Dutch train travellers are saving for free coffee through a mobile app

Working with a savings or loyalty card is as old as the road to Rome. With every purchase, a stamp is added to the savings card, and when the card is full, consumers receive a nice discount. This traditional form of saving has been modernised by Anchr, together with NS Stations and Brain Behind, into a handy app.
 
So, NS Stations launched the app 'Lekker onderweg' at the beginning of April 2023, which is available for all consumers to download from the App Store. It enables consumers to collect digital stamps at NS brands Kiosk, Julia's, and Huiskamer.

Faithful customers are rewarded

The 'lekker onderweg' mobile app is the ideal way to make NS Stations customers happy and to reward their loyalty with a nice incentive. Digital saving offers several advantages:

• the consumer will never lose stamps again as they always have the digital savings card on hand
• better for the environment as no paper savings cards or stamps are needed anymore.
• the retailer sees the risk of fraud diminish as sporadic issuing of stamps or stickers is a thing of the past.
• the administrative burden is significantly reduced.

It works very simply for the consumer

In the app, there is a QR code in a recognisable place. This code allows the consumer to scan at the checkout. When an item is purchased that qualifies for a stamp - for example, croissants, all hot drinks, and house-brand juices and smoothies at Kiosk - the digital stamp is automatically added to the digital savings card.
 
In the app, the consumer can see exactly which items are participating in the loyalty programme. Moreover, the consumer can track how many stamps have already been collected. A full savings card entitles the consumer to a free item.

It is also simple for the cashier

They scan the QR code that is in the app and then charge for the items in the usual way. In Anchr's Retail Cloud Suite checkout application, it becomes immediately visible whether the customer has a full loyalty card. If so, there is the option to redeem the full loyalty card immediately in the form of a free item.

A nice collaboration between Anchr and Brain Behind 

To facilitate the entire process, Anchr collaborated with Brain Behind: Anchr's Retail Cloud Suite is responsible for scanning the QR code (at any point during the transaction) and for calculating the number of digital stamps that are issued based on the items in the transaction and the promotions defined by NS. The digital stamps are communicated in real-time to Brain Behind via a REST API, which then 'applies' them to the consumer's digital loyalty card. The consumer can thus immediately see on their smartphone how full the loyalty card is. In addition to the real-time communication, a fallback has also been provided in case the Brain Behind API is unexpectedly unavailable. The customer can still accumulate stamps; these will be credited at a later time.