The Vendor Portal is designed to help retailers, stores, and other participating locations manage specific aspects of a promotion directly from their establishment.

Depending on the promotion configuration, the Vendor Portal can provide the following features:

• Coupon redemption tool: Allows staff to validate prize coupons obtained by participants and mark them as redeemed when the prize is delivered at the establishment.
• Purchase registration tool using dynamic QR codes: Allows staff to generate a unique, single-use QR code for each purchase. The customer scans the QR code with their mobile device to access the promotion.
• Location activity monitoring tool: Allows participating locations to track the activity generated at their establishment when the promotion uses the Location participation requirement. The portal provides location-specific statistics and other campaign activity information.

The Vendor Portal is a web application that can be accessed through a URL from any device with an Internet connection. No app installation is required, and it can be used from a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

The Vendor Portal centralizes the tools that participating locations need to manage their role in a promotion, including coupon validation, purchase registration, and location activity monitoring.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how the Vendor Portal works, its main use cases, and how to configure its different options.

The tutorial covers the following topics:

1. Introduction

2. Vendor Portal Configuration

   • 2.1. Creating Points of Sale

   • 2.2. Obtaining the Vendor Portal Access URL

   • 2.3 How can employees sign in to the vendor portal? 

   • 2.4. Customization Options

3. Usage Statistics of the Vendor Portal

   • 3.1. Dynamic QR Code Scanning

   • 3.2. Prize Validations

   • 3.3 Geolocated participations

1. Introduction

The Vendor Portal is designed to help participating stores and establishments manage promotions that take place at physical locations. Depending on the promotion configuration, it allows staff to validate prize coupons, generate dynamic QR codes for purchase registration, and monitor the activity of their location.

Below are the main use cases of the Vendor Portal.

1.1. Coupon Redemption Tool

Use Case

The brand runs an online promotion where participants can win a prize, a promotional coupon, or a discount. To redeem the prize, the participant must visit a physical store or establishment and present the coupon on their mobile device to a member of staff.

How the Vendor Portal helps

The Vendor Portal allows staff to validate prize coupons and register their redemption when the prize is delivered. Staff can verify a coupon by entering its unique reference code or by scanning the QR code displayed on the participant's redemption screen.

The system automatically checks that the coupon is valid and has not been redeemed previously, helping prevent fraudulent redemptions.

More information: Check how to create redeemable prizes in the location.

1.2. Purchase Registration with Dynamic QR Codes

Use Case

After completing a purchase, a member of staff generates a QR code for the customer. The customer scans the code with their mobile device and is taken directly to the online promotion, where they can participate in the configured promotional mechanic.

How the Vendor Portal helps

The Vendor Portal allows staff to generate a dynamic, single-use QR code for each purchase. Staff simply display the QR code for the customer to scan and access the promotion.

After each scan, the QR code is automatically regenerated, ensuring that each purchase can only be used once and helping prevent fraudulent use.

1.3 Location Activity Monitoring

Use case

When a promotion uses the Location participation requirement, participating stores may want to monitor the activity generated at their location and track participant engagement throughout the campaign.

How the Vendor Portal helps

The Vendor Portal provides location-specific statistics, allowing staff to monitor the activity of their establishment during the promotion. Depending on the campaign configuration, the portal displays participation data and other location-related metrics, giving each establishment visibility into its performance.

2. Vendor Portal Configuration

Below, we describe all the steps to enable the tool and available configuration and customization options.

2.1. Create the locations

The locations are the physical points of sale (stores, kiosks, etc.) that users will visit either to redeem a prize they won in an online promotion, confirm their location, or register an in-store purchase in order to participate in a promotional campaign.

For each location, you can define a name, an address, a password for accessing the vendor portal, and/or a 4-digit PIN, which serves as an additional security measure during the prize redemption process.

Note: You must create at least one location.

To get started, go to Editor > Prizes > Locations, which is the section where you can create and manage the different Locations that will have access to the vendor portal. 

You have two ways to create Locations:

1. Import locations and prize validation points from a file. The editor includes a tool for uploading locations by importing them from a file. This allows you to list the participating stores in a CSV file and upload the document to generate all the locations for the promotion.

Tip! When you select the option to upload locations in bulk, a pop-up window will open where you can download a template in the recommended format to easily create the file containing all your locations.

2. Add Locations manually. If you prefer, you can add each location manually.

To do so, simply click the "Create Location" button. A window will then open where you can configure the following information:

• Location name.
• Address: Enter the physical address of the participating store, business, or event.

The system will automatically generate a password and a PIN code for the location. The location password allows employees to log in and access the vendor portal for that location. The security PIN, on the other hand, is a 4-digit code that staff at the location will provide to users so they can redeem their prize from their own devices. When users arrive at the location, they can enter the security PIN provided by the store on the prize redemption screen. Each location has its own security PIN, allowing you to identify where each prize was redeemed. 

You can view the passwords and PIN codes for your locations by exporting the list of locations (Point 2 of the screenshot below) or by clicking the lock icon (1):

Once the location has been created, you can add additional address information to geolocate it. 

You can also add the exact geolocation by entering the latitude and longitude or by selecting the location on the map.

Click here to learn more about Locations and how to configure them. 

You can create as many locations as you need, allowing you to set up a different location for each participating store, venue, or physical establishment where users can redeem prizes or register a purchase to participate in an online promotion.

2.2. Vendor Portal access URL

Once you have created all the locations, the system will automatically generate the Vendor Portal access URL. This URL must be provided to all employees at the locations so they can use the tool and manage their promotions. When accessing the portal, each point of sale must log in using its access password or entering their email address and validating the unique code they will receive in their inbox.

To obtain the portal URL, click the "Vendor Portal" tab. The URL is displayed at the top of the page:

2.3. How can employees sign in to the Vendor Portal? 

Access to the Vendor Portal from each location can be done using two different authentication methods:

• Password: Employees can access their location's portal by entering the password configured when the location was created. The password is unique for each location, so all employees at that location share the same password. 
• [RECOMMENDED] User email + access code: For each employee, you can create a user account and grant access to one or more locations. This is the recommended option because it provides a higher level of security for users accessing the promotion's Vendor Portal.

With this second option, employees sign in by entering their email address and verifying the access code sent to their email. You can create and manage employee access using the User Manager:

When creating a user, you can select the location or locations they will be allowed to manage.

Throughout the campaign, the promotion administrator can manage authorized users at any time, whether to restrict access or create new users and employees. 

2.4. Customization Options

Finally, the last step is to customize the design of the Vendor Portal with the following available options:

• Logo: The recommended size is 200x200px.
• Color: It is the color that will be used for the buttons that appear on the Portal.
• Introduction message: This text will appear at the top of the page.
• Help text: Use it to suggest a support contact or usage instructions to the sales point user.
• Custom message after redeeming a prize [in case of Prize Redemption]: This text will appear on the screen after redeeming a prize.

In addition, you will find the following available options:

• Enable validation of codes distributed offline: This option will also allow you to check and verify the codes that you have distributed offline and that users present at the point of sale, in order to ensure that the prize is valid before it can be redeemed.
• Enable review of coupon details before redemption: This option allows you to enable a page that appears just before validating the prize, showing the information of the user who has won the coupon as well as the details of the prize itself. This option is useful for the person at the location to verify the coupon and user details before validating and redeeming the prize.

• Hide the option that allows points of sale to undo the code validation action: This option allows the person in charge at the location to undo the action after redeeming a code and mark the code as unused again.
• Allow adding notes to a redeemed prize: This option allows the person in charge at the location to add an internal note to a redeemed prize. Use this "Notes" field to add internal comments about the redemption of a prize (example: product stock issues, product change, etc.).
• Hide users' personal data from vendors when they redeem the coupon. When this option is enabled, the Vendor Portal will not display the personal information of users who redeem the coupon. Additionally, personal data will also not appear when exporting the file of completed redemptions.

3. Vendor Portal Usage Statistics

Once the promotion is finished, you can check the Vendor Portal Usage Statistics to evaluate the campaign's results. Specifically, you can obtain the following statistics based on the usage of the Vendor Portal:

• Dynamic QR Code Scanning Statistics

• Redeemed Prize Validation Statistics

3.1. Dynamic QR Code Scanning

You can check the statistics of QR code scans and see where they have been performed. You can view this data from three different points:

1. From the Users list, where you have the "Requirements" tool, where you can see the QR scans performed at each sales point:

2. From the Promotion Statistics section. You will find the "QR Scans" section, which allows you to consult detailed information about the QR codes scanned by sales point. The information you can obtain includes:

• Day-to-Day Scans.
• Scans of the last 7 days, per hour.
• Total scans per location.

3.2. Prize Validations

You can check the statistics of the validations performed and see where they have been carried out. You can view this data from three different points:

1. From the Users list, where you have the "Prize Redemption" tool, which allows you to easily review the prizes that have been redeemed, as well as export the list of redeemed prizes to an Excel/CSV file.

Additionally, you can check the prizes redeemed by a user by opening the individual participation of each participant. If the prize has been redeemed, the date and time of redemption and the location will be indicated:

If the prize has not yet been redeemed, the "redemption link" is available, which opens the redemption screen with specific information about the prize the user won. This link can be useful to assist the user in the redemption process, if necessary.

2. From the Promotion Statistics section. You will find the "Prize Redemption" section, which allows you to consult detailed information about the prizes redeemed in the promotion in the form of graphs. The information you can obtain includes:

• Prize Validation Ratio: Indicates how many prizes have been redeemed compared to the prizes given. The percentage is indicated, and it is available for both the total number of prizes and by prize type.
• Redemption Statistics by Prize Type:
  • Daily evolution.
  • By day of the week.
  • By time of day.
  • Total.
• Redemption Statistics by location:
  • Total.
  • Daily evolution.
  • Redemption statistics by System 1 (Vendor Portal) vs. System 2 (Mobile).

3. From the Vendor Portal

From the Vendor Portal itself, it is also possible to check the validations of prizes carried out. To do this, upon accessing the Vendor Portal via the URL and after logging in with the access password, the person at the location can click on the "Validations" link:

When you click, a list of the latest validations will open, where you can see the participant's name, the name of the prize, the promotional code, as well as the date on which the validation was made.

3.3 Geolocated participations

If the Location Participation Requirement has been enabled, whereby users must validate their geolocation to confirm that they are at one of the promotion's participating stores before accessing and entering the promotion, the administrator can download the participation list from the User Manager to see the location from which each user participated.

In addition, employees can access the following information from the Vendor Portal to encourage friendly competition between participating stores and facilitate prize inventory management:

• Validation ranking by location: A ranking of the top 3 locations is shown, with the total of participations they have received. 
• Access to the prize inventory for each location: Allows the employees at the shops to review the number of units already assigned and the total of available prizes pending to be assigned to users.