Never underestimate the power of a good old-fashioned web forum for healthy discussion and tips that you can apply to your own business. Browsing through our own WebProWorld forum, I noticed an interesting conversation taking place regarding online coupons, and the potential for customers to tamper with them.
Do you use online coupons? Tell us how you keep them from being tampered with.
WPW member MarkGatESS began the discussion, "I'm interested in making online coupons that people can click on, be directed to a page, image file, or .pdf, and then print a copy of the coupon to use to send in with product repairs (for our repair service department). How can I secure this coupon so that people can't tamper with wording or an expiration date and be able to rip us off?"
A WebProWorld veteran, who goes by the name Uncle Dog said that it's simply not possible to make a tamper-resistant coupon in the way MarkGatESS suggests, because anything displayed on a monitor can easily be copied into other graphics software, where it can then be altered. He says the solution is this: "Each coupon needs to have its own unique ID that can then be checked against and cleared off a database."
This way makes sense, and it shouldn't be incredibly hard to do. Another WPW veteran, Danlefree, has an alternative strategy though. He runs down the following steps:
- Compute the full contents (except the coupon code) of the coupon
- Include the following items of information on the coupon: visitor IP address, visitor e-mail address (so you can e-mail them to follow up, if necessary), date
- Generate the coupon code as an MD5 sum (or, better still, the first 8 characters of an MD5 sum) of the following items of information: The entirety of the printed coupon's HTML contents + a secret salt
- Provide a tool for your representatives which allows them to enter the IP address, e-mail address, and date from a coupon to generate a hash - if the hash matches, the coupon was valid (otherwise it's a forgery)
Online coupon use has steadily grown throughout the recession, and this was especially evident during the holiday season. Even as things look up and the holidays are behind us, people will still be looking to save money. That will never change.
Coupons can be a great way to drive business, but it pays to be smart about it. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that people can be quite deceptive and may jump at an opportunity to rip you off. Hopefully that's not the majority of your customers, but let's face it. Not everybody is honest.
Join the conversation in the comments on this article, or right in the forum.
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Comments
Very true, online coupons is
Semi-Tamper Proof Coupons
We're lucky since we write our own Point-of-Sale system. We run an entertainment center with various attractions. For valuable coupons, like a free pass to play laser tag, we give the coupon a customer id number. Our POS can assign a particular PLU to a customer number in a fixed quantity.
That way, 'the coupon' stays internal to our system and can only be used once. If the customer is careless with the number and gives it to someone else, they may find their friend has already used the coupon.
For added security, when a player approves our release form electronically, we take their photo. Their photo is pulled up whenever a coupon code is used in this way to give us an added visual check.
This is surprisingly simple, but I haven't seen many other retail systems that can handle it. Since this is the only way we'll do on-line coupons, our customers all sign up for the system.
Good Read
Interesting thing about coupons and all the methods that can be used now. I've tried many things but got rid of them due to all the fraud attempts. Of course that was almost 10 years ago :)
It was just easier to place a sale on our site that does not require anything special as they are already reduced and honestly I've never looked back as it's working great!
I did have a client that wanted the ability to have their website directory members to be able to create their own coupons. Wow, there were just red flags all over that idea. If they were to be hacked or bad seed in company a automated coupon section in their admin could do a lot of damage, legal damage. So, I decided to pass on that one.
Coupons are good, but they are still risky business for online sites to me.
Have an awesome day!
Snerdey
Follow Snerdey on Twitter!
Sounds like...
I've thought about using coupons for my safety and security web site but after reading this article, it sounds like a lot of problems. Not sure I want to do it now. Thanks, Chris.
Coupon!
Hello everyone,
I do agree that coupons can be risky, but one thing to keep in mind:
Not every customer will walkin with invalid coupon....So just let it go and keep up the sales and make some profit...
I would say this will apply for small local busnesses only but not for big companies like Vons or others.
Thank you
Mobile coupons work
One way to reduce the problems associated with online coupons is to get consumers to opt-in for a mobile coupon. Mobile coupons are delivered via text message to the consumer's cell phone. Sure, consumers can forward them, but so what? That's just more business with no marketing costs!
Re
I'm interested in making online coupons that people can click on, be directed to a page, image file, or .pdf, and then print a copy of the coupon to use to send in with product repairs.
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