Loyalty program Punchcard is partnering with mobile payment service Wipit to offer business owners the ability to create loyalty and rewards programs targeting America's 60 million "cash-preferred" consumers.

Punchcard, like other loyalty programs, rewards users for frequenting businesses. But instead of loyalty cards or key tags, Punchcard provides users a mobile app they can use to take photos of receipts from local merchants participating in the program. This allows users to earn "punches" on their virtual loyalty cards. It's a simple, relatively intuitive method for verifying purchases, and also serves as a way for consumers to track their loyalty points.

For its part, Wipit is a prepaid mobile account that consumers can fund using cash at any one of 10,000 retail partner locations. It's meant to be used  for mobile and online purchases by consumers who lack access to a bank account.

Together, Wipit and Punchcard give the cash-preferred crowd their own easy-to-use digital loyalty program to replace cards and key tags.

"Payments and loyalty go hand and hand," said Andy Steuer, CEO of Punchcard. "Wipit's cash-preferred consumers are value conscious and a great fit for a program like Punchcard that continues to reward them for their loyalty. We're excited to help businesses cater to Wipit's targeted consumer audience of more than 70 million prepaid wireless subscribers in the U.S. who are rapidly adopting smart phones."

Wipit CEO Richard Kang added that the growth of smart phones in the prepaid wireless segment has created a huge opportunity to engage cash-preferred consumers with loyalty programs and location-based promotions.

For more stories like this, visit the Loyalty Programs research center.