Last year was the first since 1992 that consumers coupon use increased. Part of that, of course, was due to people looking for bargains in the sluggish economy, but it s also a sign of the popularity of online coupons, which consumers redeemed four times more often than a year earlier. Now marketers are seeking ways to turn coupons into a trigger for an impulse buy by beaming them directly to mobile devices. The North Face encourages customers to opt in to geo fencing technology, which enables it to reach them when they re near the store or even when they re someplace related to the store, like the slopes or a hiking trail. The app Shopkick uses geo locating in partner stores like Best Buy and Macy s to send users redeemable points and coupon offers when they re in or near those stores. And for the holidays, consumers can expect a handful of retailers to experiment further, combining limited time offer psychology with locator technology to promote offers like a two hour sale or an offer for the first 100 people to the door, says Julie Ask, a mobile analyst at Forrester Research. That s what mobile works for immediacy, highly targeted, she says.
Click on videos below to watch.
[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’black Friday 2158′]