Deal Sites and SMS coupons

Does the following scenario sound familiar to you? You spend time going through the Sunday newspaper, find a great coupon for an item you were thinking of purchasing, clip the coupon and keep it in a safe place for the next time you go shopping. Couple of days later, you happen to be in the store, find the item you love and then at the counter, you realize you forgot to bring the coupon with you.

Next time, you decide it is better to do online shopping and get the benefit of cheaper online prices and free shipping. You go to your favorite store’s website, find the item you like and purchase it. When it arrives, you find that it looked better in the photograph on the website and that it is not the exact shade of color you liked.

No more worries. There is a better alternative. There are several deal sites on the internet which list the best deals and sales in your neighborhood and offer SMS coupons. Browse these sites, find the item you find interesting and SMS coupon to your mobile. With this you get best of both worlds. You can still go to the brick-and-mortar store, check out the item and since you always carry your cell phone with you; you can get the discounted price by using SMS coupon.

Retailers get benefited too by offering SMS coupons on deal sites. Internet usage has been rising every year. In India alone, there are 35.4 Million users of Internet according to Comscore which is up by 17% over last year. Along with internet usage there is a rise in mobile subscriptions. On average there are now 60 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people in the world. In developing countries, the figure stands at 48 – more than eight times the level of penetration in 2000. (Source: Guardian). This offers retailers a great avenue for micromarketing with minimal expense