Consumers `clipped` 92% more coupons from the web last year, study says

The recession prompted consumers to turn to coupons more in 2009 than they did the year before, the first increase in 17 years, according to a new study. Online coupon access increased 92% and redemption shot up 360%, although the Internet still accounts for only 1.5% of coupons redeemed, says the report from Inmar, a coupon transaction processor.

Despite the rapid rise of online coupons, newspaper inserts still account for 89% of coupons distributed to consumers and more than half of coupon redemption, says Matthew Tilley, director of marketing for Inmar.

“Consumers expect to find coupons in their Sunday papers, and we’ll continue to be there for them,” Tilley says. “But they’ll also find us online, in stores, on cell phones and anywhere else that they want to find them.”

Web sites accounted for 0.3% of coupons distributed to consumers and 1.5% of redemptions, Tilley says. 19.6% of online coupons are redeemed. The primary method of measuring online distribution of coupons is by tracking the printing of web pages with coupons, although other metrics, such as page views, can also be used to estimate web coupon distribution, Tilley says.

Inmar groups mobile coupons with a variety of other digital distribution methods that do not require a paper coupon, such as downloading a coupon to a loyalty card. Such digital promotions, which are still relatively new, accounted for 0.1% of coupons distributed and 1.5% of redemptions last year, Tilley says.

Inmar estimates consumers redeemed 3.3 billion consumer packaged goods coupons in 2009, a 27% increase from 2.6 billion in 2008. Brands issued 367 billion coupons last year with an average face value of $1.44, the report says.