Third-quarter 2012 coupon distribution and redemption stats from NCH

NCH Marketing Services, Inc., a Valassis company, has released coupon distribution and redemption statistics for the third quarter of 2012. These stats highlight what manufacturers and consumers are doing with coupons! Some highlights:

• Manufacturers issued fewer coupons for groceries in this period versus the same time period in 2011. Grocery coupons being issued were down 3.5%. However, health and beauty coupons issued were on the rise, jumping 10.4% over the same quarter in 2011.
• 89.7% of coupons issued during this time period were distributed via FSIs – free-standing newspaper inserts you receive in the newspaper each week. Of the remaining 10.3%, 3.9% were distributed in store. Magazines, direct mail and coupons on or inside product packaging accounted for 4.6%. The remaining less-than-2% is made up of all digital formats — printables and electronics — along with newspapers, handouts, and other coupon delivery methods.
• One page of the report notes that “marketers have further suppressed the attractiveness of their coupon offers with less savings and less time.” The average face value of a grocery coupon is $1.14, down from $1.18 last year. For health and beauty care, the average is $2.08, down from $2.09 last year. 37% of grocery coupons require purchasing multiple items, up 2% over last year. The report goes on to note that expiration dates have gotten shorter, with the average grocery coupon having an expiration date of 10.2 weeks, down from 10.4 last year.
• Perhaps the most eye-opening statement in the report is this: “The suppressing effect of offer attractiveness and divergent marketer strategies has significantly reduced the total number of coupons redeemed so far in 2012, halting a three-year growth trend.” Each year since 2008, coupon usage for this period has increased significantly. From 2008 to 2011, coupon redemption rose 34.7%. But, these 2012 stats show that coupon redemption is now down 17%. That’s a big drop.

My thoughts:

These stats echo a lot of what we already knew — shorter expiration dates, values that are dropping a bit. But seeing that redemption on the whole has dropped is significant to note. If redemption continues to drop, perhaps marketers will seek to increase the attractiveness of their coupon offers.

On the upside, despite the huge push by the industry for digital, digital, digital, both printable and e-coupons still account for less than two percent of all coupons redeemed in this period. With more than 89% of coupons redeemed still coming straight out of the newspaper inserts, it’s safe to say that newspaper coupons aren’t going away anytime soon.

Statistics source: NCH Marketing Services, Inc. YTD 3rd quarter 2012 Coupon Facts Client Report