Early 2021 featured a milestone in the grocery industry that some may have overlooked. For the first time, digital coupon redemption surpassed print coupons. We’ve all seen the growth of digital coupons in recent years, but the ships passing in the night of these two ways to utilize coupons truly signifies the way the world is headed.
But what does the digital coupon world look like to a company like Procter & Gamble? We were as curious as you, so we asked them. P&G has been a leader in the digital coupon world and in many ways sets many of the market trends. We posed some questions to Mike Schneider, Customer Marketing Director at P&G and he has some interesting perspective on how his team is approaching the digital coupon world.
Q: Why has P&G been so bullish on digital coupons?
A: The most important driver is consumer preference and changing behavior – as newspaper circulation declines and consumers shift to more and more digital resources, we’ve partnered with retailers to ensure their shoppers have access to our P&G coupons.
Q: What learnings has P&G seen as you’ve been doing digital coupons for several years now?
A: A lot of our paper coupon best practices carried over, e.g. which product image to feature, how to articulate purchase requirements and optimize coupon value. Most of our recent learnings have reinforced the need to partner with retailers to maximize the demand creation potential (like pairing a coupon with a feature) and the need for executional excellence to ensure a seamless consumer experience.
Q: For the first time digital coupons passed print coupons in terms of redemption, do you see that trend only continuing?
A: Yes, paper coupon redemption rates continue to decline as shoppers migrate to digital coupons. There’s tremendous opportunity for more digital content including personalized coupons that will benefit shoppers, retailers and manufacturers.
Q: What does the future of digital coupons look like for P&G?
A: The future will show continued growth in our load-to-ID program where P&G will partner with retailers to maximize our joint business opportunities. We also expect new industry solutions (like 8112 Universal Digital Coupons) to flourish and bring new demand creation.
We certainly thank Mike for taking some time to shed some insight from the biggest player in digital coupons currently. We’re bullish on digital coupons through our Shopper Engagement Platform. They are part of both our digital coupons only program, SEP Clippers, and our full loyalty platform, SEP Total. In our mind, digital coupons are table stakes in being a modern grocer, so we would love to talk to you about signing up and getting digital coupons, data, personalization and more working for you through SEP.
For more information on SEP, contact Jared Grieve at (913) 288-1168 or [email protected].
