Digital Coupons

Digital offers, whether delivered via the web, email, mobile devices, or in-store, including those that consumers opt into through “Load to Loyalty Card” are centrally defined in ICN's database. Activations for digital opt-in offers are recieved in real time, with no delay for the consumer. As the consumer is checking out, ICN inspects all products scanned and also awaits the scan of the consumer’s loyalty card, validating offers the consumer has qualified for against actual purchases made in order to accurately execute, clear, and settle the digital incentives. ICN is able to accomplish this as a true end to end solution in a manner which requires neither pre-defining offers locally at POS nor batch activation files being sent to the POS. Additionally since validation is done server side not only is the heavy lifting removed from the POS but also the capabilities of the POS are expanded in ways that would otherwise not be possible.

GS1 Bar-Coded Paper Coupons

For paper coupons, whether these come from Free-Standing Inserts (FSIs) or Run of Press (ROP), ICN utilizes the newly available data that is embedded within GS1 Data Bar Codes in conjunction with data from actual purchases to validate, clear, and settle paper incentives.

Paper and Digital Benefit Summary

ICN understands manufacturers are committed to adding efficiency to the promotion process. ICN’s turn-key electronic clearing and settlement solution offers manufacturers the opportunity to eliminate the inefficiency, and dispute resolution time and expense, associated with paper clearing and settlement.

More specifically, ICN’s turn-key electronic promotion solution can help manufacturers improve operational efficiency and promotion effectiveness, which has the potential of reducing the cost per redeemed coupon:

• Eliminating Fraud: ICN tracks each promotion (digital or paper) at the retailers’ point of sale, ensuring that the correct manufacturer’s promoted products are purchased within the desired promotion period.
• Family Code Validation: ICN can effectively validate GS1 paper coupons at the family code level and digital coupons at the UPC level to insure that the proper purchase requirements for the coupons incentive have been met.
• Deal Stacking: Since ICN clears both digital offers and paper coupons, ICN provides manufacturers with the ability, for the first time, to prevent incentives from being redeemed twice when only one product is purchased.
• Tracking Redemption by Household: ICN reports usage by cardholder ID. When the manufacturers use the ICN direct-to-card capability for digital offers, or a unique serial number for paper coupons, the brand can get detailed redemption reports by household ID. This permits follow-up promotions to be targeted based on consumers’ action with the retailers support.
• Disputes: ICN eliminates the handling and dispute resolution associated with paper coupons by validating at the POS. The GS1 data is captured by the ICN Databridge software in real time and made available to the manufacturers 24/7 to ensure that any level of data needed to end a dispute is available.
• Validating Expiration Dates: ICN reads the coupon’s expiration date and sends a ‘Reject Coupon’ code to the POS when a coupon is past the expiration date.
• Electronic Billing and Settlement: ICN's solution includes an electronic and ACH billing and settlement system using the captured real time redemption data. With electronic files and fully auditable documentation, all disputes are eliminated and the overall settlement process will be much more efficient.