With a sudden increase in online shopping during the pandemic, coupon aggregator websites have become a huge business. Inmar intelligence, a firm that has been tracking coupons for more than 40 years now, found out in 2020 that online coupons expelled printed coupons for the first time.
The Rise Of Coupon Aggregator Websites In The US In 21st Century
Behemoths including PayPal and Goldman Sachs have proffered billions of dollars to Coupon Aggregator Websites like Slickdeals and Honey to curate promo codes and offer shoppers cashback when they purchase via these sites. Not just that, banks like Capital One are also getting into this industry to gain significant returns.
The business model practiced by coupon aggregator websites like Slickdeals, RNM, Zouton.com, and coupon follow does not include selling shoppers’ data. Instead, these websites generate income in the form of commission for the deal sites and for an affiliate marketer.
An affiliate marketer is a company that connects retailers with deal aggregation sites. Over 80% of shoppers actively scrutinize deals online since COVID-19, making online coupon aggregator business a crowded one.
On Amazon alone, online offers during Prime Days brought third-party merchants over 3.5 billion dollars of sales in just two days in the year 2020. This is more than around 60% as compared to 2019 Prime Days.
Juniper Research, a company that works to identify growth opportunities across mobile telecoms, content, apps, etc, said that Coupon Aggregator Websites will surge to $91 billion by 2022, up and above from $47 billion in 2017.
Retail giants including Walmart, Target, and CVS have been responsive with more coupons available online. CVS during the pandemic updated its app to include coupons that were previously found at the back of its receipts.
In June 2020, Walgreens ceased printing weekly offers and posted coupons online instead. This led to an 80% increase in Walgreen’s online coupon redemption, says the retailer. Target, the first major retailer to allow scanning of mobile coupons back in 2010, now runs a loyalty program, giving 1% back to its customers on every purchase.
Target says that its circle members have earned $200 million dollars, redeemable towards their future purchases since 2019 when the program was launched.
The Success Of Coupon Aggregator Websites
Aggregating all coupons and promo codes in one place was a deal changer and about 70% of the customers that we surveyed, reported that they use Coupon Aggregator Websites to get discounts on their purchases.
These websites are most used by the younger generation, particularly millennial shoppers. As per our research, over 90% of Millennials show their preferences for digital format by using coupons and promo codes for their purchases.
A majority of Millennial parents agreed to the fact that they now shop online more because of the easy accessibility of coupons, promo codes, and promotions.
Moreover, many coupon aggregator companies recently popped up with “Savings Finder Tools” or free browser extensions to help in streamlining the shopping process online enabling shoppers to redeem discounts without having to leave the retailer’s site.
As a result, one in three Americans uses browser extensions to efficiently find and apply coupons with no extra effort. You can download “Zouton Coupon Finder”, a free browser extension, which searches for the best coupon or promo code at the checkout, to save users from the quandary of finding deals themselves.
We asked Americans if they use online coupon tools and here’s what we gathered:
Around 34% (73.4 million population) of Americans already use browser extensions instead of mobile apps to find coupons online. Whereas, 16% (34.6 million population) of the Americans said that they didn’t know about coupon tools but are willing to use them within 2022. So, we can say that the maximum number of users interested in online coupon tools by the year 2022 could be 108 million in number, with a 47% potential growth!
Shoppers’ Coupon-Searching Behavior
Did you know that 95.4% of Americans have used online coupons at least once? Here is how often do shoppers look for coupons and promo codes before making a purchase:
| At Least Occasionally | 82.4% |
| At Least Half Of Their Purchases | 50.4% |
| Almost Every Time | 28.6% |
Graphical Representation:
Generation-Wise data of people who search for online coupons for at least half their purchases:
| Generation | Women | Men |
| Generation Z | 52.2% | 43% |
| Millennials | 67% | 49.9% |
| Generation X | 58.6% | 42.6% |
| Baby Boomers | 48.8% | 32.8% |
Graphical Representation:
The millennials (born 1981-1996) are more likely to search for coupons and deals online for at least half of their purchases as compared to other generations. However, the tendency of shoppers searching for coupons online is remarkably similar across all age groups in America.
COVID-19 + Digital Coupon Trends
E-commerce is growing at an increasing rate and is expected to hit 6.5 trillion in sales by 2023. COVID-19 has pushed people to adopt online shopping in no time! People are now comfortable shopping for groceries, meals, clothes, essentials, etc online while lying recumbent at their homes.
Since the start of COVID-19, around 52% of the consumers started using coupon websites to find the best deals on their purchases and 70% of the users scrutinize coupons on store websites. Top grocers have increased their online coupon enrollment program to 93%. Hence by 2022, Digital coupon redemptions are expected to hit $91 billion.
The Most Popular Coupons In 2021
Zouton offers its users all kinds of coupons- food & beverages, grocery, fashion, electronics, etc. Zouton’s finding suggests that people love coupons that offer savings on necessities followed by all other categories. The team analyzed Zouton’s users’ trend in 2021 to find out categories for which consumers regularly search for coupons & promo codes:
| Categories | Physical Coupons Users | Coupon Aggregator Sites Users |
| Food And Beverage | 79% | 77% |
| Clothing, Apparel, And Accessories | 66% | 74% |
| Beauty And Health | 56% | 61% |
| Electronics And Gadgets | 47% | 56% |
| Pet Supplies And Essentials | 45% | 45% |
| Movies, Music, And Games | 43% | 45% |
| Home Tech | 45% | 45% |
| Art And Craft Supplies | 41% | 43% |
| Audio Books, Books, And Subscriptions | 32% | 35% |
| Sports And Outdoors | 28% | 30% |
| Automobile And Transportation | 20% | 35% |
| Child And Kid’s Related | 20% | 45% |
Graphical Representation:
Zouton also noticed that the shoppers are most attracted by the following deals
- Percentage discounts
- BOGO Deals
- Flat-Rate Discounts
- Free Shipping
- Loyalty Programs
- Rebates
Yes, people find percentage discounts as the best deal type and rebate as their least favorite because it’s often complicated and time-consuming to redeem.
Surprisingly, free shipping came towards the end of the “favorite deals list”, probably because shoppers are now understanding retailer’s complicated strategies behind free shipping, or maybe the increasing availability of free shipping has made it lose its value in the eyes of online customers.
Conclusion
Since the inception of coupons, they have been a major driving force in creating revenue by influencing buyers’ behavior. Coupon aggregator websites are always evolving to offer better service by understanding their users and it’s no surprise that digital coupon usage is increasingly becoming popular amongst the masses with thousands of deals at the shoppers’ fingertips!
