering a thriving global community. With collaboration, creativity, and user-first design at its core, BrewPrks is brewing up something extraordinary!