Ingenious: New Voucher Tool to Create Transparency

ONEtoONE 11TH MAY 2015
AFFILIATE MARKETING

BY: KATHARINA SCHNEIDER

 

Vouchers are widely used in e-commerce. Unfortunately, fraud related to these provisioned vouchers is also on the rise. The ad-tech company Ingenious Technologies has developed a tool that enables the path of each code to be tracked, so that shop owners can ultimately deny the provisions for unauthorized publishers.

Vouchers on the Internet: There are hardly any online shoppers, who are not familiar with them. Gutscheinpony.de, Gutscheine.de or Gutscheinsammler.de are the portals, where current and ever increasing discounts for large online stores can be found. Some are 5€ reductions with a minimum purchase, some are 20% rebate for first-time customers. Yet, those that are commonly used online are often not protected against fraud. An abuse occurs when an unauthorized publisher copies a published voucher code from an authorized publisher and places it on his own portal. The advantage: Vouchers run on an affiliate basis and are provisioned. As always, the last cookie wins.

 

Voucher tool is desired by many customers

Apparently, this has been a problem that many businesses are struggling with. “A number of our customers have expressed their desire for a voucher tool,” says Tobias Rast, Senior Manager Pre & Post Sales at Ingenious Technologies. The ad-tech company has a voucher tool built into the latest version of its Ingenious Enterprise solution, which online shop owners can use to gain clarity with what happens to individual voucher codes. Customers have also contributed suggestions for the development of this tool, explained Rast.

 

Every third purchase is made with a voucher

There seems to be an apparent need for transparency of the coupon path. “We once studied the customers in the retail industry and discovered that every third purchase is made with a voucher.” The tool provides online shops with “whitelists” that can be used to check which vouchers were used in which sale. It can also be used to check whether the publisher that led the shopper to conversion was indeed authorized to spread the code. What businesses decide to do with this information is entirely up to them. This tool is only meant to create transparency for them. “With the tool, we are enabling businesses to implement an automated response towards all unauthorized vouchers that are being spread,” explained Rast.

 

Online shop owners decide what happens with the commissions

Retailers can either decide not to pay out commissions at all or to award the original authorized publisher, since the entire voucher path can be traced back. The tool is especially beneficial for strategic partnerships and discount campaigns, which occur within this cooperation, said Rast. The tool also works when the voucher is published on classical channels like radio or print. The copying and publishing of the voucher codes from voucher portals cannot be prevented. And no e-commerce would want to block the voucher and possibly lose a customer.

The tool offers the full range of possibilities, when a voucher has been redeemed even if it should not have been. “The conversion is reported to the legitimate owner of the voucher code. The voucher would be tracked with 0 Euros and the unauthorized partner will either not be displayed at all or the commission will be lowered, for example, to zero.” (ks)