Automated Receipt Verification Unlocks Customer Insights
Last updated:
July 24, 2025
The ability to verify physical receipts while also gathering customer purchase insights, became Cheetah Digital's secret weapon, turbocharging their marketing platform and winning over new clients left and right. By partnering with an AI specialist, Cheetah Digital integrated an automated solution into its marketing platform. This technology allows brands to offer rewards in return for customers submitting their purchase receipts. This process is key to collecting valuable zero-party data directly and with consumer consent.
The partnership delivered a custom AI solution that was fully deployed within four weeks. This rapid integration allowed Cheetah Digital's clients to launch campaigns that saw a 30% increase in customer engagement. The automated system extracts key data from various receipt formats with high accuracy. This removes the need for manual checks and provides reliable data for building more personalised marketing strategies. The new capability also proved essential in acquiring new high-profile clients for the platform.
Terry Mesfut
Director of Strategic Alliances
,
Cheetah Digital
Scaling Proof-of-Purchase Campaigns
Cheetah Digital, a platform serving over 3,000 global brands, saw a growing client demand for more sophisticated marketing campaigns. Their clients wanted to offer customers rewards in exchange for proof of purchase. This required a reliable and scalable way to validate receipts from many different retailers.
The core problem was that verifying receipts manually was inefficient. The process was slow, costly, and could not handle the high submission volumes of major brand campaigns. This manual approach was also prone to errors and could not effectively prevent fraudulent receipt submissions. To continue offering innovative solutions, Cheetah Digital needed a secure and automated system.
Building this complex AI technology in-house was not a practical option. It would have required significant time and resources, delaying their speed-to-market. Cheetah Digital needed a partner with a specialised solution that could:
- Integrate seamlessly with their existing Experiences platform.
- Validate customer purchases in real-time to ensure a smooth user experience.
- Accurately extract a wide range of data, including detailed line items, to power personalised marketing.
- Process high volumes of receipts with enterprise-grade security and reliability.
Rapid Integration Through a Strategic Partnership
To meet the challenge, Cheetah Digital chose to partner with Taggun to quickly integrate specialised receipt scanning technology. The core of the solution was a flexible API that connected directly to the Cheetah Experiences platform. This strategic partnership allowed Cheetah Digital to focus on its core services while leveraging Taggun's expertise in AI-powered data extraction.
The entire integration process was completed in just four weeks. This timeline included connecting the receipt OCR API, configuring custom data extraction models, and deploying the fully tested solution. The fast implementation meant Cheetah Digital could bring the new, powerful capability to its clients without a long and resource-intensive development cycle.
The final solution provides a seamless and automated way to manage proof-of-purchase campaigns.
- Simple Submission: Customers can upload a receipt in multiple formats, such as a JPG, PNG or PDF file.
- Real-time Processing: The system validates the purchase instantly, so users do not have to wait for results.
- Rich Data Extraction: The technology accurately captures key information, including merchant details, totals, and individual line items. This process provides brands with the valuable, consensual zero-party data needed to understand buying habits and create more effective marketing.
- High-Volume Scalability: The solution is built for high-volume promotional campaigns and can easily handle sudden submission spikes.
Boosting Marketing ROI with Automated Receipt Verification
The partnership between Cheetah Digital and Taggun delivered a significant return on investment by improving campaign performance, operational efficiency, and strategic growth. The automated solution provided tangible results for the business and its clients.
- Increased Customer Engagement: Campaigns using the new receipt verification technology saw a 30% increase in customer engagement.
- Rapid Speed-to-Market: A complete, custom AI solution was integrated and fully deployed in just four weeks, allowing Cheetah Digital to quickly meet client demands.
- Greater Operational Efficiency: Automating the verification process eliminated slow manual work. This streamlined operations and significantly reduced administrative time and processing costs.
- Acquisition of New Clients: The enhanced platform capabilities were a key factor in helping Cheetah Digital attract and win new high-profile clients.
- Deeper Customer Insights: The solution unlocked valuable zero-party data from customer receipts. This allowed brands to develop more targeted and personalised marketing strategies.
- Enhanced Market Position: By integrating this advanced technology, Cheetah Digital strengthened its competitive advantage in the marketing industry.
The tech behind the scanning and validation
The technology implemented for Cheetah Digital was specifically chosen to address their core requirements. The solution's technical architecture provided seamless integration, real-time processing, accurate data extraction, and enterprise-grade performance.
Seamless Platform Integration via REST API
To meet the requirement for seamless integration, the solution was connected using its REST API. Because the API is purpose-built for receipt processing, it enabled a fast and direct integration into the Cheetah Experiences platform. This specialised approach was key to deploying the solution in just four weeks.
Real-Time Validation and Processing
The platform required real-time validation to ensure a good user experience. The API is designed to process requests and return data immediately. This technical design eliminates the need for complex systems like webhooks, which can create delays. The system was configured to handle the diverse receipt formats from Cheetah's various client campaigns.
Specialised AI for Accurate Data Extraction
To gain deep customer insights, Cheetah Digital needed to extract specific data accurately. The solution used custom AI models trained to handle receipts from major retailers. These models were configured to capture curated retailer names, structured addresses, and detailed product-level data with over 95% accuracy. The data was delivered in a structured JSON format, ready for analysis.
Enterprise-Grade Performance and Security
The final requirement was the ability to handle high-volume campaigns securely. The infrastructure was built to be scalable for campaign-driven submission spikes. The solution also included advanced fraud detection to identify fake receipts and met the strict data privacy and security standards required for the project.
A Strategic Partnership for Future Growth
The Cheetah Digital partnership is a clear example of strategic growth. By choosing to partner with a specialist, they avoided a slow internal build and deployed a custom receipt validation solution in just four weeks. This move automated a key marketing process, enabling their clients to capture accurate zero-party data and increase campaign engagement. The integration provides more than a single solution. It offers a foundation for future innovation in marketing personalisation and data-driven loyalty programs.