A rewards and incentives platform is software that gives a company one catalogue of gift cards, experiences and cash payouts, from which it rewards its customers, its channel partners and its employees. Channel partners are the dealers, distributors and shops that sell the company's products. The company decides who gets how much. The person who is rewarded chooses what to take.
Without such a platform, a company buys gift vouchers in bulk, sends codes by email from a spreadsheet, and tracks by hand who has received what. It also cannot easily reward people in other cities or countries with brands they actually use. A platform replaces this with one account and one catalogue. The catalogue holds gift cards from hundreds of brands, such as shopping sites, food delivery apps and clothing stores. It also holds experiences, such as a spa visit, and cash payouts sent by UPI or to a bank account.
The company usually pays money into the platform in advance. Each reward is then deducted from that balance. The person rewarded receives a link by email or WhatsApp, opens it, and picks a gift card. The platform buys the gift card code from the brand, often at a discount, and sends it at once. The platform earns from that discount, or from a fee. Gift cards and digital payouts are issued by specialist companies. Some rewards are paid as prepaid cards, which are set up through a card issuing platform.
Imagine a consumer electronics brand launching a new air conditioner before summer. It sells through 2,000 retail shops. It offers each shop's owner a reward of ₹500 for every unit sold in April and May. One shop in Vijayawada sells 40 units, so the owner earns ₹20,000 in reward points. He opens the link and picks a ₹10,000 voucher for an online shopping site and ₹10,000 sent to his bank account. The brand's sales team sees, on one screen, which shops have earned and claimed their rewards. Through the same account, the brand also rewards its own sales staff who reached their targets, through an employee recognition product.
The same platform supplies the rewards for many other programmes. Loyalty programme software orders gift cards from it when a member redeems points. Brands that reward dealers for local campaigns connect it to through-channel marketing. Employers use it for staff perks, alongside an employee wellbeing platform. In India, gifts to employees above a set value may be taxed as part of their salary, so the platform's reports also help the company's payroll team.