Coupon redemptions fall, but savings up

Coupons are some of my favorite things. The more time I spend clipping them, the more money I save. It never gets old.

I’m not alone in my love of those little savings slips. Consumers used coupons to save a whopping $3.1 billion last year, but overall redemption was down 9.2 percent, a new study found.

That’s puzzling, since so many of us use them.

Rates were down because manufacturers offered more digital and fewer printed coupons, according to the analysis of trends for consumer packaged goods released Feb. 13 by NCH Marketing Services. NCH is a subsidiary of Valassis, which distributes RedPlum inserts in newspapers and by mail. Fewer paper coupons in circulation equaled fewer redemptions. Digital offers were up 27 percent (which pushed their redemption rates up 47 percent), but the pool of those tech-saavy consumers who use them only accounts for 12 percent of overall redemptions. Paper coupons are still king, but consumers want a mix of print and digital coupons — maybe just not so many. Manufacturers will continue to tinker with the ratio, because coupons drive product purchases.

This latest snapshot of trends, along with the 2K17 Valassis Coupon Intelligence Report released last year, reveals interesting facts about coupons and those of us who use them. Here’s a look, by the numbers:

coupons were distributed in 2017, down 1.2 percent from 2016.

in coupons savings were in circulation, up 4.7 percent from 2016.

coupons were redeemed in 2017.

of all 1,000 consumers surveyed used coupons.

of coupons are distributed through newspaper inserts and by mail.

print. digitally.

were distributed by were distributed

consumers used digital coupons.

of Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) used them.

of Generation X (born 1965-1981) used them.

of millennials (born 1982-1998) used them, the only audience segment showing growth year over year.

of those surveyed used coupons clipped from newspapers.