Coupons Making a Comeback ?

Paper ‘cents off’ coupons have been around for 100 years, and although redemption peaked in 1992 at 7.9Billion coupons, by 2006 through 2008 the redemption fell to 2.6Billion a year. However, with the current recession, marketers believe coupons are growing again. Initial reports indicate redemption is up 10% during the fourth quarter of 2008 and they increased nearly 25% so far in 2009. In the past, newspapers served as the primary source for coupons, now websites such as coupons.com offer printable versions and several sites allow the end user to customize exactly which stores or items to alert end users as to what is on sale. The next frontier is thought to be mobile coupons, forwarded to the smart phone. The New York Times reported the bulk of coupons are still clipped from weekend newspapers and digital coupons accounted for less than half of one percent. Let’s hope the newspapers can hold on to this... declining coupons from newspapers means decreased newsprint consumption and one more reason for the end user to not buy a newspaper!