March 9, 2009 2:39 PM
- Text
Navigating The Online Coupon Landscape
(CBS)
With everyone looking for bargains these days it's no surprise coupon clipping is seeing a real spike, and online coupon use is at an all-time high.
How do you know when the effort is worth the savings and avoid piles of spam clogging your e-mail box?
AOL consumer advisor, Regina Lewis, stopped by the Early Show to help navigate through all those cyber-savings.
Some facts & tips:
There has been a big spike in coupon clipping, especially online, which is obviously economy related.
Savings can be up to 75 percent or more, 50 percent on some groceries, a big help for families.
Try to stick with major manufacturers and avoid giving out too much info. Chances are you will have to take a short survey and maybe subscribe to the companies newsletter. You can unsubscribe at a later point if it becomes too annoying.
Decide whether taking a 20 minute survey is worth saving 20 cents. Not all savings are worth the trouble.
Some things are free, but if it sounds too good to be true -- it is. You can get free samples, etc. if you fill out a survey and give info over to the company. But the free vacations, laptops and cameras ... never are. You will probably spend 30 minutes filling out a survey only to find out you have to buy something to get the freebie.
Lewis listed some of her favorite sites to help navigate through the maze of coupons online. They do the vetting for you:
Walletpop.com (one-stop source with reviews)
Coupons.com
Couponcabin.com
Up & comers:
Shortcuts.com
Cellfire.com
Traffic to coupon oriented websites is up more than 50 percent over last year. That's too big a trend for businesses to ignore. At the end of the day, coupons are promotions. It's highly efficient to run online promotions because you can measure the efficacy real-time. Is it working? Do we need to go lower on price to make our overall sales #'s? It's a tricky balance.
Retail 101 means I want to offer you the best possible price, but no better. That's why -- and this is little-known secret -- the sooner you start acting like a bargain bee, the better the deals targeted to you will get. It's called dynamic pricing.
Groceries
We know grocery costs are up, so your first thought might be to grab the Sunday paper and browse through the circulars for coupons, but a lot of that is moving online too.
Real coupon fanatics, say they can shave 50 percent off their grocery bill by taking advantage of online and offline coupons, getting their grocery stores to double coupons and milking their grocery store loyalty cards for all their worth.
Still, this is a hurdle, especially for men, but a new, emerging technology let's you transfer extra savings directly to your grocery store card. That's the one 81 percent of us already have in our pockets -- including men!
Here's where this headed. Your cell phone is likely to become your wallet. You'll simply scan it across the scanner.
Dining Out
Because consumers are facing high grocery prices, restaurants are really trying to keep their value propositions strong without eating into already strained margins. If consumers play their coupon cards right, it could actually be cheaper to eat out!
At Restaurant.com you will find pubs/local eateries and even some chains in almost every zip code nationwide offering coupons and incentives for you to eat out.
The potential savings include:
$10 Restaurant gift cards for $3.
$25 Restaurant gift cards for $10.
Discounts On Services:
For everything from carpet cleaning to dry cleaning, the little blue envelope of area coupons has moved online.
The ValPak.com site is searchable by zip code and the offers are very much like the loaded envelope we grew up getting in our mailbox.
Red Flags:
1) DO TOTAL MATH: If the initial cost of a product is higher, the coupon may or may not yield total savings. You've got to take the "hype" out of it and drill down on the math. Understanding coupons are - at the end of day - a form of marketing, will help you better extract the value.
2) TIME INVESTMENT: How long are you willing to spend filling out a customer survey? Will the savings be immediately available to you via email, cell, etc?
3) PRIVACY TRADEOFF: This is the biggie and the range is huge. Most reputable companies will give you a range of options. Depending on the default settings and how aggressive they're being, you may need to OPT-OUT (uncheck the box) vs. OPT-IN to ensure your info is not shared with other companies.
Free Samples:
Even in these tough economic times, companies still want you to try stuff for free. But, they want something from you in return, like signing up for a newsletter or taking a customer marketing survey. It can be a tremendous value, as long as you read the fine-print re: being up-sold with a deluge of additional marketing. Make educated decisions about how willing you are to be "reached" in exchange for "freebies" and pocket the change.
Freebie Resources:
Resources: Shop4freebies.com
Walletpop.com
How do you know when the effort is worth the savings and avoid piles of spam clogging your e-mail box?
AOL consumer advisor, Regina Lewis, stopped by the Early Show to help navigate through all those cyber-savings.
Some facts & tips:
Lewis listed some of her favorite sites to help navigate through the maze of coupons online. They do the vetting for you:
Up & comers:
Traffic to coupon oriented websites is up more than 50 percent over last year. That's too big a trend for businesses to ignore. At the end of the day, coupons are promotions. It's highly efficient to run online promotions because you can measure the efficacy real-time. Is it working? Do we need to go lower on price to make our overall sales #'s? It's a tricky balance.
Retail 101 means I want to offer you the best possible price, but no better. That's why -- and this is little-known secret -- the sooner you start acting like a bargain bee, the better the deals targeted to you will get. It's called dynamic pricing.
Groceries
We know grocery costs are up, so your first thought might be to grab the Sunday paper and browse through the circulars for coupons, but a lot of that is moving online too.
Real coupon fanatics, say they can shave 50 percent off their grocery bill by taking advantage of online and offline coupons, getting their grocery stores to double coupons and milking their grocery store loyalty cards for all their worth.
Still, this is a hurdle, especially for men, but a new, emerging technology let's you transfer extra savings directly to your grocery store card. That's the one 81 percent of us already have in our pockets -- including men!
Here's where this headed. Your cell phone is likely to become your wallet. You'll simply scan it across the scanner.
Dining Out
Because consumers are facing high grocery prices, restaurants are really trying to keep their value propositions strong without eating into already strained margins. If consumers play their coupon cards right, it could actually be cheaper to eat out!
At Restaurant.com you will find pubs/local eateries and even some chains in almost every zip code nationwide offering coupons and incentives for you to eat out.
The potential savings include:
Discounts On Services:
For everything from carpet cleaning to dry cleaning, the little blue envelope of area coupons has moved online.
The ValPak.com site is searchable by zip code and the offers are very much like the loaded envelope we grew up getting in our mailbox.
Red Flags:
1) DO TOTAL MATH: If the initial cost of a product is higher, the coupon may or may not yield total savings. You've got to take the "hype" out of it and drill down on the math. Understanding coupons are - at the end of day - a form of marketing, will help you better extract the value.
2) TIME INVESTMENT: How long are you willing to spend filling out a customer survey? Will the savings be immediately available to you via email, cell, etc?
3) PRIVACY TRADEOFF: This is the biggie and the range is huge. Most reputable companies will give you a range of options. Depending on the default settings and how aggressive they're being, you may need to OPT-OUT (uncheck the box) vs. OPT-IN to ensure your info is not shared with other companies.
Free Samples:
Even in these tough economic times, companies still want you to try stuff for free. But, they want something from you in return, like signing up for a newsletter or taking a customer marketing survey. It can be a tremendous value, as long as you read the fine-print re: being up-sold with a deluge of additional marketing. Make educated decisions about how willing you are to be "reached" in exchange for "freebies" and pocket the change.
Freebie Resources:
Resources:
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