Mobile Coupon usage is growing, according to a recent survey by eMarketer. Redemption has grown to the point where they expect over 35 million users will be redeeming coupons by 2013. That’s almost a third of smartphone users.
We see this as not only a positive for ourselves and the other mobile discount network providers out there, but we think it could also be the harbinger of mobile payments. A recent release from Consumer Reports suggested that consumers should be leery of mobile payments because the infrstructure isn’t quite built up to guarantee a safe and easy process (not to mention an unsettled fee structure for merchants.) We see mobile coupons as a bridge to help ease and speed this transition.
The beauty of mobile coupons is they’re a simple way to introduce some very basic but necessary concepts to consumers and retailers, such as seeing a phone at the POS.
More than anything, it can give retailers an idea of the appetite their customers have for using their mobile devices in the shopping experience. All without investing in expensive equipment (all Access mobile coupons are “show your phone” or online redemption.)
To read more of how we view the coupons-to-payments transition, check out Kelly Passey‘s article in Loyalty Management from earlier this year, “You and What Army?”
Access manages some of the nation’s largest discount programs, but earlier this year we launched America’s largest private mobile discount network.
