Many coupon users won’t make a purchase if they’ve forgotten their coupon at home, details Google [pdf] in newly-released data. The survey, conducted in late 2012, asked respondents (who were required to have used a coupon in the last 6 months) if in the prior 90 days they had ever left a retail store without purchasing an item because they knew they left a coupon at home. Surprisingly, 42% answered in the affirmative, with another 6% not remembering.
That suggests that shoppers might be better served by other redemption methods, such as showing a mobile coupon to a cashier. But that remains one of the less common methods, according to the study. Among respondents who had used a coupon in the previous 90 days, the vast majority (90%) brought and used a paper coupon in-store. The next most common method was printing a coupon off a website or email and giving it to the cashier (69%), followed by loading coupons onto a loyalty card (from mobile or web – 59%). Respondents were far less likely to have showed a mobile coupon to a cashier (30%) or scanned a coupon on their mobile at checkout (23%).
The most popular sources used to obtain dollar- or percentage-off discounts among shoppers were direct mail (79% women; 75% men) and newspapers (77% women; 75% men), with emails (74% women; 72% men) close behind. A slight majority of men and women also found coupons through online searches, though they were more likely to obtain coupons in-store.
About the Data: The data is gleaned from a survey conducted in 2012 in the US 1,000 respondents, each of whom had used a coupon in the last six months in one or more of the following channels: QSR (Taco Bell, Ruby Tuesday, etc.); Specialty Retail (Gap, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, etc.); CPG/Grocery Retailer (Kroger, Publix, etc.); Big Box Retailer (Wal- Mart, Target, etc.); Drug Store (Walgreens, Duane Reade, etc.); and Department Stores (Macy’s, Sears, etc.).
The study was conducted by Zavers by Google in collaboration with Shopper Sciences.