The Death of the Paper Coupon

Date: 2010-07-26 13:37:25

By Ignacio Lopez

Paper coupons appear to be headed the way of the VCR. Grocery chains, food and drug manufacturers, and even coupon marketers themselves are going electronic.

The concept is almost as simple as scissors and the Sunday paper: visit a Web site, type in your loyalty codes, and find all the coupons waiting for you, electronically, at a store's cash register or on your cell phone. The hope is that these electronic discounts will revive the dying coupon business.

Part of the problem is that newspaper readership is declining, so fewer people are looking at the Sunday circulars. The younger shoppers sought by marketers read their news online.

Fewer people these days have time to clip, organize and sort coupons each week. But apparently, we all seem to make time to surf the Net and talk on our cell phones, so these areas are where the industry is casting its net for savers.

With news readily available at the click of a mouse, you may be wondering if you should you ditch your Sunday paper. The answer is, not yet-at least 75% of the coupons issued are still in the old Sunday circular.

And grocery chains and food and drug companies have no plans to cut out these paper coupons until they see that enough people have migrated to the Web for discounts. Yet the e-coupon transition is attractive to retailers and manufacturers for reasons beyond shifting demographics.

It means that redemption rates are higher, though the technology is so new that the industry won't be more specific. Redemptions are also easier and quicker to track.

They get more information about who's buying their products that way, which helps them to target the market they want, and they can be used to cultivate loyal customers.

Last but not least, they are more environmentally friendly, which had become a big focus in today's consumer market. To get these electronic discounts, shoppers must type in their loyalty-card numbers on a store Web site and click to load the coupons to the account.

The discounts are subtracted after those items are scanned at checkout. Grocery giant Kroger, which owns Ralphs, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith's Food


Author

Ignacio Lopez has worked in the exercise and health industry for 27 years. When searching for a good deal on exercise equipment he suggests using a href="http://www.nordictrackcoupons.com">Nordictrack coupon codes.

Contact Info:
Ignacio Lopez
Ignaciolopez@gmail.com
http://www.nordictrackcoupons.com. This articles came from MoreArticles.net.


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