Digital loyalty cards

Digital loyalty cards

Bringing IT into business processes is only natural, given the growing amount of information and the speed of data exchange. For the same reason, demand keeps growing for good, effective tools for fast communication and data exchange. In this article, we want to tell you about Apple Wallet and digital loyalty cards.

About the technology

Apple Wallet is a mobile app that comes preinstalled on Apple iPhones. It appeared in 2012 and replaced the usual wallet. At first, it was only available in the US and was used to store movie tickets and boarding passes. Two years later, Apple developers created the unique Apple Pay service, which made it possible to pay for purchases with an iPhone. Besides bank products, the app can also store digital loyalty cards: discount cards, points cards, spend-based cards and others. This valuable option made it possible to collect customers' personal data and attract new customers automatically. Stored on customers' smartphones, digital loyalty cards become an effective tool for your marketing ideas. This means you can avoid losing a guest who came to you once.

The cards work through a mobile app and support location targeting. This lets you send customers push notifications when they are close to your venue (a store, restaurant, cafe and so on). The benefits of Apple Wallet are clear. For example, you do not need to waste large budgets on SMS messages and call center staff. All contact with the customer happens through location targeting and automated push notifications. Location targeting also lets you set up to ten active location tags to tell the customer about your nearest locations.

Today, a digital loyalty card is a completely new format of loyalty program. It gives the user a whole list of the latest offers and options. It is easy to use: just show the loyalty card on your smartphone at checkout. The cashier scans the 2D code, and the system gives the customer a discount on services or goods and also saves points for future purchases.

Where to use them

Digital loyalty cards are in especially high demand. They help you build and grow your customer base, run marketing campaigns and promotions, and increase sales by engaging and "bringing back to life" customers who have not bought anything for a long time. So digital loyalty cards give you unlimited options to automate your business:

• Sending free push notifications (messages about current promotions and special offers, reminders about an upcoming visit and so on).

• Adding the information you need (links to social media, online booking and so on).

• Issuing digital loyalty cards in your company's brand style.

• Changing the card design for any task.

• Creating a schedule for automatic push notifications, card layouts and a plan for design changes.

And maybe the biggest benefit of digital loyalty cards is that a customer will never forget them at home. They will always be with the customer, on their smartphone. You cannot always say that about a stack of cards.

Types of loyalty cards

There are several kinds of loyalty cards. Here are some of them:

• Discount card. Gives the customer the right to a fixed discount on goods and services.

• Points card. Lets the customer collect points that are equal to money.

• Spend-based card. Lets the customer get a bigger discount as they make more purchases.

• Coupon. A virtual voucher that lets you make a purchase at a discount.