The recent decision of Tesco to cut some of its Clubcard rewards led to a BBC article asking ‘are the days of loyalty cards numbered?’ The BBC Business piece claims experts believe the move is part of a wider change in a movement away from physical loyalty cards, but that the backlash against Tesco’s move proves shoppers still care about loyalty and rewards.
The piece cites that “The end of the loyalty card has been predicted many times before, but what is different this time is that smartphone apps are an obvious replacement for physical cards, experts say.”
So how does this line up with our experience as creators of a loyalty app?
The LoyalFree app is the multi-award winning brainchild of Leicestershire based Sophie Hainsworth and Jason Nesbitt, who have built a loyalty app where ‘stamps’ are collected directly from a phone by scanning QR codes. Our early market research indicated numerous problems with physical loyalty cards including excess hassle for individuals and a lack of accurate data for the businesses.
Our experience is very much in line with the commentary of this article and signals a huge trend across the Loyalty industry to mobile based rewards. In fact, our recent blog ‘The Future of Loyalty is Digital’ highlights the statistics backing up these claims.
So what do our customers have to say about using an app in place of a card?
Feedback from users (based on Facebook reviews below) indicate the same results highlighted by the BBC. Consumers absolutely still care about loyalty and rewards when interacting with brands, but appreciate (and perhaps now expect) the ease of doing this from their phone. After all, we now use our phones to pay, as our camera and perhaps even to find our life partner. So why wouldn’t loyalty be accessible on our mobile?
Read what some of our users have to say:
“Great! I get free coffees and free haircuts from the same app. Love it”
“A cool little app, better than a little card and stamps that are easily lost or being tied into one retailer”
Moving Forward
With the above in mind, is your business or town centre considering loyalty schemes using cards? If so, we think it’s time for a rethink! Our innovative app based solution can meet the current and future needs of businesses and consumers alike. Find out more by clicking here or by emailing us today on [email protected].
Posted on