How Digital Coupons are Transforming the Print Couponing Business [And How You Can Adapt]

I’m always skeptical when someone says “print is dead.” This was a saying something many pundits used after the iPhone and Kindle became mainstream.

For many digital natives, they often fantasize about digital taking over every aspect of print, but it really doesn’t seem to be the case.

In some cases, print never died. According to pewresearch, print books continue to be more popular than e-books or audiobooks.

But, for many print newspapers, many major newspapers are either shutting down, sales are declining or they are going digital only.

Digital Coupon Usage Is Growing

Let’s talk about a few stats that stand out.

• 31 billion eCoupons will be redeemed worldwide in 2019, up from 16B in 2014 and there will be 1.05 Billion mobile coupon users worldwide by 2019, up from 560M in 2014.
• More than 57.5% of US internet users have redeemed a digital coupon or code at least once in 2016 and is expected to reach 59% by 2016. [src]

Digital coupon adoption is definitely growing and if traditional print coupon companies don’t adapt, they may see themselves losing out to other competitors and lower sales.

So, what’s the best way to move forward with your digital coupon initiative?

Understand how your users are using your coupons — Digital solutions gives you better insights

It shouldn’t be a surprise that print coupons are hard to track usage. With digital solutions you can get real-time information on how your coupons are being used, which coupons are being used the most, and also details of when the coupons are being used.

These details allow you to make better decisions and give your sales and marketing teams more fire power when selling to other clients. Better data = better business decisions.

Getting “smart” with your couponing – Context is everything

Digital coupon redemption is predicted to jump 94% by 2022, according to a Juniper Research forecast. Within five years, 80% of coupons could be redeemed on a mobile device, and chatbot coupon volume will rise from 25 million to 1.1 billion

But, here’s the deal. Put yourselves in the shoes of your customers. How do they use coupons? When are they most likely looking for your customers coupons. If they aren’t home, how will they use the print coupons that are miles away from home.

Here are two non-print options you have:

Mobile Coupons —

By default, mobile is the best first place to start with mobile couponing. Town Money Saver (client), built a fantastic mobile solution for iOS and Android. Read more about the case study & press release here.

Chatbot coupons —

One area to consider are using chatbots to deliver personalized coupons. In a chatbot, customers can type what type of coupon they are looking for and you can give them a list of coupons.

For example, in a chatbot, you can ask for pizza coupons in Chicago.

The good news is that you have options on where you want the chatbot to live. It can live on your website, within your app, or on a messenger bot and even voice apps on Alexa and Google Assistant.

Which platforms you should use all depends on the type of customers you have and demographics. If you have a large social following on Facebook, then facebook makes sense.

If your demographics tend to have voice devices in their home, then Alexa or Google Assistant is the way to go.

Let’s use a facebook bot for this example. Here’s what it would look like in action.

CASE STUDY

We digitized a well known print couponing company and early results are positive. Here is an excerpt from our partnership press release.

The collaboration with Sunflower Lab has driven an incredible boost in coupon redemption for Town Money Saver. The coupons are now available any place and any time, whereas the only way to redeem them before was via its print publication and website.

The Town Money Saver app lets consumers subscribe to the businesses of their choice allowing them to receive an alert each time their favorite stores post new coupons. The app also alerts consumers when their saved coupons are about to expire, so they are reminded to take advantage of the deal. For example, if a consumer has been putting off an oil change for weeks and they’re reminded that they only have a few days to get a great price, it serves as an excellent call to action.

If you want to learn more about how Town Money Saver uses a mobile app to distribute their coupons, check out our latest case study.

Invest in digital eCoupons now before it’s too late

The statistics don’t lie. eCoupon usage is growing at an alarming rate.

Our recommendation: Even if digital couponing isn’t your #1 revenue source, you must build the platforms to compliment your existing print couponing business.

If you need help building a digital couponing solution, please feel free to reach out to us directly and we’ll guide you through the entire process from start to finish.