CardStar makes mobile applications to digitally manage retailer club and membership cards. CardStar for iPad doubles as a personalized, digital circular for coupons. The app lets users discover coupons relevant to each of their stored rewards cards, clip and save them to their loyalty cards, and redeem them on their next shopping trip. Clipped coupons will automatically be deducted at the register for all applicable purchases.
At launch, Zavers, an online coupon provider, is powering CardStar's repository of coupons, but the startup plans to work with additional third-party online coupon services moving forward. Zavers primarily issues online coupons for grocery store chains such as A&P and Superfresh on the East Coast. With the CardStar iPad app, users can add their Zavars account to browse and clip coupons with ease.
Users can fire up the iPad app to browse available coupons by club card. They then simply click a coupon to attach it to their card for future redemption. They can also view coupons by All, Unsaved and Saved filters; send a coupon via e-mail to a friend; and track how much they're saving.
The iPad app comes with a few additional nice touches, including Foursquare integration and the ability to view nearby coupon offers on a map.
Given that coupons are limited to Zaver's offerings, CardStar for iPad's coupon clipping functionality is a bit premature to be useful for everyone. Still, the app was released to keep CardStar ahead of the curve and prove that the service can be a platform with the power to complete the loop between loyalty card, consumer and retailer coupons. On those fronts, it certainly delivers.
Would you find this app useful? What other coupon sites should CardStar include next?
