Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
While some may question the wisdom of using a coupon on a first date, the beauty of online shopping is that you can fly your frugality flag with no judgment. And flying that flag we are: In the first six months of the year, retailers each issued an average of nine unique codes, a 31% YoY increase, according to SimplyCodes, a promo codes platform.
Those discounts are deeper, too. The average discount the codes offered was 17.6%, up from 17.17%, which may look fractional but is real money: The average savings per promo code was $33.25, up from $27.26 last year.
SimplyCodes sourced the data from codes nearly 400,000 retailers issued from January through June on the platform, which on average adds and tests 12,000 promo codes daily.
Rich text format: One might assume that Mr. and Ms. Moneybags would be the least likely to use coupon codes, but another recent survey from SimplyCodes indicated that the opposite is the case. Among those with a household income of $175,000–$199,999, 89% of respondents reported seeking out and using promo codes, compared to 53% of those with household incomes of $10,000–$24,999.
That same study found that those aged 18–29 are the most likely to use coupon codes, with 46% reporting that if they see a code for a store, it motivates them to shop there, compared to 36% of those 30–44 and 30% of respondents aged 45 to 60.
ALL CAPS! Also increasing in the first half of this year was retailers’ single-use codes, which they emailed and texted to shoppers; SimplyCodes reported that 47% more retailers were using them compared to last year.
As for the most-used codes, the big winner also turns out to be an excellent safe word: OFF. That’s followed by the to-the-point SAVE, the doormat-standard WELCOME, and what you are after a stay at Leavenworth: FREE.