Hitwise, the online tabulator, is reporting that one of the largest growth areas in Web advertising is the lovely coupon. Coupon site visits grew 56 per cent in the week ending June 6 over the same period a year earlier. Coupons.com, with the most accessible URL of the bunch, has a 29-per-cent share of the market, up 190 per cent from a year earlier. Search engines drive about 20 per cent of the traffic to coupons, and about 60 per cent of searches were for a specific product or brand.
The coupon rewards the resourceful. It's functional and for some it's the joy of the chase of a deal. It's getting something for nothing, that feeling that you can beat the odds in the grocery sweepstakes. But lovely? I reserve lovely for lilacs, cashmere and Zinfandel.
Regarding the "lovely coupon", I'm guessing this is another spellcheck casualty - the word Kirk meant is, I'm sure, "lowly coupon" And low they are indeed. The coupon category is not well liked by most retaillers on the net because it's too easy for bargain hunters to simply cherry pick the deals - making the loss leader coupon a wasted marketing expense as the customer doesn't spend any other money. The last numbers I saw suggested that the coupon category makes up just about 1 per cent of the online ad market. (Note to Kirk - your source link contains a typo and doesn't work)
Both of you clearly haven't been near me lately, because the use of the word lovely was merely meant to drip in sarcasm. Thanks for the typo catch, Bill. I'll get it dealt with.
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