The Extreme Coupon frenzy, is it good for business?

I was watching BBC news this morning and saw Jordon Cox, 16, from Brentwood in Essex, he scours newspapers and magazines for coupons and vouchers that offer special deals on food and household products.He bought £105 of groceries for £1.62, follow this link to see his interview http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22418225

So lets start by learning the lingo

• Bogo: Buy One Get One
• Peelie: A coupon stuck to a product
• Blinkie: A coupon station in a store
• Stacking: Using a store coupon with a manufacturers coupon – not all stores allow this
• Catalinas:Coupons printed at the cash register when you pay for your items
• Rebate: Mailing a receipt to a company to get a refund
• Overage: When the value of a coupon exceeds the purchase price of the item

Everyone loves a freebie or money off, but there seem to be so many sites offering vouchers its hard to keep track of what is on offer, for example I get e mailed deals from:

• Groupon
• KGB
• Wowcher

I have apps for:

• Voucher Cloud
• O2 Moments
• Vouchercodes
• Quidco
• Top Cash Back

Then there are websites like http://www.freebiesiteuk.co.uk/

That’s before you start cutting coupons out of magazines.

Pitney Bowes have produced a white paper on Coupons – April 2013:

The whitepaper, entitled ‘The Coupon Renaissance’, revealed that 76% of consumers would buy more from local businesses if they offered coupon incentives. With many small local businesses struggling in today’s economic climate, the figures offer a positive outlook that SMEs should capitalise on.

The surge in coupon redemptions is a relatively new phenomenon; with the current economic climate increasing popularity, the UK has witnessed a sharp 14.7% spike in usage since 2008**. The research also showed that an impressive 80% of consumers have redeemed a coupon in the last year, and half (49%) of customers redeem them as frequently as one per month.

The trend by consumers to use coupons to cut costs are likely to increase based on a report from Which:

More than half of Britons cannot cope on their current salaries with one in five forced to borrow money to buy groceries and other household essentials because of the soaring cost of living, a new survey revealed today.

One in four people revealed they’ve had to use their savings to buy food or other daily essentials while one in five have gone into debt to do this.

Another 10 per cent said they could envisage needing to borrow buy food in the future.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2110009/Which-report-reveals-millions-Britons-forced-borrow-buy-groceries.html#ixzz2SS0GEVyd

steve@bicknells.net