Even After Recession, Shoppers Still Love Coupons

How much do shoppers love coupons? According to the 2011 Coupon Facts Report from NCH Marketing Services, consumers love these little pieces of paper 14.7-percent more in 2010 than 2007. In fact, digital-coupon distribution was up a whopping 37 percent in the last year. Considering we're supposedly "post recession," those are rather startling figures.

Even more surprising is the fact that the average consumer who prints online coupons has a household income of $105,000, a 26-percent higher income level than the U.S. average. "More and more, consumers are making digital coupons a part of their shopping routine," said Bob Carter, president of Promotion Services for Inmar. "They're accessing them across the entire digital domain, including the Internet, in social media, with consumer electronics and via their mobile phones."

Marketers have taken advantage of this continuing trend, issuing 397 BILLION coupons in 2010, compared to 367 billion the year before. That's the highest level recorded since tracking began in 1988.

"The interesting news from 2010 is that the change in consumer behavior that led to drastic increases in coupon redemption during the economic crisis is holding post recession," said Carter. "Consumers continue to be coupon sensitive. It will be interesting to watch trends for newer coupon methods, such as digital promotions."

We can expect digital promotions to continue their growth as significant pieces of the pie. Cctive mobile coupon users are expected to increase from 2.7 million in 2010 to almost 35 million in 2014, according to The Yankee Group.

In fact, digital coupons dramatically outpaced the growth of their newspaper counterparts in 2010 by approximately six to one.

Not surprisingly, Local Offer Network expects group-buying revenues will more than double this year, to nearly $2.7 billion. The daily deal experts included such companies as Groupon, Gilt Groupe and Living Social in their research.

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