By: E&P Staff Growth in digital coupons is far outpacing those inserted into newspapers, according to new information released by Coupons.com.
On Monday, the site released its annual data regarding digital coupons, reporting an increase in printed savings of over 170% in 2009. But compared with growth metrics for newspaper coupons (which range between 8 and 16%), digital coupons outpaced the growth of their newspaper counterparts by more than 10 to 1.
More than 45 million American consumers (more than a fifth of the U.S. population) are now using online coupons, the findings stated, up from 38 million in 2008. Of that number, nearly a third (13.1 million) don't clip coupons from their Sunday paper, a 140% increase over 9.4 million in 2008.
Coupons.com, which is in the business of offering online coupons, did not release any figures on print newspaper coupon use. Late last month, Marx Promotion Intelligence, the best-known organization for measuring preprinted Free standing insert (FSI) coupons said the number of ?coupons dropped,? that is carried by newspapers, was up 8% in 2009 to more than 272 billion pages. Marx Promotion also did not supply figures for the actual use of newspaper coupons.
When it came to clipping to save, the top 10 categories for 2009 were: 1. Ready-to-Eat Cereal; 2. Yogurt; 3. Sweet Snacks; 4. Refrigerated Dough; 5. Salty Snacks; 6. Quick Serve Restaurant (QSR)/Casual Dining; 7. Nutritional Snacks; 8. Entertainment; 9. Condiments; and 10. Pizza.
At the top of the list of the Most Frugal U.S. Cities was Atlanta, with residents printing coupons from the site most often. The top 10 couponing cities, in order, were: Atlanta; Tampa; Cincinnati; St. Louis; Minneapolis; Nashville; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland; Pittsburgh; and Kansas City.
Coupons.com?s data follows recent research showing that coupon usage increased in 2009 for the first time in 17 years.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here