January 19, 2009

A New Type of Coupon

          Back in 1894, as the new owner of the formula for Coca-Cola, Asa Candler was frantically searching for a low-cost way to advertise his product.  Mr. Candler began distributing handwritten slips of paper which could be exchanged for a free glass of Coke and shopping would never be the same. 

          Today, coupons represent an opportunity to save money on everything from the latest computer software to shampoo to weekly grocery bills.  Printed coupons in newspapers and magazines are the traditional way to collect these money-savers, but as it has for many other areas of our life, the Internet has changed how coupons are distributed and collected.
          Goggle “on-line coupons” and you will find hundreds and hundreds of sites offering you the opportunity to print your own coupon.

          The coupons you find online will usually be for “national” brand items such as cereal, baby care products and personal care products or for “national” chain restaurants or auto service businesses.  Some supermarkets in large population areas have their own web sites and have coupons available specifically for their store.

          There are also two types of coupons that you can find on the Internet. The first, and most commonly used, are printable coupons that can be redeemed at a store.  The second are e-commerce coupons or codes that can be redeemed on a retailer's website.

          If you are looking for a coupon from a specific merchant, the best place to start is that merchant's website. For example, if you want pizza coupons, try visiting the web site of your favorite national chain pizza restaurant.  If you want to access to a wider variety of coupons, you will need to visit a website that gathers coupons from many different merchants.

          When choosing a coupon site to use, it is important to note the various rules that apply to each.  Most of the sites offering coupons to users require little more than some basic background info such as gender, age, number of people in your household, etc and an e-mail address during the signup process.  You will be asked to create a user name and set up a password.

 In exchange, you as a "member" receive free access to coupons.  Why do websites require this type of info?  It is a security measure to prevent coupon fraud, which causes some large companies to lose millions of dollars a year. A few require purchasing a membership and some have limits on how many coupons you can print.

          Most websites offering printable coupons require users to download a browser plug-in to be able to print the bar codes on the coupons. This again is to prevent coupon fraud, but with the threat of spy ware and viruses on the Internet, this download requirement can be a little scary.  When downloading anything from the Internet, always make sure you are downloading from a reputable website and have good anti-virus protection on your computer.

          With e-commerce coupons or codes, you do not need to print a coupon.  Instead, you use these coupons/codes when purchasing a product or service from a retailer's website by typing in the coupon name or code into your order form when ordering an item from the retailer’s site.  The retailer’s web site will then calculate in your savings when finishing your order.       

          Coupons may be changing with technology but saving money is always a good idea!