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Supermarket sweep – smart shoppers cashing in on coupon craze

Smart shoppers are now cashing in record quantities of coupons and vouchers to make massive savings at the checkout.

Between January and June this year money-off motivated consumers cut their grocery bill by £850 million with 275 million coupons; a 38 per cent increase in value on the same period last year, according to the UK’s leading coupon experts Valassis.

Charles D’Oyly, managing director of Valassis, which manages 85 per cent of coupons redeemed through grocery retailers, explains: “The public’s determination to reduce household spending by planning their shopping around their coupons is an increasingly normal household behaviour across all socio demographics. A third of ABs and a quarter of DEs save at least £5 a month via coupons.

“But it’s the price wars between the supermarkets which is fuelling this craze. Supermarkets are issuing more coupons than ever before - 61 million more retailer issued coupons were redeemed in the first six months of 2013, an increase of 41 per cent versus the same period in 2012.

“Since 2010 retailers turned dramatically to coupons as the key way to guarantee lowest or matching prices in order to attract and retain customers. They are increasingly competing for individual shopping trips given that consumers switch shops in order to bag the better bargains.

“If the current coupon craze continues, the total value of shoppers’ savings in 2013 will be a staggering £1.7billion.

“Similar to the US experience, redeeming coupons is now so well entrenched into everyday UK shopping behaviour that it may well trump the news that we’re heading out of recession.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Ward .