Billions of mobile coupons to be redeemed this year

According to a new study from Juniper Research, the number of coupons redeemed through smartphones and tablets during 2013 would equate to one for each person on earth with over 3 billion spare.

by Helen Leggatt

Ten billion mobile coupons are expected to be redeemed this year, a 50% rise on 2012, forecasts Juniper Research, a sure sign that both retailers and consumers alike are embracing the channel.

However, mobile will still account for a comparatively low volume of all coupons issued, but retailers are being motivated to move to mobile by the significantly higher average redemption rate of mobile coupons (10%) compared to traditional print and PC coupons (typically 1% or less).

"While we've heard that online retail is killing the High Street - witness United Retail filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US and the recent administrations of Jessop's and Blockbuster in the UK - mobile offers a means of engaging with the consumer at every point in the retail lifecycle, from product discovery to product purchase," says report author Dr Windsor Holden.

The report also notes that Apple's Passbook will likely serve to drive mobile coupon adoption but that, currently, retailer reluctance to upgrade point-of-sale terminals for authentication and redemption is creating a bottleneck, suppressing the deployment of mobile coupon campaigns.