Eight in 10 (82%) online shoppers say they are more loyal to businesses that offer regular discounts than to businesses that offer occasional discounts, according to data released in August 2011 by RetailMeNot.com and Harris Interactive. Despite this high preference for discounts, only 27% of online shoppers use coupon sites, while 22% use daily deal sites.
Coupon Prompts May Backfire
RetailMeNot.com data shows that coupon code prompts during online purchase transactions may backfire for customers without a coupon. While 81% of online shoppers with a coupon go on to complete the purchase, only 18% of those lacking a coupon will do so. In contrast, 55% of online shoppers without a coupon will complete a transaction when they are not prompted for a coupon code.
Highest Online Coupon Use Clustered in Northeast
A look at states with the highest per capita usage of online coupons shows that they are mainly clustered in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, with Washington, DC having the highest per capita rate (3.17) of all.The other top states for per capita online coupon use are Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, all with a per capita rate of more than 0.8. The states with the lowest per capita rate are primarily in the South and West, along with Montana and Wyoming.
About 90% of online coupons used globally are used in the US. Canada comes in second place using about 2% of the global online coupon total.
Holidays Provide Highest, Lowest Use Volumes
Interestingly, holidays provide the individual days with both the highest and lowest volumes of online coupon use. Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) averages about 1.5 million online coupons, followed by Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving), with about 1.2 million online coupons. Both days are historically heavy shopping days for the upcoming Christmas/winter holidays.
Meanwhile, the actual holidays of Easter (almost 439,000 online coupons) and Christmas (almost 393,600 online coupons) average the lowest volumes. In a typical day, consumers use about 577,000 online coupons, meaning Cyber Monday features a volume close to three times as high as normal.
Other Findings
- The average order value for an online coupon transaction is $108.15, with average savings of almost 25%.
- 10 AM is the time of day with the heaviest average volume of online coupons used (46,126), while 2 AM has the lightest average volume (5,574 online coupons used).
- Online coupon users spend an average of one minute and 29 seconds looking for a deal.
- Airline is the top online coupon category.
- Kohl’s is the top online coupon retailer.
Coffee Table: 1/3 of Smartphone Shoppers Often Use In-store Coupons
Almost one in three (31%) US smartphone owners who use their device for shopping frequently/often access promotional coupons in-store for in-store redemption, according to a March 2011 study from the etailing group and Coffee Table. Data from “The ‘Shopping Mindset’ of the Mobile Consumer” indicates this is the most common in-store usage of smartphones, beating other popular activities such as looking for competitive pricing on Amazon.com (29%) and at other retailers besides Amazon.com (26%).
