An upward trend in the demand for this solution become evident since 2020. What’s more, in the last couple of years there has been a clear evolution towards using digital receipts instead of the classic paper receipt, making Scan Receipts with OCR promotions all the more a good idea.
Easypromos offers a pioneering application that uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology applied to digital promotions, such as interactive and gamified marketing campaigns. OCR technology allows recognizing images without human intervention to validate receipts uploaded by customers. Thus, making sure that they comply with the participation requirements that the organizers have set for their promotional campaign, both in paper and digital receipts.
Using this app, brands can create promotional campaigns that are directly linked to the purchase by configuring it in a way that it will allow them to achieve several marketing objectives.
Before moving on to the advantages of Scan Receipts with OCR promotions, let’s take a look at five conditions that will make it possible to organize such promotion.
- Total amount of the purchase e.g., a minimum of €20.
- Date of the purchase, e.g., within the last month.
- Text on the receipt, e.g., the name of a specific product or shop.
- Unique identifying codes in the receipt.
- Total amount of all of the uploaded receipts. E.g., giving out a direct prize when a customer has uploaded several receipts that together amount to a previously set amount.
Which objectives can brands achieve using scan receipt with OCR promotions?
Increasing Sales
It is the most common objective for brands carrying out this kind of promotion. Commonly used in shopping malls to draw foot traffic to their location. It is also commonly used to boost sales both in online and brick-and-mortar stores within a specific period of time using the receipt’s date as a participation requirement. That is to say, only purchases made within a pre-established period are eligible to participate.
In the promotion below, the fashion retailer C&A joined forces with Toys R’us to reward customers who shopped at C&A during a specific period. To participate, customers had to register and upload a photo of their receipt. All registered participants then entered a final prize draw of gift cards to be spent in toys during the holiday season.
Another strategy to grow sales and increase the average purchase value is to allow participants to upload more than one receipt with different purchase values. Once consumers reach a certain accumulated amount, they will receive a direct prize (prize configuration must be set to “when participating”).
Boost sales for a specific product or product line
These kinds of actions are a very effective way of capturing new clients. When a potential customer needs to buy a specific product and the time comes to decide which one to purchase, they will typically opt for the brand that offers some sort of incentive or promotion.
Building customer loyalty
Offering special rewards to active customers will build loyalty and trust. It is always a good idea to offer discounts, rewards, product samples, and coupons to clients. Rewarding clients promotes repeat purchases and may make ambassadors out of customers.
If the promotion implies uploading more than one receipt within a period of time, it is fundamental to consider the product’s consumption frequency. These kinds of promotions are advisable for daily or weekly consumption products as the premise “the more receipts you upload, the more chances to win” can be applied.
Increasing the average purchase value
First and foremost, you need to know the average transaction value and set a realistic objective. Once you have figured out the average amount per purchase, you can decide what is the minimum amount that the customer has to pay to participate and offer an incentive in exchange for the economic effort.
Upselling is another strategy aimed at nudging the consumer to buy a higher-end product. This implies only including higher-priced products in the promotion. Cross-selling is yet another technique that consists of suggesting an additional product that is related to the one originally purchased. For instance, if a customer purchases a toothbrush and dental floss of the same brand to get a reward as it is required that both products’ names’ appear on the receipt.
Capturing leads at the point of sale if the action is offline.
Participants have to register with their personal details alongside with the purchase receipt. This kind of action is ideal for brands that want to capture leads as it wouldn’t be possible to gather user data otherwise.
Advantages of using a Scan Receipts app to grant access to exclusive promotions
Running a campaign that requires uploading purchase receipts and using OCR to recognize text, numbers, and images instantly implies a shorter implementation period and fewer human resources, which in turn, reduces costs.
Fewer human resources needed
Avoid allocating personnel to manually verify receipts and avoid fraud with this automated process. An entire team of people to verify receipts in promotions that rack up hundreds or thousands of participations is no longer necessary.
Save time
With the automation of the process, the person in charge of managing the participation will only have to check the receipts that show up as not correctly uploaded. The validation system includes very specific and detailed error codes to inform the participant of what the problem is and how to correct it.
Lower cost
Checking the receipts manually required a lot of time and staff, which often made it necessary to outsource this activity and, in turn, reallocate a lot of resources to this task.
We hope you find this information useful for your next promotion. If you have any questions or need more information, you can contact our customer support team via live chat. We will be happy to help.
