Snap a receipt and earn points or rewards has become a rage in Southeast Asia. Malaysia-based Ebizu’s Manis, lauded as “a universal loyalty lifestyle mobile app that enables you to earn and spend points at all your favourite businesses,” has seen success in Malaysia.
Data analytic
Behind the rewards is the use of the information generated from the scanned receipts for data analytic. The spending pattern of the consumer can be tracked and the data can be sold to interested parties for targeted promotion or to understand the lifestyle of their customers.
Online shopping excluded
The app accepts receipts from spending made in foodservice premises and retail outlets. Since it tracks offline shopping, online transaction is excluded as there are already many tools out there to understand online shoppers. Also excluded are travel and accommodation and utilities.
Author’s experience
The author started using Manis in late 2016 and has since discontinued after the rewards become less attractive and relevant. There used to be grocery vouchers but once the author accumulated enough points to exchange for it, I was too late as all the grocery vouchers have been redeemed.
Rewards on 14 July 2017:
Problems affecting data accuracy
There is also a problem with the Manis app that could potentially affect the data accuracy. Anyone can pick up a receipt that was discarded and use it to scan to collect the points. If this person repeats the same method with different types of receipts, they can quickly earn points.
Another way to beat the system is to collaborate with your friends and family members. All their receipts will be grouped under one account and at the end of the day, the data reflects the collective spending of certain individuals.
Manis is weeding out the practice by requiring the scanning of the actual receipt and user is given a time frame of 24 hours to complete their submission, instead of 48 hours previously.
For me, it is bye bye for now unless they bring back the grocery vouchers. By the way, I still have at least 5,000 points in my account, down from 12,000 points. I redeemed some for Honestbee but that was only sufficient to waive the shipping and handling fee.
