Coupons Appeal to Affluent, Educated: Survey
If you think coupons are only for the financially strapped to spend on tuna and toothpaste, think again. A new survey commissioned by online discount site Coupons.com and conducted by Harris Interactive has found that coupons are being redeemed in surprisingly large numbers by those who are relatively affluent and well educated—who may also be buying tuna or toothpaste, of course.
The poll, conducted in early March among more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, found that 61% of adults with annual household incomes in excess of $100,000 said they had redeemed a coupon in the preceding six months. And 39% of those questioned in this bracket said they had redeemed a printable online coupon in that time—almost twice the number who said the same in households with incomes below $35,000.
The same survey found that adults with college degrees are almost twice as likely to have used a coupon for a purchase in the preceding half-year as those who did not graduate from high school. And more than three in four (77%) of those who redeemed a coupon of any kind in that six-month period live in metropolitan areas.
“The advent of digital savings tools coupled with a challenging economy has taken couponing mainstream,” Coupons.com CEO Steven Boal said in a release4 around the survey’s publication. “The fact that well-heeled, educated and urban shoppers are taking advantage of coupons and searching for them online further illustrates the proliferation of the culture of couponing.”
And that culture appears to have a future. According to the survey’s findings, eight out of 10 U.S. adults intend to continue to seek and redeem coupons even if the economy recovers from its current slump.
Coupons.com offers printable coupon discounts to registered users through its Web site pushes offers to members’ mobile phones with opt-in and automatically links offers to merchant loyalty card program.
