Infographic: A Coupon’s Journey

A Coupon’s Journey

Have you ever wondered how a coupon works? Where it comes from and how it ends up saving you so much money? The journey of a coupon from design to reimbursement is a shockingly long and arduous one. Read on to see how many people it takes to save you all that cash.

1. The manufacturer creates the coupon. The coupon artwork is created following industry standard guidelines and using the industry standard GS1 Databar bar code.
2. The coupon is distributed. There are many distribution methods: newspaper insert, event hand-outs, direct mail, Internet, print-at-home, etc.
3. The consumer redeems the coupon. The consumer clips the coupon, purchases the product, and presents the coupon at checkout. The consumer receives a discount for the value of the coupon. The retailer fronts the money for the discount, and is now owed by the manufacturer.
4. The retailer sends the coupons to its clearinghouse. The retailer sends all coupons that they have accepted to their clearinghouse.
5. The clearinghouse sorts and invoices. The retailer’s clearinghouse sorts the coupons and creates an invoice for each manufacturer.
6. The invoice is sent to the manufacturer’s agent. The clearinghouse sends the invoice to the manufacturer’s agent.
7. The manufacturer’s agent inspects the coupons. The manufacturer’s agent plant receives the coupon invoices, inspects them and checks for invalid coupons, enters the data, and transmits the data to the data center.
8. The data is validated and reported. The invoice data is loaded into the computer system, more validation checks are done, and reports are provided to the manufacturer.
9. The manufacturer’s agent sends payment. The manufacturer’s agent sends payment to the clearinghouse for the valid coupons.
10. The clearinghouse pays the retailer. The clearinghouse processes the payment from the manufacturer’s agent and pays the retailers.