Popcard
B2B SaaS Bridging Physical NFC & QR Touchpoints to Digital Action
A B2B SaaS platform where NFC cards and QR tags point at the platform, not the destination. Change the redirect in the dashboard and it updates everywhere in real time — with full per-staff attribution, gamified leaderboards, multi-location hierarchy, and integrated fulfilment. Handles thousands of simultaneous scans in production.
Industry
B2B SaaS — Customer Engagement
Client
popcard.io
Engagement
End-to-end SaaS Design & Engineering
Timeline
August 2025 - October 2025
Outcome
100% visibility into physical-to-digital conversions; campaigns pivoted in seconds
Tech Stack
React, Vite, Redux Toolkit (RTK Query), Material UI, Node, TypeScript, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose, JWT, Passport.js, Joi, i18next, Docker
The Business Problem
Printed QR codes don't change. Once they're on a card or sign, the destination is locked. If the campaign changes, every card has to be reprinted.
Big chains have a second problem. They can't tell which staff member or which location actually drives the Google Reviews and social follows that come in. Staff have no reason to push customers to tap.
The data shows engagement but never the source — and campaigns are locked into physical cards until the next reprint run.
01.
Printed QR codes lock destinations — any campaign change requires reprinting all cards
02.
No visibility into which staff member or location drives each tap or scan
03.
Staff have no incentive or feedback loop for pushing customer engagement
04.
Multi-location brands can't manage campaigns centrally across hundreds of sites
05.
No integrated way to order and customise NFC cards within the same tool
What We Built
A B2B SaaS that bridges physical touchpoints to digital action — NFC cards and QR tags point at the platform, not the destination.
Change the destination in the dashboard and it updates everywhere in real time. Every tap ties back to a specific staff member and location.
01.
Dynamic redirect engine — change campaign destination in real time without reprinting cards
02.
Attribution analytics — every tap tied to a specific staff member and location
03.
Gamified staff leaderboards — transparent targets that make reviews a competition
04.
Multi-location hierarchy — one admin manages hundreds of locations with cascading permissions
05.
Integrated fulfilment — customisation and ordering flow through Stripe without leaving the platform
The Solution: Physical-to-Digital Attribution at Scale
Dynamic redirect engine: NFC cards and QR tags resolve through the platform. The destination is a database record — update it in the dashboard and every physical card pointing at that record redirects instantly.
Per-staff attribution: Every tap and scan logs the staff member and location that triggered it. Metrics like Total Taps and Scans per Working Hour show who is actually driving engagement — not just a total count.
Gamified leaderboards: Staff see their rank in real time. Turning the task of asking for reviews into a visible competition changes behaviour without management overhead.
Multi-location hierarchy: One admin account manages hundreds of locations across a brand. Permissions, branding, and targets cascade down the hierarchy so regional managers see only their locations.
Key Technical Decision: Node + TypeScript + Joi at the Request Boundary
The redirect engine handles thousands of simultaneous scans in production. One bad redirect rule could break a brand's entire physical campaign — sending every card in a chain to the wrong destination instantly.
We built the redirect engine in Node and TypeScript with strict validation through Joi. Strict typing and validation at the request boundary was non-negotiable.
The result: a redirect layer that handles production-scale simultaneous scans without a single bad rule slipping through.
The Result
Physical campaigns that were previously fire-and-forget are now measurable, attributable, and changeable in seconds — without reprinting a single card.
01.
100% visibility into physical-to-digital conversions
02.
Operators pivot campaigns in seconds, not days
03.
Staff engagement increased through transparent leaderboards
04.
Infrastructure handles thousands of simultaneous scans in production
Client Review
“
TechEmulsion has been instrumental in elevating our platform. Their expertise in developing user-friendly features like multi-location management and team leaderboards has significantly enhanced our service. We've seen remarkable growth and increased engagement thanks to their solutions.
Popcard