Do you have memories of parents or grandparents sitting on the porch or the kitchen table (or wherever their favorite spot was) on a lazy Sunday afternoon, meticulously weeding through the coupon section and cutting out the useful ones? Those days are long gone, although the concept of couponing is definitely still here, thanks to the Internet.
Groupon. Living Social. Coupon Mom. Coupons.com. Those are only a handful of the sites that have attracted millions of consumers with the offer of coupons and daily deals. The United States is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon. In fact, in other parts of the world, countless daily deals sites crop up almost everyday. Confession coming up…
Yup, I am a sucker for those daily deals sites. There was a time when I had purchased so many deals that I was unable to use some of the coupons I had. I even had to give away some of them! The argument of every sucker like me: “But I can save a lot of money!”
A debatable point, of course, but that does not change the fact that people are still on the lookout for ways to make some savings on their purchases, and patronizing coupons sites and daily deals sites is one such way. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe this infographic by Credit Score ((Source)) – it’s full of official statistics so it must be true!
Truth be told, I was more interested in the figures from the past – I am already convinced that daily deals sites and coupon sites are way too popular for our (consumers) own good. For example, did you know that it was Coca-Cola who introduced the first ever coupon? They did so to promote the soda in 1888 when it was first launched. The coupon gave the bearer a free glass of Coke!
A quick summary of stats for the year 2010:
- Digital coupons outsell printed coupons 10 to 1
- More then 332 billion coupons were distributed in 2010
- There were 63,000 daily deals in the US in 2010
- There are about 200 daily deals sites
- 68% make impulse purchases on daily deals sites, compared to only 38% on coupons sites
Interested in more? Here’s the infographic. Click on the image to see the full size.
So tell me, are you merely part of the statistics, like I am?
