When it comes to daily deals and loyalty programs, local merchants are constantly bombarded with new options. Groupon has leapt ahead in daily deals, and there quite a few players in the loyalty program space, all trying various approaches to mobile, to rewarding influencers, to encouraging social engagement, gamification, and more.
Generally speaking, local merchants, whether they be restaurants or retailers, want to keep it simple: If they choose to offer discounts or deals, they want to be able to set the terms, upsell, encourage repeat visitors, and track the ROI of their campaigns — doing so in a way that results in as little friction as possible for customers.
New York-based Social Passport is taking a different approach to the problem by creating a social loyalty tool that leverages both NFC and QR codes to allow customers to interact with their favorite businesses in realtime and receive discounts, and, in turn, gives businesses access to a wider audience of potential customers through their users’ social media channels.
Launching in October of last year — and shortly thereafter winning the “best startup” award at Web 2.0 in New York City — Social Passport allows businesses to easily post NFC tags or QR codes in their store, which users can then interact with to unlock rewards, deals, and discounts. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.