For cafes and retailers desperate to start selling again after a month-long lockdown, a Hamilton developed app may have arrived on the market at the right time.
The app allows easy ordering and payment for pickup under Covid-19 level 3 restrictions while face to face interactions are still banned.
The new offering is part of the established StampnGo app, used as a digital loyalty coffee card by cafes including Cafe Inc and Sugar Bowl Cafe in Hamilton and others in Auckland, Tauranga and Australia.
The addition means customers can pre-order online, specify the time they want to pick up and prepay once the cafe has accepted the order.
It became available a month ago, after about six months of development by Hamilton’s Ryder Technologies, while the virtual coffee cards have been available for a year and a half.
They are part of a wider loyalty programme, most of which has been overseas. As Covid-19 takes hold, the company is turning its attention to the local market.
“We’re not doing as much stuff overseas and obviously we won’t be in the next two years,” says product designer John-Paul Mclean.
“So we’ve got to change our angle and focus more on New Zealand.”
The company also does a gift card offering, for outlets including Repco and Heathcote Appliances, which Mclean says has been decimated by Covid-19, placing all the more emphasis on StampnGo’s new product.
“We’re going out to our customers to say, at Covid-19 alert level 3, this is a great product for you to have because customers can book in a time and pick up the product.”
One of their customers, Flaveur Breads in Tauranga, is planning to use it for bread pickups, while non-food retailers could also introduce it.
“Anyone who can offer a pre-order and pickup service – it’s not restricted to any demographic.”
The app and platform is free to download and use. StampnGo charges a 5 percent fee on transactions, and payment gateway Stripe charges a further transaction fee of around 3 percent which is dependent on the country and plan chosen. Mclean says that works out cheaper than PayPal, and considerably cheaper than the likes of Uber Eats, which he says charges 35 percent plus delivery.
“Obviously it’s a great time for us to get our name out, but it’s certainly not a monetary thing for us at this point of time – it’s more about, hey, we can help people out.”
