Covid 10 had mixed effects on businesses. Where new businesses got the opportunity to start, some industries were adversely affected by it.

However, one industry that got a boom during this time would be the eCommerce segment. Right from groceries to online learning, medicines, and clothes, online websites get the huge attention of customers in recent times. As far as most of these segments grew exponentially in the lockdown.

The reason behind the growth in eCommerce

Shops being closed was pretty much the biggest reason which led to people buying everyday essentials online. Every big and small need was met online and thus the eCommerce segment had more visitors than ever before.

This surge in eCommerce growth also benefited everything else that is related to eCommerce. Industries like coupon companies and allied businesses gained from this new shopping habit that more people had discovered with time.

A quick overview of the coupons’ industry before the pandemic

Coupons were certainly loved by many on account of their increased benefits while shopping and ease of application. As coupons can help people save a lot of money on their online shopping needs, they soon gained popularity. In the early 2010s, coupons certainly became the choice of millions of people around the country. Many companies, like GrabOn, helped users with coupons on several brands. GrabOn had soon become a leading coupons company after its inception in 2013. With attractive offers in every category, the company soon bagged the top position when it came to savings.

What’s Changed?

Coupons have always been used by people, but the growth in coupon redemption is in fact directly related to the growth of online shopping. More people who shop on websites like Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio and more are likely to apply coupons. This clearly also increases the chance for the merchants to increase the discount options on their products. When the offers are more, users can easily find one or two offers that work for them and thus end up using them.

If you see in Swiggy, or any other website for that matter (like Myntra, or Big Basket), you would notice an offers’ list longer than what it used to be before. Not just the offers, but also the ones valid for your use would be more. The ones not applicable will be either not shown in the app or would be shown as inactive. Thanks to the growth in the number of people using the shopping apps to purchase their essentials, they would get more options to save on it.

How is the coupons industry thriving post-Pandemic?

1. Brand Partnerships

Brand partnerships are an important tool that has helped businesses in all sectors grow to post the pandemic period. Coupon companies have an amazing brand partnership opportunity. If you have a coupons’ company and are looking for ways to get out there, signing up with another brand that can help you with many benefits. Here are a few of those.

Companies after the pandemic have many new ways of expanding their audience reach. Collaborating with other brands is one of them. This is a great tool to expand the reach of coupons through different brands. We see many coupon partnerships in the form of 2 companies coming together, one company and an influencer, or 2 influencers. Collaborating is the way ahead and it works just well for the coupons industry.

2. Organising games and contests

Another thing which is way common is boredom for people who are staying indoors. This gives a great opportunity for internet companies, like coupons’, to roll out contests for their users. People love to play games and, being in the savings business, every coupon company can easily provide vouchers and discounts to the people who participate. Many such games can be played online where users would win free gifts from various brands.

3. The coupons industry is only set to grow

See, before the pandemic, people used coupons, but after the pandemic the usage is larger. Clearly the reason is that online shopping is huge now as we already saw. Thus this growth is only going to go upwards.

Benefits of using coupons now as compared to before.

Clearly, times have changed, and that also meant that as users you would get to find subtle changes in the way you get the offers now.

1. More variety of discounts
2. Bundle offers
3. Click to use coupons
4. Every site has offers listed

But the list doesn’t end there. You would get more offers when you use special packs. For example, apps provide subscrition plans which when you use, your discounts get added onto your existing discounts. The only way to get all of these discounts is to either check out the app itself or simply visit a savings site and collect your coupon codes.

As per a study, many categories increased in the redemption of the coupon recently. The study shows the data procured in 2020 in different vertices like groceries, online learning, OTT subscription, like categories include groceries, fashion, online booking, fantasy games and more. The recent lockdowns due to the pandemic imposed in many parts of the world, and India lead to people consuming eCommerce services more than ever. Thus, the groceries segment was seen to increase by 12% in 2020. Similarly, other categories like Rummy, Fantasy Sports, OTT, and learning also saw a surge. The categories like travel, car rentals and movie tickets saw a dip.

Final Thought

The future for coupons looks quite bright. Post pandemic, many people are drawn to this trend, and they find value in it. It helps them get discounts on what they have spent more on. Thus the love for people and loyalty is with offers. It would be a very wise step for more and more businesses to start providing offers if they didn’t before. Better if they also joined hands with a dedicated savings partner which will be the one stop destination for the users to find offers on the given brand. With this tool, they can grow into other markets as well and also create the best sales they could ever.