Over
the last six years or so, United States consumers have been more aggressively
seeking a “good deal” when making a purchase. Coupons, in print and digital
form, are one way to do that. Recent research has showed that coupon redemption
is slowly decreasing from previous years.
According
to MediaPost, various studies produced by NCH Marketing and Valassis have
reported the following facts:
·
Coupons
produced and distributed by marketers increased by about 3.3% last year. The
total distribution is estimated at 315 billion coupons.
·
Total
coupon redemption has decreased by about 3.4% to 2.8 billion.
·
The
most common reason why consumers said he/she did not use coupons in 2013 was
that coupons for products that he/she wanted to buy could not be found. That
was the biggest response with 49%.
·
With
28.7% of respondents agreeing, the second most common was that the coupons
expired before the consumer could use it.
·
In
2012, the time in which to redeem coupons was an estimated 9.3 weeks. In 2013,
that dropped to 8.6 weeks.
·
Free
standing inserts (FSI’s) typically account for 91.2% of coupons distributed and
about 50.8% of all redeemed coupons. However, FSI’s in general still have low
redemption rates.
·
While
digital coupons did see growth in use in 2013, it still only accounts for less
than 1% of all coupon distribution.
The
takeaway for marketers is coupons are still valid for consumers. However, accessibility
and time restraints do play a factor in use.
