Sunday, February 7, 2010

Homescan Consumer Panel: Earn Rewards for Scanning Your Purchases

The AC Nielsen Homescan Consumer Panel is currently seeking additional panelists in certain zip codes. You can learn more about the program and apply here.

The Nielsen Company provides marketing information worldwide; you may already be familiar with their TV rating system. My husband and I have been panelists for several years now, and I can personally vouch that this offer is legitimate. My sister and a friend are also on the panel.

So why would you want to join?

1. You want to make your consumer opinions known.
2. You don't mind doing a little work to get a little reward.
3. Enrollment is not always open and will likely only stay open for a limited time. (In fact, when we signed up years ago we were part of a randomly selected sample and asked to join by mail!).

What would you need to do as a panelist?

1. Shop as you normally do. When you return home, scan your purchases (using a handheld scanner provided by Nielsen) and purchase total. Transmit the information once each week.

2. You'll accumulate gift points for scanning weekly, which can be used toward the name-brand merchandise in their gift catalog. (We just cashed in our collected points for a VCR/DVD player last week!)

You can read more at the link above. If you have any questions, feel free to ask by posting a comment below - I'd be happy to help!

You can also apply to become a member of the Nielsen Digital Voice Panel, which tracks your online habits and analyzes the data they've collected from all panelists to determine trends. It requires no effort on your part, and you can earn entries into monthly cash sweepstakes.

5 comments:

  1. Do you feel it's worth your time? How are the rewards?

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  2. We have an older model scanner, so it may take us a little longer to scan each grocery trip (the new models are NICE!). It has been more difficult for us to scan weekly since we've had kids (it's enough of a challenge to get cold items put away while getting them settled after a trip!).

    The rewards are nice - I cashed in our points 2 years ago for a BIG Cuisinart food processor. They have everything from kids' toys to electronics in terms of rewards. It does take a while to accumulate points for something nice, though, so if you're interested in a program where you see results quickly, it may not be worth the time for you. It takes about 5 minutes (more of less depending on the size of your shopping trips) to scan each UPC code of the items purchased. Scanning once each week adds another 2 minutes. Depending on how often you shop and how much you buy, it can take some time. The scanner will also ask you to input the coupons you used on each product (store or manufacturer, where you received it, and amount)and whether the item was on sale.

    The longer you stay in the program, the more points you get for each week you transmit your purchases. If you transmit every week in one month, you'll get bonus points as well.

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  3. I'm a new member (6 months now), my mom has been a member for several years now. I still think it's kinda fun scanning my purchases, but then again I'm kinda a geek that way. I also am a member of several of the survey companies so I like to give my opinions on things!

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  4. I joined, got my equipment but quickly decided it wasnt worth my time. The awards seem to be far too many points for what my "time was worth" I dont mean to knock the program it just wasnt for me. All the equipment came quickly, was easy to hook up and customer service was great for those interested in checking it out.

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  5. I tried this briefly too... and as a working mom who uses TONS of coupons and does multiple trips, it really wasn't worth my time. Scanning in items is easy, but once you start entering in info for coupons it slows things WAY down.

    For people with more time on their hands and/or don't buy as much/use tons of coupons it might be a nice thing to get into, but after getting info on how the awards accumulate, I did some claculations and figured out that even after several years in the program they wouldn't accure fast enough for me to get something decent.

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