Digital Coupons Fuel 2009 Redemption Record
Inmar recently published a press release highighting that 2009 saw year-over-year sequential growth in coupon redemption for the first time in 13 years. This activity translates into 27% annual growth from 2008 with nearly 3.3 Billion coupons redeemed. Pretty impressive statistics, but not at all suprising given the anemic global economy and cash-strapped consumers.
But the real news here is the contribution that digital coupons continue to deliver to this equation. The numbers tell the story all too well: Print coupon distribution via FSI accounted for 89% of total coupons in circulation and about half of redemptions…which leaves the balance to digital, mobile and point-of-sale coupon delivery. So roughly 10% of total coupon distribution (via digital and other means) drove roughly half of all redemptions.
On a related note, just today Cellfire and Verizon announced a pretty cool distribution partnership. It’s essentially a white label version of the Cellfire store, and will put digital coupons in front of a large swath of Verizon mobile users.
Given this very apparent shift to digital, it’s amazing that Valassis and other print media publishers are still able to command the insertion rates they do. I wonder how long it will be before they dump their print FSI service and go all-in to digital delivery only. Time will tell.
