Participants take photos of their receipts and upload or email them to ReceiptPal. This information is then anonymised and aggregated with that of other ReceiptPal users, and the infomation shared with NPD clients.

For every receipt uploaded, users earn points towards redeemable rewards and are entered into a draw for a weekly cash prize.

“People are constantly on the go, always shopping, and don’t go anywhere without their mobile phones,” said Liz Cutting, general manager, ReceiptPal at NPD. “With ReceiptPal, they can snap and upload receipts right as they are paying, and be on their way to earning great rewards.”

This announcement comes after InfoScout, a retail market research firm backed by Dunnhumby ventures, announced the free public beta of its analytics dashboard. InfoScout works on a similar principle to ReceiptPal, in that it asks panellists to upload pictures of receipts. It also asks them to complete shopping trip-specific surveys. This information is then combined to produce purchase data.