Loyalty cards go digital with Stampfeet smartphone app

22-Feb-2011 - Last updated on 26-Apr-2021 at 19:47 GMT

Stampfeet is free to use for both customers and businesses

Restaurants, bars and coffee shops are trialling a new mobile loyalty scheme that allows customers to collect loyalty points on their smartphones, while businesses get a new way to communicate with their clients and detailed analytics on their loyalty scheme’s performance.

Introduced by the technology start-up Stampfeet, the eponymous mobile phone app aims to leverage the growth in smartphone penetration in the UK market, which is predicted to reach 80 per cent by the end of 2012.

Customers who have the Stampfeet app on their phone can collect loyalty points from participating venues by typing a four-digit code – or ‘digital stamp’ – into their phone on every purchase from that venue.

Once the digital loyalty card is complete, customers can redeem their reward and the venue then initiates the card to start again.

Analytics

Partners Asaf Rozin and Eran Afek who are behind the Stampfeet scheme, say it also acts as the “Google Analytics of the bricks-and-mortar business”.

Restaurants, pubs, cafes and hotels that sign up to use Stampfeet will be able to access an online back-office system that tracks their loyalty scheme’s performance in real time.

When a business signs up they are provided with a username and password to allow them to track their dedicated analytics account. Each time a loyalty card is used, the system tracks the user’s data and the transaction details.

Within the next few months, Rozin and Afek plan to introduce “more sophisticated data elements” that will enable offline businesses to tap into the benefits of the analytics that are available for e-commerce.

Marketing and communication

Stampfeet also gives businesses another avenue of communication with their customers.

Dedicated areas on the app will allow for personal messages to be sent to customers, for example news of a new venue opening. Notifications may also be sent outside the app.

The service is also integrated onto Facebook and Twitter in order to harness the power of social networking.

“Integrating the physical in-store shopping activities into social networks will have a massive positive effect and will enable even the smallest offline businesses such as niche cafes to naturally grow their part in the digital media field,” Rozin and Afek told BigHospitality.

“Stampfeet business partners can be ‘liked’ by customers on Facebook directly from the shop, they can show a leader board of customers and enable them all to share purchases including favourite dishes – all smoothly, naturally and almost passively as part of their visit to the physical venue.”

Soft launch

Stampfeet has not yet embarked on its full promotional campaign, but the system is currently being used in around 50 venues in London.

Although some of these venues are retailers or health & beauty businesses, the large majority are coffee shops, bars and restaurants, and include Wok to Walk, Gelato Mio, Maoz Vegetarian, The Alice House and Mori.

Stampfeet can also be used by hotels to replace their traditional loyalty card schemes.

Businesses can sign up to the basic Stampfeet service free of charge. Any premium services or additional opt-ins – such as analytics or marketing functions – then carry a price based on usage and level of business.

More information can be found on the website www.partners.stampfeet.com