Consumers Want Online Printable Coupons

According to a Prospectiv Consumer Preference Index poll, a growing number of consumers would use online coupons for local shopping for their favorite products or stores.

The Prospectiv poll determined the following:

• 96 percent of those responding to the poll clipped coupons.
• 62 percent clipped coupons on an average of once a week.
• 66 percent said they would use online coupons for in-store

purchases.

• 10 percent would use online coupons for online purchases.
• 23 percent would use online coupons for both in-store and online purchases.
• 32 percent of the coupon clippers would like to receive coupons online, preferably through e-mail.
• 55 percent would want use online coupons if they were tailored to specific consumer interests.
• 51 percent reported redeeming almost all coupons they clip.
• 85 percent are interested in coupons for grocery and household goods.

What do the Poll Percentages Mean?

In a nutshell, consumers who use coupons would like to be able to receive online coupons through email but want only those coupons they are interested in receiving.

"Consumer brand marketers are constantly looking for new tools and strategies for connecting their brand or product with the right customers," said Jere Doyle, Prospectiv president/CEO. "Leveraging online coupons can be one of the most effective methods for making that important connection that helps marketers -- particularly in the grocery, health and beauty and retail industries -- attract the right customers and keep them coming back."

For those of us who are not new to the Internet or to clipping coupons, the ongoing search for printable online coupons is part of our weekly routine.

Current Pitfalls of Online Coupons

1. Having the coupon rejected at the stores because of the influx of online fake printable coupons that began showing up in 2002./li>

2. Downloading spy ware in order to obtain the printable coupons.
3. Being inundated with spam in email once you register to receive printable coupons via email.

What's the Holdup?

It seems like a no-brainer to coupon collectors that companies who make online printable coupons available would benefit. It also seems that in this day and time, coming up with a safe online environment for people to print such coupons should not be such an impossible task.

Pizza companies have been offering safe printable coupons for years without suffering the big losses that occur when a fake coupon begins to circulate through consumer hands or without demanding consumers to download nasty spy ware programs.

Online companies such as the Gap, Old Navy, Target, Home Depot, Office Depot and others seem to have mastered this effort by allowing consumers to print online coupons via their website or through signing up for email offers and newsletters.

The big holdup seems to exist mostly in the grocery arena. Many of the food manufactures do not seem capable of coming up with programs that meet this segment of consumer demand. Work is being done to resolve this but it is slow coming, especially in comparison to consumer demand.

One would think that by offering product-specific coupons that consumers print themselves might offset the high cost of coupon inserts in newspapers that offer a low redemption rate and often end up in the trash. But up to now only a handful of food and grocery product manufacturers seem to offer printable coupons.

Hopefully polls such as this will makes its way to retailers and consumers will see a positive response by more companies to meet consumer demand.

Note: Prospectiv operates Eversave.com, TheKnowledgeStop.com and HealthyIndividual.com.