Digital Coupons Drive Customer Loyalty for Millennials

Digital couponsReaching the impactful millennial demographic is a major goal for most marketers. Reaching that goal could very well involve digital coupons, according to a new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Linkable Networks.

CPG retailers and brands must adopt digital coupon redemption experiences that are automatic to reach millennial shoppers, especially those with children, because they find most digital coupons to be harder to use than traditional paper coupons, the study says.

Titled, “Creating Loyalty With Millennials and Young Parents: How Automated Redemption And Card-Linked Offers Will Solve The Adoption Dilemma For Digital Coupons,” the study surveyed 516 U.S. shoppers. What’s more, those shoppers say retailers and brands that offer simplicity will find millennials more inclined to try new retailers or products, driving customer acquisition and use coupons, along with driving loyalty.

“At a time when myths about coupons are prevalent–millennials don’t bother and they erode loyalty–the reality is when coupons are digital and intuitive they grow in usage and drive an increase in loyalty,” said John Caron, Chief Marketing Officer, Linkable Networks. “Convenience is key in CPG. For today’s influential millennial population, CPG marketers who consider Invisible Redemption, where through card-linked offers coupons are connected to a shopper’s credit or debit cards and savings are seamlessly redeemed at the time of purchase, will win the race to scale digital couponing.”

Shoppers’ No. 1 pain-point that limits them from regularly using coupons is forgetting them at checkout in-store, the study says.Coupons for millennials

In fact, 79% of surveyed shoppers said they would not buy an item if they forgot to bring a coupon in-store. For CPG marketers, this translates to a loss of sales and little opportunity to build loyalty. While digital experiences can help combat these losses, the study says, shopper adoption of digital is still limited as compared to traditional because digital is yet to be seamless and truly provide value to shoppers. With all-digital card-linked offers, retailers and brands can incentivize shoppers enough to try new brands, use more coupons– building loyalty–and increase visits to retailers who support automatic redemption.

According to the study, 63% of millennials would experiment with a new brand if they received a card-link offer. What’s more, 48% of millennials would spend their dollars at another retailer that accepts card-linked offers. Nearly 80% of shoppers use a debit or credit card to pay for every day staples including grocery items and half of shoppers are interested in using card-linked offers, highlighting the importance of leveraging seamless and automatic coupon redemption specific to CPG retailers and brands.

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