The Future of Coupons - Online, Digital and Mobile
A recent ShopSmart survey (covered in Promo) showed that coupons can still mean "big
savings and offer good incentives to persuade people to buy certain
products." For example:
This DMNews article maintains that coupons can drive both short-term and long-term business. The point this article emphasizes is relevance. Regardless of the way they're distributed, the offers must be targeted for "a variety of lifetime cycles to drive repeat business rather than discourage it." While they attract bargain shoppers; they can also start and maintain sales if they're properly leveraged across channels.
So where do we go from here? This issue is covered in a ClickZ article that singles out the ability to offer online coupons in a social environment so that consumers can share coupons with others. What's still missing - social media tools (MyCoupons list, product reviews, widgets, etc.) as well as a behavioral targeting system that would consider frequency of use and distribution patterns.
Another option is loading digital coupons onto loyalty cards (as recently discussed in RetailWire.) The Kroger-P&G test involved shoppers selecting coupons from offers on the grocer's site and the savings being automatically loaded onto their loyalty card and then processed with their purchases. Kroger believes that "over time, more and more customers will want to use the online option," and they're working to bring other manufacturers into the test.
A final option is using mobile coupons - an alternative that is generating more and more interest as evidenced in the following two articles:
Posted by Universal Ad
- 55% of female coupon clippers bought a different brand than usual because of a coupon offer
- People who use coupons and store-loyalty cards save an average of $678 a year, or more than 10 cents of every grocery dollar
- 56% of women use coupons occasionally, with newspapers being the most popular source of coupons
This DMNews article maintains that coupons can drive both short-term and long-term business. The point this article emphasizes is relevance. Regardless of the way they're distributed, the offers must be targeted for "a variety of lifetime cycles to drive repeat business rather than discourage it." While they attract bargain shoppers; they can also start and maintain sales if they're properly leveraged across channels.
So where do we go from here? This issue is covered in a ClickZ article that singles out the ability to offer online coupons in a social environment so that consumers can share coupons with others. What's still missing - social media tools (MyCoupons list, product reviews, widgets, etc.) as well as a behavioral targeting system that would consider frequency of use and distribution patterns.
Another option is loading digital coupons onto loyalty cards (as recently discussed in RetailWire.) The Kroger-P&G test involved shoppers selecting coupons from offers on the grocer's site and the savings being automatically loaded onto their loyalty card and then processed with their purchases. Kroger believes that "over time, more and more customers will want to use the online option," and they're working to bring other manufacturers into the test.
A final option is using mobile coupons - an alternative that is generating more and more interest as evidenced in the following two articles:
- Interest Growing in Mobile Coupons - A recent Jupiter Research survey (also covered in Internet Retailer) showed that three out of 10 US consumers are interested in receiving coupons on their mobile phones, although only 1% of US consumers currently use them. That number was predicted to grow less than 10% through
2008. Redeeming mobile coupons is currently a hassle. Few retailers
have systems able to read the coupons directly from handset screens. So
codes have to be manually entered in cash registers, matched with
customers loyalty card numbers or written on paper. The benefits include "real-time offers, geo-targeting, personalization, time-of-day
redemption tracking, triggering impulse purchases and a lower cost of
delivery."
- Embracing Mobile Coupon Usage - A recent Cellfire survey showed that usage of mobile coupons has increased by 119% over the last six months. Similarly, an ABI Research report showed that 63% of consumers said that
a coupon would be the most effective incentive to get them to respond
to a mobile marketing message, followed by a discount at a local store (52%). 70% of coupons are redeemed by shoppers under age 34 but there older consumers have tripled their redemption rates in
the last six months. As to scheduling - Tuesday
and Wednesday, which are typically slower days for retail, rank high
for mobile coupon usage.
Posted by Universal Ad
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