According to a recent Harris Interactive study reported by eMarketer, consumers attitudes about mobile coupons are still tepid, even though the projections are for rapid growth in the next few years.
I think that consumers interested in shopping go online before they get in the car and head for a store. So, it makes more sense to print out a coupon from an online site or clip a newspaper ad from home.
In fact, 86% of those surveyed had clipped paper coupons and 65% had printed out online coupons while only 4% used mobile coupons.
The challenge with most of these studies is to relate the answers to what we are actually selling. Maybe mobile coupons for fast food restaurants will make sense but a mobile coupon for a riding lawn mower doesn’t, yet.
The good news is that according to this survey consumers are looking at print and online for coupons and it drives them into local retailers.