A mobile non-transactional loyalty platform is the type that allows a smartphone customer to receive a reward for various types of behaviors such as mobile “check-ins”, and they come with both benefits and drawbacks.
The primary drawback to loyalty platforms that are non-transactional is that when a reward is offered to the consumer, and that reward has true cost and value, there is no way to track whether or not that consumer will go on to make a purchase and, if a purchase is made, there is no way to know what it was. It is not possible to measure the return on investment for this marketing technique.
Equally, though, they have become quite popular, as they do have a certain ease and efficacy that makes them highly appealing. In fact, as one of the easiest places for mobile loyalty startups to take their first steps, they are now widely used within this space. The primary struggle with this is that consumers won’t want a different loyalty app for every merchant on their smartphones any more than they want separate cards for every merchant in their wallets.
Alternate methods are being used to get around these struggles. One of the ways that some merchants have overcome this hurdle is by using QR code-based check-ins for their non-transactional loyalty platforms. The customers can use them to check in by scanning the barcode at the point of sale, on a pre-printed card, in their wallet, on a kiosk, etc.
They can take advantage of two different styles of use. The first is that the merchant provides the code which can be scanned by the user of a mobile device. The second is that the customer displays the code on a smartphone screen and the merchant scans it with their own device. This QR code is not associated with a specific transaction.
