Electronic Coupon Research Articles

Robust portfolio optimization model for electronic coupon allocation

Currently, many e-commerce websites issue online/electronic coupons as an effective tool for promoting sales of various products and services. We focus on the problem of optimally allocating coupons to customers subject to a budget constraint on an e-commerce website. We apply a robust portfolio optimization model based on customer segmentation to the coupon allocation problem. We also validate the efficacy of our method through numerical experiments using actual data from randomly distributed coupons. Main contributions of our research are twofold. First, we handle six type of coupons, thereby making it extremely difficult to accurately estimate the difference in the effects of various coupons. Second, we demonstrate from detailed numerical results that the robust optimization model achieved larger uplifts of sales than did the commonly-used multiple-choice knapsack model and the conventional mean–variance optimization model. Our results open up great potential for robust portfolio optimization as an effective tool for practical coupon allocation.

INSTANT REBATE COUPON AND ITS INFLUENCE IN ONLINE CONSUMER PURCHASE INTENT AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN NIGERIA

This study seeks to examine instant rebate coupon influence in online purchase intent with special reference to university students in Nigeria. Instant rebate coupon as a concept in online sales promotion signifies an important improvement in the use of electronic coupon to prevail in the online market place competition, most especially among electronic retailers. This study therefore focuses on four elements of measuring instant rebate coupon being an online sales promotion tool namely: discount depth, attractiveness, perceived risk and hedonic perception on online purchase intention. The use of descriptive research design was employed through a cross – sectional online survey as data collection methods. Two hundred and seventy six (276) respondents were considered for this study. The four research questions asked were answered via the corresponding hypotheses. Data collected for this study were analyzed through the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that a significant relationship exist between online purchase intention and the elements of instant rebate coupon, in addition the study shows that online shoppers are willing to embrace instant rebate coupon while shopping in online environment. Also, based on this study, It is recommended that electronic retailers should increase the use of instant rebate coupon in their online stores and further studies can be conducted in extending the population of study to different population categories such as housewives, working class, among many others.

A Secure E-Coupon Service Based on Blockchain Systems

As the popularity of e-commerce grows, an electronic coupon (e-coupon) is widely used due to its convenience and portability. In most e-coupon services, the information of e-coupons is managed on a centralized server. However, e-coupon services are often vulnerable to security issues because of centralization. For example, when the e-coupon information which is stored in a centralized e-coupon server is forged, it becomes difficult to match the user and the e-coupon’s owner, and an expired e-coupon can be used repetitively (i.e., double-spending). To handle this issue, we propose a new e-coupon service by exploiting a blockchain system to improve the security of the service. To do this, we first design a server to enable the e-coupon service and communicate with the blockchain system. Second, we devise a smart contract on the blockchain system to provide integrity of the e-coupon business logic and the e-coupon’s information. We implemented the proposed service on an Ethereum-based blockchain system. The experimental results show that our proposed service improves higher security with a minor performance overhead compared with an existing e-coupon service.

A User Interface for Inducing Communication of Regional Electronic Coupon Systems

A User Interface for Inducing Communication of Regional Electronic Coupon Systems

Targeted reminders of electronic coupons: using predictive analytics to facilitate coupon marketing

Electronic coupon (e-coupon) is one of the most important marketing tools in B2C e-commerce. To improve the e-coupon redemption rate and reduce marketing costs, it is crucial to retarget customers who have received e-coupons and have higher propensity to redeem their coupons. Using log data and transactional data to extract the features of past purchase behavior, past coupon redemption behavior and browsing behavior during coupon validity period, we investigate the factors influencing customers’ propensity for e-coupon redemption. Our results show that almost all the variables used in our analysis (except the visit time) affect consumers’ coupon redemption propensity. Our study can help companies develop promotional strategies that better retarget those customers who are more likely to respond to coupon marketing. It also highlights the potential of using predictive analytics to enhance marketing effectiveness in the era of big data.

Deployment and performance evaluation of mobile multicoupon solutions

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) represents an important area of business with a huge potential revenue for merchants and great opportunities for customers to achieve better offers. One of the topics within m-commerce that needs important improvements on usability and efficiency is electronic coupon systems. This is because solutions for electronic coupons are focused on their theoretical definition, overlooking both their performance evaluation and their viability analysis. In this paper, we provide an evaluation framework to test multicoupon solutions. Under this framework, we evaluate two particular multicoupon schemes, obtaining interesting performance results, such as the fact that cryptographic operations are not always the most costly processes, as usually claimed by authors of multicoupon schemes. We show that message encoding can help to improve the efficiency of multicoupon solutions, even up to 50% of the overhead over the network. Moreover, we solve other issues related to the viability of these schemes, for example, using a standardized way to distribute non-standard cryptographic key material. Therefore, the viability of a multicoupon solution should be validated considering all involved factors, such as internal processing, networking, message encoding and current technology support.

Experimental study on under-deposit corrosion and its inhibition using electrochemical methods and electronic coupon technique

PurposeIn this study the aim was to investigate under-deposit corrosion (UDC) behavior and the action effects of amino trimethylene phosphonic acid (ATMP) in the oxygen-contained solution.Design/methodology/approachElectrochemical methods and wire beam electrode techniques were used for the study of ATMP action effect for X65 steel under silica sand and CaCO3 particle deposit. Electronic coupon technique was used for the study of galvanic effect caused by the deposits and the action effect of ATMP.FindingsATMP would cause localized corrosion for the silica sand-covered steel. However, it could inhibit the localized corrosion of the steel beneath CaCO3 particle deposit. Galvanic effect test showed that the galvanic effect caused by the deposits was an important factor for the acceleration of UDC. ATMP had an obvious promotion effect for the galvanic current between bare coupon and silica sand covered coupon and different degrees of localized corrosion were observed beneath both deposits.Originality/valueThe authors believe that the paper may be of particular interest to the readers of the journal as the measurement methods for the UDC of X65 pipeline steel. The experiment they did in the laboratory found that the inhibitor ATMP has a good inhibition effect for bare steel, but it would accelerate the UDC. Different kinds of deposits would have different influences for the UDC behavior with inhibitor added.

NFC Tag와 스마트폰을 이용한 진동벨 시스템 개발

In this paper, we study a vibration bell App which shows waiting sequence numbers by utilizing smartphones to solve an inconveniently long waiting time from ordering to getting foods in restaurants and coffee shops. Unlike existing independently developed hardware and software, the vibration bell App is developed to manage and integrate customer management service, POS service in shops, and group shop management services. The functions of the vibration bell App include two-way communications based on NFC- issuing waiting sequence numbers and electronic coupon, showing event information, and transferring user information. Furthermore, the user`s personal information is minimized by recognizing the pre-existing information of the user`s smartphone. Replacing the shop`s vibration bell system with the vibration bell APP, the shops can reduce the cost of construction and maintenance by up to 1/10, compared to the cost of for existing vibration bell systems. Moreover, the customer`s preference and current sales trend can be easily figured out. Thus, it will have a great effect on the future marketing strategies.

Prototype design of NFC-based electronic coupon ecosystem with object memory model

In this paper, a Prototype design of electronic coupons ecosystem using NFC (Near Field Communication) in smart phones with OMM (Object Memory Model) is presented. The goal of OMM is to support the life cycle of NFC-based Electronic Coupon ecosystem for profile and usage, from E-Coupon push service and to E-Coupon clearance, using smart phone based on NFC devices. We propose the E-Coupon with OMM based on NFC, and present software design of E-Coupon among server and users.

다회 사용가능한 안전한 모바일 쿠폰 프로토콜

모바일 기기의 성능 향상과 모바일 인터넷 서비스의 성장으로 모바일 쿠폰 시장은 사용자들에게 중요한 시장으로 자리잡고 있다. 모바일 쿠폰은 사용자에게 이동성을 제공해주고 발급자에게 발급의 편리성도 제공해줄 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 해쉬 함수와 XOR 연산과 같이 간단한 암호학적인 기법을 적용하여 모바일에서 효율적으로 수행할 수 있는 모바일 쿠폰시스템에 대하여 제안한다. 제안하는 시스템은 사용자가 모바일 쿠폰의 횟수를 선택하고 발급자는 이중 사용을 방지할 수 있다. 사용자는 모바일 기기에서 프로토콜 수행시 지수연산과 암호화 또는 복호화연산과 같은 복잡한 연산을 수행하지 않아도 된다. 제안한 스킴은 payword의 해쉬 체인을 이용하여 사용자의 이중 사용을 방지하였다. Since nowadays mobile phone messages are flourishing, the application of electronic coupon (e-coupon) will become a trend for mobile users. E-coupon for mobile commerce can provide mobility for users and distribution flexibility for issuers. In this paper, we propose a mobile e-coupon system that just applies some simple cryptographic techniques, such as one-way hash function and XOR operation. In our system, the customer can control the number of issued e-coupons and the issuer can prevent them from double-redeeming. The customer does not need to perform any exponential computation in redeeming and transferring the coupons. Our scheme uses one-way hash chains for preventing from double-spending.

Sub-Linear Size Traceable Ring Signatures without Random Oracles

Traceable ring signatures, proposed at PKC'07, are a variant of ring signatures, which allow a signer to anonymously sign a message with a tag behind a ring, i.e., a group of users chosen by the signer, unless he signs two messages with the same tag. However, if a signer signs twice on the same tag, the two signatures will be linked and the identity of the signer will be revealed when the two signed messages are different. Traceable ring signatures can be applied to anonymous write-in voting without any special voting authority and electronic coupon services. The previous traceable ring signature scheme relies on random oracles at its security and the signature size is linear in the number of ring members. This paper proposes the first secure traceable ring signature schemes without random oracles in the common reference string model. In addition, the proposed schemes have a signature size of O(√N), where N is the number of users in the ring.

Do Shoppers Like Electronic Coupons?: A Panel Data Analysis

Past research has yielded valuable insights into the drivers of traditional coupon redemption, but the applicability of these results to electronic coupons remains an open question. We investigate the determinants of electronic coupon redemption, employing a large panel dataset for five product categories (detergent, milk, cookies, shampoo, and orange juice) for the period 2003–2005. Our findings reveal that education and employment positively influence redemption rates and our analysis indicates that these findings are not due to unobserved individual effects. The focus is on comparing coupon-use discrepancies between national and private label brands when the characteristics of coupons are taken into account. A higher face value appears to be a critical element in electronic coupon format, and this gives rise to more purchases for nonperishables (shampoo and detergent). Results also show significant seasonal variations in milk and orange-juice coupon usage. Furthermore, the distance of consumers from the redemption location has a significantly negative effect, whereas the expiration date has no evident effect. The implications for electronic coupon research and practice are discussed.

Secure E-Coupons

As the Internet is getting easier and faster to use, electronic coupon (e-coupon) distribution is becoming a more and more popular advertising technique. E-coupons are the digital analogue of paper coupons which are used to provide customers with discounts or gift in order to incentive the purchase of some products. Nowadays, the potential of digital coupons has not been fully exploited on the web. This is mostly due to the lack of “efficient” techniques to handle the generation and distribution of e-coupons. In this paper we discuss models and protocols for e-coupons satisfying a number of security requirements. Furthermore we present a lightweight implementation of our protocol, which preserves the privacy of the users, since it does not require any registration phase.

Peer to Peer型電子クーポンシステムにおける仲介者識別のためのキュー型配布履歴記録方式

An incentive attached peer to peer (P2P) electronic coupon system is proposed in which users forward e-coupons to potential users by providing incentives to those mediators. A service provider needs to acquire distribution history for incentive payment by recording UserIDs (UIDs) in the e-coupons, since this system is intended for pure P2P environment. This causes problems of dishonestly altering distribution history.In order to solve such problems, distribution history is realized in a couple of queues structure. They are the UID queue, and the public key queue. Each element of the UID queue at the initial state consists of index, a secret key, and a digital signature. In recording one's UID, the encrypted UID is enqueued to the UID queue with a new digital signature created by a secret key of the dequeued element, so that each UID cannot be altered. The public key queue provides the functionality of validating digital signatures on mobile devices. This method makes it possible both each UID and sequence of them to be certificated.The availability of the method is evaluated by quantifying risk reduction using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). And it's recognized that the method is better than common encryption methods.