The Brand
Founded in 1995 in North Carolina, Port City Java was built on the belief that great coffee and genuine hospitality go hand in hand. From the start, the brand focused on creating welcoming neighborhood cafés where guests feel known and comfortable spending time.
Coffee quality remains central to the brand, with beans roasted at the corporate office and a strong emphasis on training and consistency. As Port City Java has grown, it has stayed true to its roots by delivering a warm, personal experience across every channel, from in-café and drive-through to catering and digital ordering.
Today, Port City Java stands for high-quality coffee, thoughtful service, and guest experiences that feel familiar, intentional, and human.
The Challenge
Before Incentivio, Port City Java had a loyalty program in place, but it was largely static. Rewards had carried over from earlier iterations without much evolution, and the experience did not consistently drive engagement beyond earning points.
From an operational standpoint, the team lacked clear visibility into performance across locations. It was difficult to understand which offers resonated, compare performance across stores, or consistently reinforce loyalty at the point of sale, especially in fast-paced, drive-through-heavy environments.
The team knew loyalty needed to do more than track points. It needed to actively engage guests and enhance the brand experience, while giving internal teams clearer insight into what was driving repeat visits.
Why Incentivio
When Port City Java’s previous loyalty provider was acquired, the team took the opportunity to reevaluate its guest engagement technology. Incentivio quickly stood out for its ease of use and ability to support both guest-facing experiences and internal workflows.
Training was straightforward, adoption came naturally, and the platform worked seamlessly across roles, from front-of-house teams to marketing and operations. Incentivio provided flexibility across loyalty, ordering, catering, delivery, and Scan to Pay without adding operational complexity.
Most importantly, Incentivio aligned with how Port City Java thinks about guest experience by helping guests in meaningful ways, reinforcing brand messaging, and offering rewards guests actually want to use.
Incentivio is used daily across marketing, operations, and front-of-house teams. Marketing relies on the platform for campaigns and guest communication, while operations teams use it to understand performance and reinforce consistency across locations.
The Incentivio Customer Success team played a key role in onboarding and ongoing support, helping the marketing team ramp quickly and execute seasonal campaigns with confidence. That guidance enabled the team to move faster and avoid missteps during rollout.
The Results
Since launching Incentivio, Port City Java has seen meaningful improvements across guest experience, operations, and visibility into performance.
More engaging loyalty
Guests now have greater flexibility in how they redeem rewards, from free coffee and $5 off to smaller add-ons like syrups or baked goods. While $5 off remains the most popular option, expanding the range of rewards has encouraged more frequent engagement and made loyalty feel more relevant to everyday visits.
Through a close partnership with Incentivio’s Customer Success team, Port City Java turned that flexibility into a high-adoption loyalty engine, driving a 110% increase in redemptions, a 49% lift in loyalty-driven sales, a 40% increase in active members, and scaling in-store loyalty orders from zero to more than 52,000.
Improved visibility into performance
Loyalty Pulse has given the team a clearer view of what is working across the business, helping identify high, mid, and low performers and understand which offers drive results. These insights have supported stronger operational habits across locations.
Expanded ordering and catering capabilities
Port City Java launched catering in July 2025 and later expanded into lunch offerings, including premium salads and deli sandwiches. Orders now flow through multiple channels, including phone, email, third-party platforms, and directly through the Port City Java app powered by Incentivio.
Overall, the experience is faster for guests, clearer for teams, and easier to manage day to day.
Scan to Pay for faster, smoother transactions
For Port City Java, speed of service is critical, with well over half of transactions flowing through the drive-through. The relaunch of Scan to Pay directly supported that reality by simplifying checkout into a single, fast interaction that fits naturally into high-volume environments.
Guests recognized the feature from previous experiences, and adoption ramped quickly as both staff and customers embraced the ease of use. Within the first 30 days, Scan to Pay accounted for 7% of all transactions. By the second month, adoption climbed to nearly 12% of transactions, signaling strong momentum and rapid guest adoption.
Beyond speed, Scan to Pay has also improved visibility into performance. Through Loyalty Pulse, the Port City Java team can clearly see how Scan to Pay usage and related offers perform, giving them confidence to continue optimizing the experience as adoption grows.
