Mobile App Squiryl Wants To Replace Loyalty Cards in Your Wallet

Squiryl is a mobile app that digitizes loyalty cards. So instead of having a bunch of loyalty cards in your wallet, all you need is the Squiryl app.

It looks like we have reviewed similar apps to Squiryl before. But Squiryl stands out because of its slick design and user experience. It makes the stamping of cards (in its own phrasing, ‘collecting acorns’) fun. It’s a branding/design gimmick but I must admit it does help to keep users stay on the app longer.

Most importantly, Squiryl makes the effort to ensure there are different tiers of rewards available for redemption. Say you’re a regular at Fisherios Fish’n’Chips, the rewards get better as I accumulate more acorns. To me, there is some sort of gamification process going on here to motivate me to keep coming back. The more acorns I collect, the better the reward. It is unlike the typical loyalty card reward which only gives you a free treat when you accumulate 10 stamps.

If needed, I can also trade acorns with other users at the acorn marketplace.

Squiryl is free for both users and merchants for now. To adopt Squiryl, merchants do not need a POS machine or any other fancy devices. All they need is a Squiryl merchant app and a phone that scans and logs the customers’ QR code.

You can download Squiryl here (iTunes link).

But…

Alright, I’m done with the good words – and as with all my reviews, there are always the buts…

Squiryl may look very neat now because there are just a few merchants on board. But as the list of merchants grows, the team will face the problem of how to categorize and make them easy to find. From what I’m seeing, I think that the around! app (similar to Squiryl’s service but with LBS integration) is facing this problem.

Another thing is about the competition. I don’t think Squiryl is the only solution that helps merchants manage loyalty programs. Plus, some merchants would insist on having their own loyalty programs and some might find other solutions. To me, such an app would only be really useful if, say, 70 percent of all shops in Singapore (or any city that matters to you) is on Squiryl. I wouldn’t want to keep an app that only has 20 restaurants on board.

Squiryl may have also assumed that all merchants have (or should have) loyalty programs. Some just simply don’t want it because they know it is too much of a hassle for them and their customers to manage. I just checked my wallet and I have zero loyalty cards. I don’t tend to keep them. Perhaps that is just a man’s thing. Nonetheless, I do think that loyalty card promotion is somewhat already passé. So I must admit I do have doubts if Squiryl can make things right. Good luck to the team!