Target.com Leads Industry in Digital Coupon Distribution
Target.com’s coupon distribution page -- coupons.target.com -- achieved the highest total average daily visits through the first half of 2013, according to an analysis of retailer website data by Kantar Media Marx.
This is almost double the number of average daily visits to other key retail websites tracked by Kantar Media Marx. A website’s average daily visits is important to promotion managers and retailers because it shows a coupon location’s web traffic or “reach” by measuring the number of times a visitor returns to and visits the location where coupons are distributed.
“Not all coupon locations are created equal,” said Darcy Douglas, director, account solutions for Kantar Media’s Marx. “Website coupons need exposure to shoppers if they are going to influence the path to purchase. Retail websites such as Safeway.com are continuing to enhance programs such as Just for U that may drive additional traffic to their coupon locations. As Safeway continues to innovate by adding new coupon offers daily, shoppers will develop trip planning and shopping behaviors around these initiatives.”
During the first half of 2013, average daily visits changed on a number of key sites. Kroger.com grew its average daily visits at its coupon distribution page by 57 percent to 94,200. This increase puts Kroger.com in the same league as Target.com, capturing more average daily visits in six months than seven other retailers combined. This places Target.com and Kroger.com as two of the most heavily trafficked coupon distribution pages across the retailer websites analyzed by Marx.
Safeway.com’s coupon distribution page increased average daily visits by 436 percent during this period, compared to the same period last year, reaching 42,100 average daily visits. This moved Safeway.com from the No. 5 to the No. 3 position, behind Kroger.com. CVS.com dropped from the No. 3 position fifth place, with 4,900 fewer average daily visits occurring in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2012. This decrease potentially makes CVS.com less appealing than other key retailer websites analyzed, due to the decrease and lower level of average daily visits. CVS.com has fewer average daily visits than Target.com or Kroger.com, thereby having fewer opportunities in supporting a shopper with coupon offers on their path to purchase at that retailer.
“Manufacturers can capitalize on the daily opportunity with retailer specific initiatives to reach a shopper when they are planning a trip,” added Douglas. “They can accomplish this by placing coupon offers on a retailer website that has the greatest reach in terms of average daily visits and is innovative in its coupon offers. Ideally, manufacturers would have positioned their product offers on a highly visited website distribution page, capturing the attention of a visiting shopper who is planning their trip. Finding the right coupon location optimizes the shopper discovery of that offer, helping the manufacturer to get on the shopping list and the retailer to win the shopping trip.”
Print At Home coupon offers distributed in the first half of 2013 reported 29 estimated average days active, 20 percent greater than the same period last year, across key websites measured by Marx. Load to card offers decreased estimated days active from 24 days to 17 days, a decline of 25 percent. In H1 2012, the difference in etimated days active between print at home offers and load to card offers was negligible. In the first half of 2013, the difference in estimated days active grew to more than 11 days between the two distinct offer types. This makes the load to card coupon offer type generally scarcer, and shorter-lived than the print at home coupon offers. Whether it is driven by the manufacturer side placing load to card offers online for shorter time periods, or shoppers snapping load to card offers up quickly, remains to be seen.
“Online life or estimated average days active represents the time that an offer is available online for a shopper to find on their favorite coupon website,” said Douglas. “Shoppers plan trips throughout the week. Providing enough time for the shopper to find the right offer at the right time is critical. Manufacturers need to be aware of popular offers that are online so they can replicate the same success for their offers. Some very popular website coupon offers may only exist online for a few days making it crucial to plan website coupon offer timing appropriately. Each offer is unique and can be uniquely positioned online across multiple websites. Helping our clients determine how, where, when and what competitive offer impacted their category is a major advantage Kantar Media’s Marx delivers by tracking over 50,000 digitally-distributed website coupon occurrences across key websites each week.”