There’s a new Borrell Associates report that takes aim at the coupon and circulars segment. The firm says that online coupons constitute 5% of all coupon redemptions but 20% of the total dollar value of coupons.
The total face value of the coupon market (not redemptions) on an annualized basis is more than $300 billion in the US.
The Borrell numbers are very large but here they are (via MediaPost):
Borrell Associates estimates that the $8.3 billion value of online coupons redemptions in 2009 (including via the Internet, email and mobile) will jump more than 50% to $12.7 billion in 2010 and to $22 billion by 2014.
The above chart appears in the MediaPost piece. However, there’s something strange about the traffic numbers. Here’s comparison data from Compete:
Freed of their prior stigma, coupons have now entered a new phase of life online and in mobile. Coupons have been shown to have the most direct influence on consumer shopping behavior. According to Retrevo: “20% won’t buy a gadget this holiday season, without a deal or coupon. 35% say a deal or coupon can help them buy a gadget the otherwise would not buy.”
Similarly the following comes from a RetailMeNot/Harris survey (8/09, n=2,175 US adults), showing how the absence of an expected deal or coupon affects behavior:
Mobile coupons are one of the forms of mobile advertising that consumers actively embrace:
Source: AOL-Universal McCann (n=1,800 smartphone users).
Traditional printed coupons see redemption rates of 1% to 2%, while online coupons see 10% to 15% and mobile often in excess of 20%.
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Related: More on coupons from the LATimes:
Coupon use peaked in 1992 with 7.9 billion coupons redeemed, according to Inmar Inc., a coupon processing firm. The practice has declined steadily since to 2.6 billion coupons redeemed in 2006, where it remained until late last year.
When 2009 comes to an end, the firm projects coupon redemptions will have gained 20% to 3.2 billion and remain strong even as the nation emerges from the recession.
Today, newspaper circulars still dominate, accounting for about 90% of the coupons distributed and more than half of those redeemed, but the Internet is rapidly making inroads.
Screenwerk 
September 17, 2010 at 7:02 am
[…] is so much Australian retailers can do with clear learnings from overseas data and case studies. Greg Sterling points out on his blog, that coupons have been shown to have the most direct influence on consumers […]
December 24, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Interesting data, kind of shocked to see the the raw amount of people searching for coupons.