When the prize of a promotion is a coupon, voucher, or discount that the winners/users have to redeem in a physical store, establishment, or venue, the organizer of the promotion can make use of the “Prize redemption” tool, which will enable the organizer to check and verify the prizes at the point of sale in a secure, reliable and flexible way and without fraud.

Easypromos allows you to create promotional dynamics to distribute prizes on digital channels and to do so through interactive mechanics such as games, trivia, contests, etc. The challenge appears when these prizes are physical and must be picked up at an establishment. The prize is delivered as a digital voucher or coupon, which the user must then show at the establishment to redeem. However, it is necessary to control the fraud of these digital vouchers to prevent a user from making copies of the voucher, trying to redeem the prize multiple times, etc.

The "Prize Redemption" tool allows the company to verify the digital voucher before handing the prize to the user.
Specifically, the "Prize redemption" tool includes 2 systems to verify and redeem the prize at the point of sale:

System 1: The user redeems the digital voucher from their own mobile phone
The user will show the digital voucher to the establishment staff on their phone. The voucher will include the status of the prize redemption: (1) Active and pending redemption, (2) Redeemed or (3) Expired. If the voucher is active, the person at the establishment will ask the user to mark it as confirmed. The user must slide a confirmation button on the voucher page (and optionally put a security pin of the establishment). Once verified, the prize will be delivered to the user, and that digital voucher cannot be used anymore.

System 2: The merchant redeems the prize by entering the voucher reference through the validation portal
Additionally, the establishment may have a tool to verify digital vouchers. All vouchers come with a reference number and a QR code. Instead of letting the user mark the voucher as verified, it may be the merchant who enters the voucher reference or scans the QR code to verify it. This tool is called Validation Portal, and it is presented as a password-protected web page. Each establishment has its own password.

Note: Both systems can be combined, so that the promotion can be configured in a way that both the users from their mobile phone and the seller from the validation portal can redeem and validate the prizes.

Below we explain how the Prize Redemption tool works through the following contents:

1. How is the user experience?

2. How to enable the Prize Redemption Tool

   • 2.1. Select the redemption system

   • 22. Selecting which prizes are redeemable

3. Redemption system setup through the Vendor Portal

4. Redemption system setup through a sliding bar

5. Email notifications

   • a) Send an email when a user wins a digital voucher for a physical prize

   • b) Send an email to the user when they redeem their prize

   • c) Send a notification to the administrator when a user redeems a prize

6. Statistics of prizes redeemed

1. How is the user experience?

The user has participated in a promotion in which prizes are assigned that must be collected offline in an establishment. Next, we detail how the user can redeem the prize they have won in the promotion.

1. After registering and participating in the promotion, the user sees the name and information of the prize received on the screen:

Additionally, they can also receive an email automatically after participating with the prize information and will have the prize information at hand to go to the establishment and collect their prize.

2. The user must click on the "Redeem" button that appears in the prize pop-up. In the event that the user does not redeem the prize right after participating in the promotion, they will be able to recover the "Redeem" button both in the email they have received and on the individual participation page in the promotion, which they can access at any time by logging into the promotion with the email with which they have participated.

3. By clicking on the "Redeem" button, the "Redemption Screen" will open, which they must show at the store in order to collect their prize. The redemption screen contains all the information related to the prize that the user has won (name of the prize, internal reference, promotion in which they have participated, and time available to redeem it, if any):

4. By showing the redemption screen to the merchant, the prize can be redeemed in two ways, depending on the configuration of the promotion itself:

• a) The users themselves will be the ones marking the prize as delivered by sliding the bar that appears on their redemption screen.
• b) The store employee will be the one who will verify the prize by manually entering the reference of the prize in the "Validation Portal" or scanning the QR code to access the portal.

5. After validating the prize, the system will show a confirmation message that the prize has been confirmed:

2. How to enable the Prize Redemption tool

Below, we detail all the steps to enable the Prize Redemption tool, which allows you to securely redeem any type of prize at your points of sale, whether they are direct prizes upon participation (such as a coupon or promotional code), prizes assigned through a Prize Wheel or Scratch & Win, or even prizes assigned through a giveaway.

Check out the tutorial where we explain step by step how to create the prizes for your promotion.

2.1. Select the redemption system

Once the prizes that you plan to distribute in the promotion have been created, the next step is to enable the prize redemption tool, which will allow prizes to be delivered safely and without fraud at your point of sale.

To do this, go to the Editor > Prizes > Prize Redemption section. When accessing the tool, you will be presented with the two systems available to redeem the prizes at the point of sale, so that you can select the type of redemption system you want to enable to validate the prizes at the store.

1. Redeem prizes using the Vendor Portal: The seller redeems the prize by entering the prize reference or scanning its QR code from a web tool called the "Vendor Portal".
2. Redeem by sliding a bar from the prize redemption screen: The user will see a sliding bar on the redemption screen. When the prize is handed out, the user will show their mobile device to the seller and demonstrate how to slide the bar to mark the prize as redeemed.

Note: Both systems are complementary and the promotion can be configured so that both the user from their mobile phone and the seller from the validation portal can redeem and validate the prizes.

We explain how each system works in detail in point 3 and point 4 of this tutorial.

2.2. Selecting which prizes are redeemable

Once the prize redemption system that you want to use has been enabled, you must then configure which prizes can be redeemed through the Prize Redemption tool. These will be the prizes that users will be able to physically pick up at the point of sale. To do this, in the List of prizes you must mark them with the following option:

Once the “redeemable” value has been applied, you can optionally configure the expiration time of the prizes, which will determine the time that users will have to go to the physical store to collect their prize. You can apply an expiration time in two different ways:

• a) Global expiration time for all promotion prizes: In this way, all promotion prizes will have the same expiration date.
• b) Individual expiration time per prize: Allows you to establish a different expiration date for each of the redeemable prizes of the promotion.

3. Redemption system setup through the Vendor Portal

The shops and physical stores have access to the Vendor Portal, a tool presented as a password-protected web page that allows establishments to verify the prizes distributed to users through the online promotion.

The Vendor Portal is in the format of a web page, accessible via a URL, and has been optimized for use on any device with an Internet connection. It does not require the installation of any app.

How does prize redemption work through the Seller's Portal?

• All prizes distributed through the promotion come with a reference number and a QR code.
• The user will arrive at the establishment and show the prize redemption screen won in the promotion to the seller.
• Each point of sale or establishment must access the Vendor Portal with their Portal access password.
• The seller can verify the prize in the Portal by either entering the unique prize reference or scanning the QR code displayed on the redemption screen.
• The Portal will indicate to the seller if the prize is valid, verifying that it has not been redeemed before.

Check out the specific tutorial where we explain all the steps to set up the Vendor Portal.

4. Redemption system setup through a sliding bar

Instead of the seller being responsible for redeeming the prize through the Vendor Portal, this system allows the user to confirm the redemption of the prize themselves.

How does it work?

• The user will show the digital voucher to the establishment's staff via their mobile device.

• The voucher will include the redemption status of the prize:
  • (1) Active and pending redemption
  • (2) Redeemed or
  • (3) Expired.
• If the voucher is active, the staff member will ask the user to mark it as verified. The user must swipe a confirmation button on the voucher (and optionally enter a security PIN from the establishment).
• Once verified, the prize will be given to the user, and that digital voucher cannot be used anymore.

5. Email notifications

You can use the Email Platform to:

1. Send an email when a user wins a digital voucher for a physical prize

2. Send an email to the user when they redeem their prize

3. Send a notification to the administrator when a user redeems a prize

1. Send an email when a user wins a digital voucher for a physical prize

A good practice is to send an email to the winners with the information about the prize they have won. In this way, users will always have all the information regarding the prize they received at hand, as well as the option to redeem it, so that they can easily retrieve it the day they want to go to the store to collect their prize.

To create this email, use the Email Platform of your promotion, a tool that allows you to automate the sending of emails to users who participate in the promotion.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to the "Emails and notifications" section of the promotion:

2. Create a new email, and select the “Upon participating” email type:

3. Configure the email with the following characteristics:

• In the "Conditions" section, you must select the "Has won a prize" filter, so this email is sent only to users who have won one. 

• In the body of the email, insert the smart tag “Prize information”. This will dynamically add all the information related to the prize the user has won (name of the prize, as well as the Redeem button to open the redemption screen).

2. Send an email to the user when they redeem their prize

Additionally, you can also create an email that will be sent automatically to each user once they have redeemed the prize at the point of sale. Use it, for example, to confirm to a user that their prize has been redeemed correctly, or to send them additional information.

To do this, you must create a new email of the type "Upon redeeming a prize":

Under the conditions, you must also select the filter "Has won a prize" option:

3. Send a notification to the administrator when a user redeems a prize

Additionally, you can also send an internal notification to the promotion administrator every time a user redeems a prize with the information of the user and the prize, as well as the validation point where they redeemed it. 

To do this, you must follow these steps:

1. Click the "Notifications to administrators" tab

2. Click the "Create a notification" button.

3. Create an "Upon redeeming a prize" notification:

4. In the recipient filter, you must also select the "Has won a prize" filter:

5. In the body of the email, you can use the smart tags so that the notification includes the user's information, the prize that has been redeemed, and even the validation point where the prize was delivered.

6. Statistics of prizes redeemed

Once the promotion is over, you will be able to view the statistics of the validations performed and see at which points of sale they were made. You can access this data from two different points:

1. From the list of Users

You can use the “Prize Redemption” tool, which will allow you to easily review the prizes that have been redeemed, as well as export the list of prizes delivered to an Excel/CSV file.

Upon accessing, the following options will appear, allowing you to review and manage the validations carried out at the point of sale:

1. Redeemed Prizes: Here you will find a list of all users who have accessed the point of sale to redeem their prize. For each user, it shows the validation point where the redemption was made, the date of redemption, the name of the redeemed prize, as well as the promotional code (if any).

Additionally, for the redeemed prizes, there is an "Export" function, which allows you to download a list of all the prizes redeemed at the point of sale.

2. Expired Prizes: Here you will find a list of all the prizes that have expired, meaning that the users who won these prizes did not go to the point of sale to redeem them and their expiration date has been reached.

Additionally, for the unredeemed and expired prizes, the administrator has the option to release them, making the prizes available again for new participants.

To release the prizes, you have two options:

1. Release all prizes at once. To do this, you can click the "Release Prizes" button, which allows you to release all the expired and unredeemed prizes at once.
2. Release prizes individually. You can release the prize assigned to a user individually by clicking the trash can icon next to the user's name.

2. From the “Statistics” section of the promotion

In the "Statistics'' section, you will find more information regarding the redeemed prizes. The information available there is the following:

• Redemption Conversion Rate: Indicates how many prizes have been redeemed compared to the prizes given away in the promotion. The percentage is indicated, and it is available both by total prizes and by type of prize.
• Redemption Statistics by prize type
  • Daily evolution
  • By day of the week.
  • By hours of the day.
  • In total.
• Redemption statistics by point of sale:
  • In total
  • Daily evolution.
• Redemption stats by Vendor Portal vs. slider(Via mobile phone).