Did you know over $2 billion in coupons has been redeemed so far in 2010? Considering $3.3 billion was redeemed for all of 2010, this is pretty amazing!
According to the full study put out by Valassis (the company that put out Red Plum), coupon usage has risen 37% over pre-recession levels! Here are a few points that I found interesting from the study:
1. Particularly high redemption growth for health & beauty care items. Think folks are discovering the magic of drugstore sales?
2. Consumers becoming more strategic in their shopping habits. I can definitely say this is true of my family! We’ve definitely transitioned from willy-nilly shopping to shopping with a list and coupons (or most of the time anyways). I’d be curious to know if this means retailers have noticed that consumers are spending less money on impulse purchases.
3. Expiration dates are tightening. If you think your coupons have faster expiration dates than a year ago, you’re not crazy! According to Valassis, the average coupon is now good for 9.5 weeks, versus the 10.6 average for 2009.
4. Coupon values are on the rise! The average coupon will now save you $1.43, versus 2009′s $1.37.
Thank you, Queen Bee Coupons for bringing this study to my attention! Be sure to check out her insightful observations from these statistics as well!
What do you think has contributed to some of these changes? Has your own use of coupons increased? Do you think couponing is a fad, sure to die out with the recession?
