Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The History of Coupons

From Social Times:


Since its inception, over 120 years ago, coupons remained as essential to American lifestyle, as Coca-Cola-and just as addictive too. For over a century coupon has been around to help the consumers score discounts from few dimes to several dollars. Coupons have evolved drastically since its inception and have a blood stirring effect for obsessive consumers with their discounts and deals. Here is a wonderful Infographics depicting a brief history of coupons and their evolution in the future.

Once coupons went digital, the retailers started to use online coupons as a means of advertisement. Online coupons have gained a lot of popularity over the past couple of years because they can be printed in unlimited quantities. There has been an increase of 263 percent in the usage of online coupons from 2008 to 2009. Motivated by the mobile phones trend, coupons have also shifted to mobile phones. Smart phones like iPhones have popular apps that gather different coupons from across the internet based on your geographic location. This makes all the discount options, from sale at some clothing shop to free food in a restaurant, at consumers’ fingertips.

It would be really interesting to see how coupons will evolve further in the coming decades. Retailer may issue coupons to individuals redeemable only through DNA samples as a measure of fraudulent coupons.

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