5 Top Punch Card Apps in 2022: An Honest Review

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Image source: Unsplash

There is no doubt that punch card apps help you drive sales and increase customer loyalty. Which one will be appropriate for your business?

Sometimes it’s hard to find an answer to such a question unless you compare the options thoroughly. That’s why we created this article — to show you the best punch card apps on the market and point out how they differ.

Some punch card solutions require customers to download the app on their phone, while others allow them to store punch cards in their mobile wallets, which customers prefer.

One such solution is Loopy Loyalty, our punch card platform that enables you to create, manage and distribute loyalty punch cards. To see how it works, sign up for Loopy Loyalty.

In this article, we will discuss the basics of punch card apps, their benefits, and their differences, and share the list of the best solutions on the market to help you make your decision faster. But first, let’s explain mobile punch cards.

What is a mobile punch card?

A mobile punch card represents a digital version of a paper punch card that users can store in their mobile wallets, such as Google Pay or Apple Wallet. With mobile punch cards, customers get stamps after each purchase, collect stamps for offline and online activities, track their punches and exchange them for rewards.

What are punch card apps?

Punch card apps help you create, manage and distribute digital punch cards to reward consumers for purchases.

While all punch card apps share the same idea, they provide different storage options for punch cards. Some let customers store cards in-app, while others allow saving cards in digital wallets.

There is also a difference in technology. Some punch card apps use beacons, others use NFC-based devices, and some enable punches by scanning a QR code.

These punch card apps also benefit your business. Let’s discuss how.

What are the benefits of using the punch card app?

Customers are more prone to repeat purchases when they know they will get rewards for their transactions. Here are some other benefits of mobile punch card apps.

They increase customer engagement

Punch card apps encourage customer engagement. Rewards motivate people to take action, increase overall customer experience, and make customers feel more valued. Initiating a reward program can be an effective way to encourage repeat business.

They provide greater convenience

Paper punch cards create clutter in customers’ pockets or physical wallets, and losing or tearing them down is easy. On the other hand, digital punch cards are always available with just a few taps since customers constantly carry their smartphones.

They allow data collection

Punch card apps give you access to customer data and help you track their engagement with your rewards program. You can see where to improve and what to offer to increase customer loyalty, engagement, and satisfaction.

How to choose the right punch card solution? Let’s discuss some essential parameters you should pay attention to.

Punch card apps for loyalty programs: Our evaluation parameters

Image source: Freepik

While evaluating the best punch card apps on the market, we took into consideration the following factors

  • Notable features
  • Ease of use
  • Card customization options
  • Punch card design templates
  • Integrations with third-party apps
  • In-app or mobile wallet storage
  • Customer support
  • Pricing

Based on these criteria, we selected the five best apps that could help you win customer loyalty and increase customer retention.

The 5 best punch card apps to use in 2023

Image source: Freepik

Punch card apps help you reward your loyal customers and win new customers. Since they enable two-way communication, you can also use them as marketing tools.

Here’s a list of punch card apps that offer the most valuable features.

1. Loopy Loyalty

Loopy Loyalty is a customer loyalty platform that allows businesses to create and launch digital loyalty programs in minutes. It enables contactless shopping and lets customers store their punch cards in digital wallets like Apple Wallet or Google Pay.

Loopy Loyalty helps business owners promote and distribute punch cards with QR codes, unique URLs, or email, text, and social media like Facebook or Instagram. As a result, businesses increase customer engagement, customer retention, and customer loyalty.

Loopy Loyalty lets you gather and track customer data to improve your loyalty program.

User rating

Capterra rated Loopy Loyalty 4.4 out of 5 based on 36 user reviews.

Who uses it

Any small business can use Loopy Loyalty. It is popular in fitness centers, massage parlors, hair salons, nail salons, yoga studios, gyms, bars, coffee shops, and restaurants.

Deployment

Loopy Loyalty is SaaS and offers a subscription-based model.

Features

  • Intuitive platform for digital punch card creation
  • Advanced design customization options
  • Single or multi rewards
  • Targeted messages
  • Location-based messages
  • Push notifications
  • Stamper app or web stamper
  • Searchable transaction history
  • Loyalty program metrics
  • Mobile wallet enabled
  • No POS needed
  • Data integrity
  • Unlimited cards

What makes this tool unique

Loopy Loyalty doesn’t require any additional devices to punch customers’ loyalty cards. You can use Loopy Loyalty Stamper or the web platform. It updates the customer record automatically, and you can see the transaction history in the customer view.

Integrations

Thanks to Zapier, you can integrate Loopy Loyalty with apps such as

  • Gmail
  • Mailchimp
  • Big Cartel
  • Slack
  • Shopify
  • Square

Customer support

You can use the Loopy Loyalty knowledge base or reach the support team via chat.

Pricing

Loopy Loyalty offers three pricing plans:

  • Starter: $25 per month with one card design and location
  • Growth: $69 per month with three card designs and locations
  • Ultimate: $95 per month with 10 card designs and locations

Pros

  • The online platform is easy to use
  • You don’t need design or coding skills
  • Customers store punch cards in mobile wallets
  • Affordable pricing
  • Great customer support
  • Zapier integrations
  • Unlimited cards, customers, push messages, stamps, rewards, and transactions

2. Oappso Loyalty

Image source: GettApp

Oappso is a loyalty system for small businesses that allows you to create and customize digital stamp cards. Customers can download the mobile punch card to their mobile wallet. Oappso enables you to stamp the punch cards in-store via Oappso Stamp App or stamp remotely via Zapier.

User Rating

Capterra rated Oappso 5.0 out of 5 based on 7 user reviews.

Who uses it

Small to medium businesses like stores, beauty salons, and barber shops.

Deployment

Oappso is SaaS, and you need a subscription to use it. It also has Android, iPhone, and iPad versions.

Features list

  • Activity tracking
  • Custom design
  • Location reminders
  • Push messages
  • Unlimited loyalty cards

What makes this tool unique

Oappso Loyalty cards are anti-fraud enabled.

Integrations

It integrates with Zapier and provides access to apps like Salesforce, Shopify, and Google Forms.

Customer support

Customer support is available via email or chat.

Pricing

Oappso has three pricing plans:

  • Basic: £12/month with two card design slots
  • Plus: £18/month with two card design slots and push messages
  • Pro: £24/month with two card design slots and additional features like targeted messages, remote stamping, and data export

Pros

  • Customers store their punch cards in digital wallets
  • Push notifications for marketing purposes
  • User-friendly interface, suitable for beginners

Cons

  • Push notifications are not available in the basic package
  • There should be more statistics on user behavior

3. Magic Stamp

Image source: The Silicon Review

Magic Stamp is a punch card app that allows customers to keep their favorite loyalty cards from local businesses in one place.

Magic Stamp does most of the job instead of you. You can explain your loyalty program idea and send the logo and brand assets. The Magic Stamp team will design and publish your digital punch cards. They will also deliver promotional materials to distribute your rewards program.

When customers present their digital punch cards at your store, the staff can stamp them with the Magic Stamp device. Your employees can also add stamps remotely using promotional codes.

User Rating

Google Play rated Magic Stamp 4.7 out of 5 based on 315 user reviews.

Who uses it

Local independent businesses in the food and drink industry mostly use Magic Stamp.

Deployment

Magic Stamp is SaaS and provides apps for Android and iOS.

Features list

  • The Magic Stamp device for card stamping
  • Customer behavior and performance data
  • Delivery feature to reward customers who order from home
  • Campaigns to segment customers
  • Sending scheduled messages

What makes this tool unique

This loyalty card app provides a Magic Stamp device to add stamps to the card balance by tapping the device on the customer’s phone screen.

Integrations

There is no information available on the official website.

Customer support

You can contact the support team by filling out an online form, emailing, or booking a call.

Pricing

Magic Stamp has three pricing plans:

  • Basic: £29 monthly for access to the Magic Stamp Platform and vouchers
  • Growth: £39 monthly with access to additional features: Insights, Campaigns, and Delivery
  • Advanced: £69 monthly with custom card design and marketing pack

Pros

  • The app brings together independent and local businesses in one place
  • The search feature allows identifying small businesses in the vicinity
  • Simple and effective interface

Cons

  • It only allows adding one stamp per customer per venue a day
  • Sometimes it fails to register points

4. Stamp Me

Image Source: Tech Design Awards

Stamp Me is a loyalty card system that allows customers to collect points on their mobile devices using digital punch cards. Customers can download the app and register for the program. They can receive stamps for qualifying transactions by placing their mobile device near the loyalty beacon.

User Rating

Google Play rated Stamp Me 4.8 out of 5 based on 956 user reviews.

Who uses it

Hair and beauty salons, retail businesses, cafes, and fitness and well-being studios use Stamp Me.

Deployment

Stamp Me is SaaS. Customers can download iOS or Android apps.

Features list

  • Point of sale software integration
  • Full access to your customer database, including email addresses and phone numbers
  • Direct communication with customers
  • Access to customer data analysis
  • It doesn’t require any complicated hardware or IT equipment

What makes this tool unique

The ‘Explore New Offers’ feature helps customers find loyalty programs to join.

Integrations

Integration with Zapier provides access to apps like Google Forms, Stripe, Salesforce, Microsoft Outlook, and Calendly.

Customer support

Stamp Me gives you access to their help center, blog, ebooks, and guides. You can also contact the support team by filling out an online form.

Pricing

Stamp me offers three subscription plans:

  • Lite: €38 monthly with 1 location
  • Pro: €59 monthly with 2 locations or e-commerce
  • Elite: €149 monthly with 3–6 locations

Pros

  • Quick registration
  • Allows connecting with customers via different channels like SMS, email, in-app notifications, and social media

Cons

  • Difficult for customers to download and register
  • Sometimes there are problems with loading or connecting the app in the store
  • The app is slow and often doesn’t respond
  • It doesn’t allow customers to clear their personal information

5. Juicyapp

Image source: Juicyapp

Juicyapp delivers a CRM suite for businesses. It also provides Digital Stamp Card as one of its products. This feature comes with a fully portable device you can place on the customers’ phone screen to add points to their punch cards.

It uses the unique QR code on each card to add stamps and redeem rewards. Customers don’t have to download an app — they can store their punch cards in digital wallets like Apple Wallet or Google Pay.

User rating

There is no information available on the web.

Who uses it

Non-profit organizations and businesses in the retail and hospitality industries use Digital Stamp Card.

Deployment

Digital Stamp Card is a cloud-based software as a service.

Features list

  • Form builder
  • Multiple cards
  • Reward quota
  • Membership tier
  • Reward journey
  • Registered member list
  • Reward redemption record
  • Real-time CRM
  • Easy to understand admin panel
  • Mobile wallet integration
  • Mobile punch card program customization options

What makes this tool unique

This loyalty card system allows you to customize your loyalty program by providing a form builder and tools to set the reward quota and plan the customer’s reward journey. It enables you to set membership tiers and handle multiple punch cards for your business.

Integrations

Juicyapp integrates with Apple Wallet and Google Pay.

Customer support

You can contact the support team by filling out a web form or emailing.

Pricing

The Juicyapp offers a free trial. The vendor does not provide pricing details.

Pros

  • Juicy App CRM module lets you track customer data
  • The Campaign Management System allows you to communicate with your customers easily
  • Easy setup. The solution doesn’t require any programming knowledge
  • At the store level, it doesn’t require any technology integration

Cons

  • Their stamp device relies on QR codes which might be tricky if the venue has a poor internet connection

So far, we have covered the best punch card apps on the market. They have similar purposes but different concepts. Let’s create a summary of all crucial features.

Punch card apps: A comparison table

We prepared a table to give you a complete picture of what each punch card app offers.

After we studied all the differences between the apps, it’s time to wrap things up.

Punch card apps: Our verdict

Considering all the factors connected with punch card apps, we decided that Loopy Loyalty is the best solution, and there are solid reasons to back up this choice. Let’s take a look at them.

6 reasons to use Loopy Loyalty as a punch card app

While there are various punch card apps available on the market, Loopy Loyalty is worth considering because

  1. It is cost-effective: pricing starts at $25 per month.
  2. It offers excellent customer support, including a knowledge base with detailed guides and videos.
  3. It doesn’t require any additional devices to stamp customers’ cards: in-store, you can use the Stamper iOS or Android app, and if you want to reward customers regardless of location, you can use our online platform.
  4. It is convenient for users since they don’t have to download another app on their phones. They can store the cards in their mobile wallets.
  5. Promoting stamps card with the card URL and QR code is effortless.
  6. We offer a free trial. Your credit card is not required, and you can cancel anytime.

Loopy Loyalty is a complete customer solution for your business. It provides all features you need to boost customer loyalty with digital punch cards.

Punch card apps: What to do next?

One thing we know for sure is that you want to keep customers returning. You want to run successful reward campaigns that will help you increase customer loyalty and drive profits.

With Loopy Loyalty, you’ve got nothing to lose: after you sign up for our service, you can test the solution for free and see how more and more customers decide to make repeat purchases from you. Start digitizing your paper punch cards today!

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