GLOBAL – UNITED KINGDOM, FEBRUARY 1, 2013 – As one in six shops across the UK lies empty, people ask about the future of famed British High Street. Mobile discount coupons might just be the answer.
A new report from Juniper Research has found that the number of discount coupons redeemed through mobile and tablet devices is expected to reach 10 billion this year, up by more than 50 percent on last year.
The report also found that innovative retailers are increasingly seeking to offer mobile as a delivery channel, both as a means of driving retail footfall and to enhance consumer engagement and retention. Although mobile still accounts for a comparatively low volume of coupons issued, retailers had been encouraged by the markedly higher average redemption rate of mobile coupons (10%) when compared with traditional print media and PC coupons (typically 1% or less).
Mobile couponing also offers retailers the opportunity to marry their digital and physical assets. The report’s author Dr Windsor Holden pointed out, “While we’ve heard that online retail is killing the High Street – witness United Retail filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US and the recent administrations of Jessop’s and Blockbuster in the UK – mobile offers a means of engaging with the consumer at every point in the retail lifecycle, from product discovery to product purchase.”
Time-based Element “Critical”
However, the report stressed that it was critical for retailers to ensure that such coupons had a time-based element, noting that a number of offers had gone unintentionally “viral” leading to brands being unable to service the demand for their products.
Other key findings from the report include:
– Apple’s recent high-profile launch of Passbook is expected to act as a catalyst to both coupon deployments and adoption.
– Retailer reluctance to upgrade POS (Point of Sale) terminals for authentication and redemption is creating a bottleneck, effectively suppressing the deployment of mobile coupons.
The ‘Mobile Coupons ~ The Smart Way to Shop’ whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full report and the attendant Interactive Forecast Excel (IFxl), which enables the end user to interrogate the assumptions behind Juniper’s forecasts and create alternative future outputs.
Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.
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