Mobile platform to fuel demand for digital coupons in India

Digital coupons are slowly but gradually witnessing an increase in demand in the Indian market. Thanks to the savings they offer to consumers, and more businesses now distributing their coupons digitally, the market is recording??? Year-on-year growth is here.

As per a strategic white paper on digital coupon market released by Pepperwood Partners, a boutique investment banking advisory firm, Indian coupon market recorded an impressive growth of 629 per cent in 2011, with digital coupons being the catalyst of this growth. We believe that a number of companies in India are still depending on advertising in print medium and are yet to realise the importance of coupons as a tool to increase their sales. This offers companies like ours that are operating in digital coupons space a huge opportunity, as print circulation has gone down globally including in India. The future definitely will see disruption in media businesses with digital solutions emerging as the most preferred option.

Interestingly, we as a company are seeing a strong growth in mobile traffic and traction on our website, a trend that is going to result in taking the demand and popularity of digital coupons to the next level. Shoppirate.com conducted a market survey in August 2015, where we spoke to 100 participants in New Delhi and Mumbai who were in the age group of 25 to 40, with annual income of minimum Rs six lakh. About 60 per cent of the respondents had never used a coupon to purchase a product but surprisingly a strong 42 per cent of the remaining respondents had redeemed a coupon digitally. About half of them used a mobile platform to purchase a product availing a coupon. This clearly indicates that digital coupon market is growing strongly and consumers are shifting to mobiles for redeeming them.

The digital coupon market in India is bound to head the US market way. According to eMarketer, a company that offers intelligence and analysis on digital business, 92.5 million people redeemed a digital coupon in 2012 and the number of mobile coupon users rose from 12.3 million in 2010 to 53.2 million in 2014.

According to India on the go - Mobile Internet Vision Report 2015, a report by IAMAI and KPMG, there were approximately 82 million 3G subscribers in India by the end of 2014. Considering the fact that smartphones have been able to reach the masses, with manufacturers like Micromax, Lenovo and Lava offering them at competitive prices, buying on mobile platform has picked up tremendously. This segment will emerge as the strongest medium to push the demand for digital coupons in the country. India will overtake the US as the second largest market for smartphones in the world by 2016 as smart mobile devices become affordable, global research firm eMarketer has said. A good example to reflect the demand for shopping on digital platforms is the recent festive season sales of e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon. Both companies recorded six-digit sales figures within hours after the launch. Flipkart reported sale of a million products with six million customer visits in the first 10 hours of opening the sale. The fact is that mobile apps of all these e-commerce companies are hugely popular and are likely to contribute significantly to these numbers.

Mobile platforms offer accessibility on the go and provide relevant deals, taking into account time, location and behaviour of the users. This makes us optimistic about the growth of digital coupons and mobiles emerging as the catalyst of its growth. Mobiles also offer players like Shoppirate.in, HappyCheckout.com, Couponsdunia.com etc., an opportunity to use these devices to deliver digital coupons in various ways like SMS promotions, mobile apps and mobile barcodes.

Digital coupons also offers an opportunity to companies with little or no online presence an opportunity to compete with the growing e-commerce entities by using platform like ours to utilise the digital platform to increase sales.

However, there is still a need to create awareness about the availability of digital coupons and educate consumers about the immense cost benefits related to its redemption. An effecting marketing approach in this regard can go a long way to help digital coupon market realise its true potential. The next couple of years will see both Indian companies and end consumers investing in digital coupons market.

About the Author

Kulpreet Kaur is a successful business woman with more than 8 years of proven expertise in the forte of Marketing Management. Kulpreet has a strong IT background and thus has a perfect blend of technical and business knowledge. After efficaciously serving her position at IBEE Solutions, she launched her brainchild Shop Pirate Coupons in the year 2013 along with her partner Suresh Kumar. Today under her guidance, her company Shop Pirate has grown many folds since its inception.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

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