Stamp Cards: a loyalty program any merchant can start in a day
Small merchants in Southeast Asia struggle to keep loyal customers. I designed digital stamp cards that reward customers whether they order in the app or pay at the counter.
My role
Lead designer. Led workshops, brainstorms, visual and interaction design across teams.
Team
Payment, Food and Merchant teams, with PM, data, content and business.
Impact
MVP launched in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
The problem
Loyalty was hard for merchants and invisible for customers
Merchants with small or no marketing teams found loyalty programs hard to start, and the ones with offline programs could not see their online customers. Loyal Grab customers got nothing for returning to the same shop, even though 90% of consumers in Southeast Asia say loyalty programs make them more likely to shop.
Opportunity
Rewards for customers, insight for merchants
How might we offer a loyalty program that grows merchant sales online and offline while rewarding customers? The vision: any merchant on Grab can create their own rewards program in a day.
Research
Watching the real process in stores
Competitors use points, stamps or both. Stamp cards mimic what merchants already do and are easy to understand. Visiting stores showed the paper process was inconvenient for customers and open to fraud for merchants.
Key decision
Which QR code should we launch with?
Dynamic QR codes are secure and fast, but they need POS providers to integrate with Grab, which is hard to scale. I chose static QR codes for the launch because they need fewer steps from merchants and remove the barrier to adoption.
Design
From paper cards to one view across channels
Merchants get a branded page that explains where and how to collect stamps, shows progress and answers common questions.
Testing
Two payment flows, kept separate
Grab supports many payment types. I tested a combined flow against separate flows for paying in the app and paying at the cashier. Users preferred separate flows, because paying at the cashier needs an extra step to confirm the amount.
Collecting stamps
Making it seamless for customer and cashier
I tested three options: the customer hands over their phone for a PIN, the cashier scans the customer's QR code, or the cashier taps to approve. Scanning the customer's QR code was best for privacy and simplicity.
Because of the timeline and local market needs, I proposed a short-term flow for fast merchant adoption and kept the ideal version as the long-term goal.
Results
MVP release
In H2 2023 we onboarded 22 brands in MY, ID and SG and issued 44k stamps to 33k users across online and offline channels. More merchants asked to join.
Reflection
What I would do differently
- With more time, I would test a more ideal version earlier, and balance the timeline with the experience.
- The engineering team changed twice. I now record every decision so new joiners can catch up without misunderstanding the design.