One of the biggest issues with promotions that require necessary purchases is figuring out how to check and ensure entrants have made a legitimate purchase of the promotional product. This article will explain how proof of purchase works in promotions and the various methods to do so, including receipt validations, receipt robotics, unique reference numbers / URNs, batch codes, and barcodes.
Proof of purchase is how brands and promoters can ensure that a valid purchase has taken place. This is usually done per a promotion’s terms and conditions and is exclusive to purchase necessary promotions.
Many promoters and brands opt to use proof of purchase validation to authenticate purchases and transactions to verify a shopper and customer’s eligibility to enter a promotion securely. Preventing possibly fraudulent activities.
Within promotions, having a purchase validation method means that actual customers are being rewarded for their purchases and loyalty - in turn, building a brand-consumer relationship based on trust. Proof of purchase validation methods are also essential for certain promotional mechanics. For example, in a ‘try-me free’ promotional campaign, to make sure that actual buyers of a promotional product are receiving a refund, there needs to be a way to prove that a legitimate purchase was made of the product before processing that refund to make sure the exchange is fair and accurate.
This is not only to protect against false claimants but also to make sure the refund amount reflects the purchase price. This means if one customer buys a promotional product for £1.50 at one retailer, they’ll receive £1.50 as the refunded amount whilst another claimant who bought the product for £2 at a separate retailer will receive the full £2 as the refund amount. Providing proof of purchase means that the appropriate refund amount will be given. However, it should be noted that in this scenario, the only proof of purchase method that would work is an invoice or receipt validation since they are the only methods of proof of purchase that include the prices paid.
Receipt validation is the proof of purchase method that involves the manual or automated analysis of a receipt. When doing receipt validation, the key things being looked at to confirm that the purchase is legitimate are the retailer, the price, the name of the product, the date, the store address, and of course its uniqueness.
A customer’s receipt also contains valuable data that provides insight into the customer’s shopping behaviours. With a receipt, brands will also be able to see what else customers are buying and in what quantity which helps with building a better understanding of the shopper’s overall habits and behaviours - allowing brands to better understand and target those shoppers within promotional campaigns.
Receipt validation is one of the most secure proof of purchase methods used in promotions and is used in try-me-free promotions most frequently but is also often seen in other promotional mechanics, including but not limited to prize draws and instant wins.
However, promoters should be wary that there is always the chance for error or mistake in a manual process as well as the chance of encountering false or forged receipts.
Receipt robotics is a method of validation which involves the automated analysis of receipts. The AI used within receipt robotics can be customised to recognise any product, any retailer, anywhere.
When the AI has been perfected and trained over time, receipt robotics can work faster and reliably, reading the receipt to recognise several elements and factors such as multiple product names, how different retailers’ receipts look, the date and time of purchase, and detecting fraudulent entries.
Receipt robotics have grown increasingly popular within promotions, particularly those where there is an element of fixed fee underwriting. Increasingly sophisticated bad actors are more prevalent than ever - with receipt validation robotics providing a strong defence.
A URN or a unique reference number is a string of characters printed on or in promotional packaging. Whilst it’s called a unique reference number, in actuality it can, and should be, a mixture of letters as well.
Within promotions, it’s an effective way to provide proof of purchase that doesn’t require a receipt and uniquely identifies an entrant into the promotion - effective for both price draws and instant wins.
When a promotion relies on unique reference numbers being accurate, promoters must ensure that they’re printed correctly, ideally inside (not outside) and are perfectly legible to consumers. A URN delivered instantly via SMS is a highly cost-effective alternative to consider.
Additionally, while a brand can still use receipt robotics and receipt validation on digital and physical invoices - promoters can also encourage loyalty by authorising proof of purchase directly at checkout. Connecting a promotion to the usage of a loyalty card - for example, a promotion that requires audiences to get a certain amount of points or stamps to enter a promotion or receive a gift incentivises audiences to use their loyalty card membership. It also makes it easy to track purchases since they’re logged directly to the loyalty card with each successful sale.
This type of proof of purchase is mostly used by retailers and only works well if customers have a loyalty card and are using it at a brand’s online or physical store. The issue with this is that customers tend to go to supermarkets or large retailers to buy from various brands rather than buying individually from separate brand retail points or on individual brand websites.
The barcode and batch code are a string of characters that refer to the product (aka SKU). The batch code indicates and identifies a product’s information including the manufacturer code and production date. This information can help identify if that product fits within the time frame of a live promotion - i.e. was the product manufactured in preparation of a promotional period?
Since the batch code and barcode are already on the packaging of the product, it can be considered a time-saving method for implementing proof of purchase measures. However, there are a few disadvantages and concerns regarding the security and its effectiveness as a proof of purchase method. The main issue is that the same product has a strong likelihood of sharing the same batch code and barcode, making it easy for anyone to make an entry into a promotion that uses barcode and batch codes as a way to provide proof of purchase - accelerated by websites and social platforms in the ‘comper’ community. Promoters should be wary when using this method.
For years, the team at PromoNow has handled high-volume transactions for cashback and rebate promotions, money-back guarantee promotions and other bulk payouts in high quantities. This also means validating those claims and processing these payouts across several and most currencies. Now, PromoNow introduces this expertise in an accessible way.
PromoNow provides our module, PromoPayouts which is an add-on module that takes real-life expertise and makes it applicable to your promotions - PromoPayouts is a powerful tool that enables a seamless and completely secure experience for both brands and consumers.
PromoNow is a managed end-to-end cloud platform empowering brand owners with rapid, scalable and secure solutions for any promotional activation.
