Recommendations For The Best Specials, Discounts, Coupons And Deals In The U.S.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Monday, March 23, 2015
According To One Study, Consumers Prefer Their Promotional Offers In the Afternoon on Tuesday Or Friday. What About You?
Retention Science is a California-based digital services firm focused on helping online merchants with their email campaigns. In 2014 they conducted a study to discover the optimum days, times and messages for online merchants to deliver promotional offers by email. Their results tracked and consolidated 100 email campaigns delivered to 20 million users resulting in 100 million transactions.
So what did they find? Well, in a nutshell they found that mornings is not the optimal time to hit "send". Rather, afternoons and evenings are better. While many merchants send their emails out on Monday morning for the start of the new week, the fact is that Tuesday and Friday are hugely more productive days for email campaigns. Also, in terms of offers, consumers are twice as likely to click on a "free shipping" offer as opposed to a "% Off" offer.
Friday, March 20, 2015
As Consumers Search For Discounts And Deals, They Should Consider Value Perceptions Vs. Value Reality.
How is it that Walmart does
a great job of projecting a low-price image even though their items are not
always the lowest? And why is it that Whole Foods can't
shake the misperception that their prices are always higher? The answers are
that merchants understand and manage very concrete strategies that, intended or
not, send pricing expectation cues to consumers. Of course, this has
a direct impact on the perceived value of any special or deal a consumer
evaluates.
The Harvard Business Review has summarized an academic study that addresses these pricing expectation cues. For example, does a store's high volume = low cost? Not necessarily. Do shopping frills = high cost? Not necessarily. Do unconventional products = high cost? Not necessarily. Understanding these cues and the related values of specials is vital as merchants compete with online sellers while consumers can easily check pricing via their smart phones
Click To Harvard Business Review Summary
The Harvard Business Review has summarized an academic study that addresses these pricing expectation cues. For example, does a store's high volume = low cost? Not necessarily. Do shopping frills = high cost? Not necessarily. Do unconventional products = high cost? Not necessarily. Understanding these cues and the related values of specials is vital as merchants compete with online sellers while consumers can easily check pricing via their smart phones
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Most People Looking For Discounts & Deals On SpecialsAgent Are The Kind Of Folks Looking To Keep Spending Smart And Simple.
SpecialsAgent trys hard to keep a pulse on consumer spending attitudes and behavior. It helps us curate not just high value offers, but smart ones. In the footer of our site you can see some of the blogs we follow.
One of them is The Simple Dollar. That site receives over one million visitors each month and is ranked as one of the Top 10 personal finance sites on Kiplinger. The Simple Dollar provides common sense insights related to credit, investments, college fund planning, retirement, insurance, and so forth. You may want to check it out!
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Is It Just Me Or Are There More And More Promotional Offers Available To Consumers Via Digital Devices? You Bet There Are!
Each quarter Price Waterhouse Coopers in conjunction with the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) tracks overall digital media spending by advertisers. Versus the prior year digital advertising spending is up 17%. Of course, not all of that spending is for promotional offers but given the immediacy of digital devices much of it is.
That means a lot of discounts, coupons and deals flooding our smartphones, laptops, tablets, and desktops. That's good news for smart shoppers! Offers come in via email, apps, Twitter, direct mail, and on and on. When it comes to promotional offers, SpecialsAgent is all about monitoring many sources to discover the real gems and presenting them fresh every day.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Research Study By eBay Sheds Light On How Consumers Use Their Various Electronic Devices For Online And Offline Shopping.
eBay Enterprises helps merchants find the smartest ways to promote products. That includes eBay conducting consumer research to keep a pulse on shopping dynamics. eBay shoppers are very value oriented, typically looking for discounts and deals. What's changing fast is that most consumers have and use multiple devices to help them shop, blurring the difference between online and offline.
The recent eBay study titled Multi-Device Ownership: Implications for Retailer and Consumers confirms smartphones are currently used for light browsing and purchasing plus store locations and directions. Tablets allow for deeper browsing given the larger screen real estate. Desktops remain the preferred device for in-depth browsing and purchasing but are losing ground to tablets.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Recent Years Have Been Very Good For Smart Shoppers Looking For Deals At "Dollar" Stores.
In recent years have you found yourself snatching up deals and values at the major "dollar" stores? If so, you're not alone! Consumers at Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Big Lots and other such stores have saved a lot of money! These stores capitalized on the U.S. recession by attracting consumers who had less disposable income.
During the last five years these stores expanded their product offerings to accommodate new users. As the economy continues to improve, some of these new dollar store shoppers will revert back to their other preferred merchants. However, some consumers will stay with the dollar store deals and their price-sensitive legacy will have an impact on general retailers. All this according to market research analysis conducted by IBIS. The study itself is not priced for consumers but the summary link below is interesting.
Friday, March 13, 2015
So, How Do Consumers Discover Coupons And Deals Suitable For Them? Well, It's Quickly Shifting To Mobile.
Consumers discover their coupons and deals from digital sources, in-store and from direct mail. Currently, email is still king but delivery via mobile devices is quickly changing the game. An ongoing surge in user access to mobile coupons is driven by increased retailer engagement with the various mobile channels. A study by renowned Jupiter Research states that retailers were now integrating coupons into loyalty programs to a far greater extent.
Click Here To View Research Summary
Click Here To View Research Summary
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Smart Merchants Understand That Consumers In The U.S. (by Age Group) Discover Their Coupons and Deals In A Variety Of Ways.
Based on a research study of U.S. consumers titled "From Clipping To Clicking" conducted by Shopper Sciences, many shoppers today get digital coupons and deals via e-mail from programs
they have opted into, but e-mail is certainly not the only way shoppers
receive digital offers. Search is a critical tool for coupon users. Shoppers
typically begin their hunt on search engines that direct them to coupon
aggregation sites and brand and retailer websites. This is happening not
only on desktop but on mobile as well. When it comes to young adults, they lead the way in terms of mobile usage for finding deals and coupons.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
"Are You Shopping Or Buying?" Check Out This Study Of The Distinction Between The Two And What It Means For Coupons & Deals.
A study commissioned by Accenture highlights the fundamental distinction between "shopping" and "purchasing" for young adults. This important consumer segment significantly prefers "brick and mortar" locations for purchasing yet are very skilled at online shopping for product ratings, reviews, pricing, retailer reputation, etc. By the time they get into the store they have high expectations and a high level of knowledge. SpecialsAgent understands this. Our promotional offers cover all major online retailers and also pinpoints offers for over 650,000 physical retail locations.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Promotional Offers Should Always Be Available The Way You Like To Shop!
SpecialsAgent makes it easy to filter promotional offers based on the way you like to shop. At the top of the blog are 24 Categories that encompass all posted offers. There are Suggested Shopping Lists covering select offers for a range of shopping needs. There are Seasonal Shopping Lists with select offers covering all the major shopping occasions during the year. When looking for merchants to visit you can filter by Local Offers. And since we all have Popular Stores & Brands we prefer there is a list for that too. Finally, there is also a good old fashioned Word Search feature to help you pinpoint the word or phrase you're looking for.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Are "Deals" The Best Promotional Offers?
So, What Exactly Is A "Promotional Offer" And How Can SpecialsAgent Help Me?
First, a bit of Promotion 101. Every merchant, in every business category, has their promotional mix. Their mix depends on what they must do to compete, how much money they have, what their competitors do, what their customers respond to and on and on. This mix covers advertising, PR, direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling, sponsorships, in-store merchandising, etc. It's all the stuff that drives marketing people nuts!
One of those mix items...sales promotion...is when a merchant wants to generate demand for a pre-determined, limited time. Merchant's have many tricks in their bag including coupons, deals, freebies, contests, product samples, discounts, rebates, featured items, in-store displays. Just about every business category or brand has some sort of promotional offer at any point in time. Smart consumers know this and always search for an offer before they buy. The problem is that finding the really valuable offers is not easy. That's where SpecialsAgent helps. We dig and dig to uncover great values for local and national merchants across the U.S.!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)