• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 2, 2012

A soon to be released study from Coupons.com, in conjunction with GfK Knowledge Networks, to identify the shopping behavior of the digital coupon user, shows that digital coupon users shop more frequently and spend significantly more during each trip than the average U.S. consumer.

The study, based on more than 200,000 households using digital coupons, and compared to 2.3 million shoppers, tell us that “...brands wanting to reach heavy grocery spenders... (should) strongly consider digital coupon sites as an important piece of their coupon and brand advertising market mix...” says Neal Heffernan, SVP/GM, Behavioral Insights Group at GfK Knowledge Networks

Heffernan continued by noting that “... the findings are unique from other studies... (in that) the research measures actual purchase behavior, not purchase intent... “

 Higlights of the 52 week study included these digital coupon user facts:

• Digital coupon users make 22% more shopping trips per year than the average shopper. The digital coupon user and the average shopper make 69 and 57 trips, respectively, per year
• Digital coupon users spend 23% more per shopping trip than the average shopper. The digital coupon user and the average shopper spend $55.05 and $44.87, respectively, per trip
• Digital coupon users spend 49% more per year than the average shopper. The digital coupon user and the average shopper spend $3,803 and $2,545 per year, respectively.
• Digital coupon users make 48% more “stock up” trips than the average shopper, with 18.6 and 12.6 stock up trips, respectively, per year.

 In addition, Coupons.com also released the results of a second research project designed to measure timing of the next anticipated shopping trip, showing that 62% of visitors to Coupons.com planned to visit a grocery store within 2 days of printing coupons, or saving them to a loyalty card, and in fact 43% planned to shop within the next 24 hours.

 The study asked Coupons.com users in January, 2012, “When is your next grocery shopping trip?” and found that: 

• 18% expected to shop that day
• 25% expected to shop the next day
• 19% expect to shop in two days
• 22% expected to shop in 3-7 days
• 11% expected to shop in more than 7 days

Some more interesting “coupon” facts include:

• More than 55.7 million American consumers are now using online coupons, representing 25% of the U.S. population
• Users of digital coupons have higher household incomes and are better educated than users of newspaper coupons and the general population overall
• The consumer who uses digital coupons has an average household income of $96,900, a 20% higher income level than the U.S average and 20% higher than average household income of users of newspaper coupons
• 38% of those who use digital coupons have a college degree, compared to 30% of those who use newspaper coupons and 27% of the general populace

 For the slide show and additional information from Coupons.inc, please visit here.