Americans become more interested in coupons

With gas prices raging and no relief in site, more Americans are turning to coupons to help them make ends meet. According to a recent Hitwise report, visits to coupons sites increased by 56% since 2007.

by Kristina Knight

Consumers are searching for specific brand coupons (60%), and are using generic search terms (20%) as well as navigational coupons (19%) to find the best deals. They are also shopping online more to save gas on all those extra trips to the mall or the market; consumers, it seems, are becoming more patient to wait a few days for their purchases in exchange for using less gas.

"Consumers [are] using the Internet to help save money while shopping online and off. Retailers can entice purchases by making discounts available to price-conscious consumers as the cost of living continues to increase,” said Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise. “While discretionary income is shrinking for some households, consumers are still shopping online, but making sure that they find the best deals.”

Currently, Coupons.com has the largest share of the market (29%), followed by CouponMountain.com (14%) and Eversave.com (9%). Search engines are driving the majority of traffic (20%) to coupon sites, with most consumers using brand names to find coupon deals.

Tags: coupons, ecommerce, online shopping

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