A recent report by researchers at Colloquy showed that each U.S. household has an average of 14.1 loyalty program memberships, but less than half – only 6.2 on average – are active. A problem with membership programs is that people don’t want to carry around all those cards. As the loyalty industry worries about convincing consumers of the value of their programs, Haddad believes the solution to greater program use is putting all the cards on a mobile phone where customers will always have them.

Taggo’s platform-as-a-service model enables retailers the ability to add their card programs to the Taggo storefront, with little or no capital expenditure. Customers add a small PicoPass-based Taggo sticker to their mobile phone and join programs through a simple SMS text message or by browsing the my-Taggo Web site and all the enrollment details are automatically sent to the retailer as if the customer had filled out an enrollment form. Customers tap their phones at the point of sale to enjoy the same benefits as presenting a plastic card.

The initial Taggo deployment is expected to begin in Singapore in time for the holiday shopping season, with full rollout of the service scheduled for early next year.