Passbook is new to the market but there is no harm in getting ahead
of your competition through the services these websites provide. These
web services offer businesses the ability to bypass the difficult bit as
they handle the Apple side of things for you
However at this point of time, there is no official word by Apple if
these services are allowed to do so but why not try out Passbook right
now within your employees to find out if it integrates well with your
business.
iOS6 has just launched and one of the features users are looking
forward to is Apple’s Passbook. As we mentioned before in our previous
iOS6 new features list;
Passbook is a place to store boarding passes, loyalty cards, store
rewards cards, coupon codes and even movie tickets. Information of all
those cards or coupon codes will be stored in the Passbook app, where
retailers just have to scan the
QR code to validate.
Using the power of Passbook, the obvious benefit is that
businesses
do not have to hand out royalty cards or printed coupons anymore.
Instead, when creating a Passbook coupon, all they have to do is share
the link with customers where it will then appear on their
iPhone. Passbook also has a notification system within the iOS platform which means
sending newsletters to customers about latest offerings and discounts will be in the past.
With locations enabled on the iPhone, Passbook can also show the
exact location of your store/café/business for the benefit of your
customers. Businesses also have the option to update customers about
daily promotions as they walk past your store location.
Having given you so many reasons to start using Passbook, this article will also feature
5 best websites that are offering services to create and manage Passbook passes. These web services aim to help businesses implement Passbook with just a little knowledge of coding.
1. PassSource
PassSource comes with
many templates
to choose from to begin the creation of your passes. Some templates are
easier to use than others – some coding knowledge is required to fill
in more advanced information to make the passes work with your
business’s system.
For example the
Starbucks Card template
allows you to transfer the details of your current Starbucks card to
Passbook by inputting your Starbucks card number, current balance and
currency code. You can do this on your iPhone by accessing their
website; after filling in your card details, you’ll be directed to the
Passbook app and it’ll be ready for use.
PassSource is still very new and they are working on improving the
user interface of their template editor and make it simpler to
understand what each code jargon does. You’re able to create unlimited
passes with their templates for now, but later on you’ll be able to
manage the passes you’ve created with a monthly or annual fee which
varies in price depending on personal or professional usage.
2. PassK.It
Passkit is another website which offers the creation, distribution and management of passes for your business. Their
Pass Designer
gives you the ability to fully design your pass by adding your own
pictures, logos, descriptions and colour scheme. Not only that, you’ll
be able to add text information like what a ‘free coupon’ pass entitles
the customer to, the terms and conditions, or contact details.
There is also the option for dynamic text information which will be
useful to update customer loyalty points. The pass preview is helpful
when adding information in as it shows you how the front and ‘back’ of
the pass looks like.
You can set the location of redeeming the coupon and have it notify
the customer when they are nearby. To save your created pass, you’ll
have to register with an email address. Details to distribute your pass
will then be given to you – a QR code or a link can be used to
distribute your pass. Check
this video out on how to use Passkit which also showcases all their features.
3. PassTools
Passtools requires you to
register
before you can start designing with their Pass Builder. You start by
choosing one of their 5 templates. You will then be taken to their pass
builder where there is a preview of what the front (and only the front)
of your pass will look like.
Their pass builder is very informative as you go through each step
one at a time – every step has instructions and explanations. You can
change the colour scheme, add your logo and icon, add text and location
information with the ability to save changes so you can continue editing
in the future. After you’ve finished, the pass will be sent to your
email.
They have a nice and clean dashboard to manage how many passes you’ve
created. You’ll get to use their Pass Builder for 30 days as a trial
stage. After that, it’s a minimum cost of $99 a month to generate 1,000
passes. There are
other monthly packages which they offer higher amount of generated passes per month which targets bigger businesses.
4. Passdock
Passdock requires you to register before you can use the features on their website. What’s good about Passdock is that it has
many templates of big companies where you can get a rough idea on how you can design your own passes. You can
create your own template
and then save it for future use. Your personal template can then be
used multiple times where each pass has a unique serial number.
You’re able to view the design of the front and ‘back’ of your passes
by pressing the info button at the bottom right corner of the pass
preview. There are 2 modes to choose from while designing your pass –
Simple and Advanced – which can be changed at the right side of the top
menu bar. Selecting Advanced is much better with more useful tools not
found in Simple mode.
After you’ve created your unique pass, you can either scan the QR
code or share it through social network websites like Twitter, Facebook,
Google+ and Pinterest or share the direct link.
5. PassPages
As of now,
Passpages
only has 2 types of passes you can create with – Coupon and Store Card.
You do not have to register to design a pass; however the designing
features are very basic.
Registering an account
only lets you use their full featured pass builder for 30 days. Its
designing user interface does not feature as much compared to other
websites featured in this article; but covers all the necessities in
creating a pass.
After you’ve created a pass, you’ll be given a unique link to share
the pass. What’s unique is they are able to track the amount of
downloads the pass has encountered. You’re also able to make the sharing
link private or public; without the need to delete your template. It is
still working on improving to support more pass types as the site is
relatively new.
Bonus
In this Bonus section, we’ll feature one final site that we feel deserves a mention.
Passify
Passify looks like it is still in closed beta as you cannot
create an account without an invitation code. Although you cannot manage your passes with this website, their
pass builder
is very simple to use and unique in a way different than all of the
featured sites in this article. You navigate their builder by clicking
on areas of the pass preview to edit text and image information.
With this style of pass builder, it is easy for the user to
understand what text goes where. However, it is stated that the preview
might look different on the iPhone which means you’ll need to practice
trial and error before getting the pass to look perfect.
Once you’ve completed inserting all the pass information, you can
download the pass, send it by email or scan a QR code on screen with
your iPhone.
