The use of coupons continues to see rapid growth – not just due to the economy, but the convenience of online coupons.

According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, coupon usage has surged about 10% in recent months. While online coupons account for 1% of all coupons offered in the USA, redemptions increased 140% last year. Online coupons also enjoy a much higher redemption rate: 13% compared to 1% redemption rate for coupons published in magazines and newspapers.

Coupons.com says its users printed out online coupons valued at $300 million last year, a jump of 140% from 2007. $317 billion in coupon savings were distributed in 2008 overall.

Coupons are something that many online merchants overlook, perhaps thinking they are too complex; but in many cases, they are just as easy as running a general discount offer and more effective. Most shopping cart software packages now offer coupon functionality and if you’re not using a cart, there’s other ways around it. On one of my sites, merchants usually just run “mention this ad for $x off” campaigns.

Using coupons has some other advantages over blanket store discounts – particularly in lead generation. For example, you can run a 10% off sale, but in order for visitors to get that discount, they need to register for a coupon – their email address then goes onto an email marketing list for follow up. This approach works *very* well. Additionally, coupons have a viral nature and appeal to the bargain hunter in all of us.

Learn more about coupon marketing.