Customer Innovation Keys Best Local Startup Recognition for Punchcard

Innovation is the guiding light behind mobile shopping app Punchcard and one that also helped the company earn a Future Stars Award for Best Startup in the local space at the BIA Kelsey Conference.

For Punchcard CEO Andy Steuer, his company brings several areas of innovation to both consumers and retailers.

“On the consumer side, we’ve created a way for consumers to earn rewards everywhere they shop,” Steuer told Loyalty 360. “Punchcard works at 15 million local retail locations. Virtually everywhere consumers shop, they can use Punchcard there to earn rewards.”

Punchcard users shop anywhere and take a picture of their receipt through the Punchcard app to earn a "punch" on a punch card for that business, and the chance to “Punch, Spin and Win” for a wide range of prizes that can be won with each punch. Punchcard awards 500 prizes every day to users based on their purchase preferences, ranging from free music downloads to $5 gift cards at Starbucks or Walmart to a Grand Prize of an iPad Mini that is given away each week. 

Steuer said the net result is that Punchcard users receive personalized discounts from businesses or brands they love, while businesses are able to acquire, engage, and retain consumers via fun mobile game mechanics.

Steuer believes Punchcard’s simplicity helped the company earn the award.

“Rewards can be incentives and rewards from participating businesses, where their incentive to the consumer is on your third punch, you get $5 toward any purchase, and unlock your first punch, which is a surprise,” Steuer said.

For example, Steuer said a consumer may win anything from $1 on Amazon to a $5 gift card, to Target or Starbucks, to a $100 gas card, to free glasses on Coastal.com, $20 off their first ride on Uber, or a $25 credit on Hotel Tonight.

“What we’ve found is that consumers love being rewarded at the point of transaction, and we create an exciting way for consumers to earn benefits everywhere they shop, and for retailers to incentivize and reward their consumers to either come back (loyalty/retention) or for retailers to acquire new customers by putting Sponsored Rewards, which are branded dollars, into the consumer’s pockets.  Everyone wins – consumers benefit, and retailers benefit, whether they’re using Punchcard as a loyalty solution to keep customers or as an efficient way to get customers.”

Steuer said Punchcard has aligned its revenue model around the two needs that every business maintains: to get customers and to keep customers. 

“The data that we capture from users snapping pictures of their receipts becomes new insights and business intelligence for the retailers,” Steuer explained. “Finally, they can now know who their consumers are, and re-market back to them via the user’s mobile phone. We can also create compelling aggregate reports that strip out PII data, and provide new insights into where else my customers may also be shopping.”

With Punchcard, retailers can segment their customers across several criteria and create groups that are meaningful to their businesses, and set up trigger-based messages that automatically go out to those consumers to deliver highly personalized user experiences.

“These are best practices that extend great customer service, where retailers can thank their customers for their purchases, and test and create incentives that don’t erode their margins,” Steuer said. “Sending the right message to the right user is critical, and our Punchcard for Business platform helps retailers engage and communicate with consumers efficiently.”

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