There's something very compeling for me to finish out the year with one last blog post - even if it means slotting it in at midnight between what has been a month long flurry of holiday related and tiring "to-dos".
It should be no surprise, but one of the mother-of-all "to-dos" for me this time of year is shopping. Shopping like NOBODY'S business. By the time Christmas has rolled around the "fun" of shopping or pleasure of it has long vanished. This probably has something to do with the multiple trips to multiple stores made nearly every day over the past six weeks. An average day goes a little something like this...go get flour for cookies I promised to make with the kids that I forgot on my big grocery store trip the day before, buy more Scotch tape after my 6 year old generously wraps one present with an entire roll, go on a cross-town quest to find the perfect jewelry box for my daughter and that DS game that nobody seems to have in stock - yet it's the only one my son wants! Augh!!! Normally, I like to shop. Heck, at times it's my therapy. (See blog posts on shoes if you require confirmation of this statement...) But come November and December it's just not fun. I try desperately to plan my trips, determine my routes ahead of time, prepare my lists, and... collect my coupons - all with an eye towards being more efficient and fiscally shrewd. This turns out to be more difficult to achieve than not. Especially the fiscally shrewd part. It's the coupons that kill me.
So back to my point about coupons... (believe it or not there is one)
The last few weeks have seen a flurry of coupon related announcement and news stories as retailers raced to get that last little bit of revenue recognized for 2009. But increasingly, these coupons - as valuable as they might be - are going the wrong direction and actually leaving shoppers more frustrated. So as our parting gift to retailers for 2009, we offer the following advice on making coupons in 2010 suck less:
Attention all retailers: offering coupons online that can only be redeemed by PRINTING them out and bringing them into your store is SO 2002... If you're serializing for fraud prevention, I can understand it... but if it's the same bloody barcode on every coupon, why can't you simply read the coupon off my phone (and yes, I understand the difficulties of laser scanners and cell phones... that's why cashiers have 10-key pads)? Guess what? I read email on my phone, so when you email me a coupon... that's where it goes. And guess what else? I CAN'T PRINT FROM MY PHONE. Sigh. I was in Michael's buying my son's last Christmas present, and was told by the cashier that they couldn't accept the coupon because "they needed something to put in the drawer." Guess that means another trip to return the present and redeem the coupon. Thanks for the convenience...
- Training your staff that people get email on cell phones is critical. A friend sent me an REI e-gift card, which was great because the email specifically made it clear that I could redeem it online or in-store. The problem was, the clerk didn't know how to redeem it, and it took far longer than it should for me to get my new running gloves. More and more shoppers will be bringing in email coupons on their cell phones, so simply telling them "no" or "ummmm... how do you do that again?" won't hold up in 2010.
- With much hoopla, A&P announced it was offering printable coupons from their Web site. Why do I need to kill a tree to get offers from one electronic system (the Web) to another electronic system (the retailer's POS)? What's next, making me print my text messages and flick them as spitballs to get them to my friends? I'm not the nerd here at GREC, but bottom line: printing on paper is unnecessary and bad for the environment. So stop making us do it. And my purse (when I carry one) is heavy enough without a messy pile of paper coupons in it.
- Don't go halfway and make it confusing for shoppers. Whole Foods offers "a selection of printable coupons" on their Web site and the rest in their printed in-store flyer. Right now, after digging through three layers on the site to find them, I was "rewarded" with exactly SIX coupons to select from and print. SIX??? And to top it off, downloading a PDF of the flyer (which promises "$40+ in coupons" boldly on the cover) gives a DIFFERENT four coupons for a grand total of $3 off. Now I'm confused, and REALLY annoyed because I don't know what to do to get my coupons. Keep it simple and easy for shoppers, Mr. Mackey!
- And last but not least, Kroger and P&G have parted ways on the e-coupon front. The official story is over whose Web site got the traffic, but bottom line the shoppers' reactions have been the same: I want my coupons. Proof positive that in a tough economy the blame sticks to everyone.
Happy New Year from the Global Retail Executive Council!
I thought this post to be very amusing!
So as not to go into excessive debt due to the high cost of what toys kids want at Christmas today (Avg cost approx $200.00) I took a part time job at a local retail establishment! Wow was that ever an eye opener! People coming in looking for the newest iPod Touch,X-Box, PS3 etc., who had coupons, who didn't (where can I get one so I can save like they did)? I'm telling you some times I thought the place was going to end up with a fist fight! As you also mentioned people would buy the latest and greatest, get it home only to find one of their friends sent them an email with a "hey go to this site and print out this coupon" or they would find a coupon in their mail box only to have to go back to the store, wait in the customer service line and have them credit them back for the coupon. Finally, Christmas day came and their little darling announces "That's the wrong game, I wanted the (insert appropriate device name here)" Back to the store for the long wait in line for the refund!
As I read your post it was like I was reliving every word of it minute by minute at my part time gig to help pay off my indebtedness to the holidays. I'd like to see what you have on tap for the upcoming SuperBowl! I'm not looking forward to selling tons of flat screen 40" + TV's right before the Big Game only to get them returned in the weeks after because "The sound wasn't good" or "th picture was distorted" and so on...Hopefully by then my holiday debt will be paid off!
Posted by: Mark Crosby | 01 January 2010 at 11:01 AM
Great article & response!
Some thoughts-
Websites and print outs and PDF'S, of course people are frustrated. My response is geared more towards mobile coupons or discounts. Your comments related to mobile suggest to me what is happening in mobile will be changing the whole coupon experience. People are frustrated as they should be. However, they are getting people to act from a website, to then print outs and then go to stores. Think about that for a second. The process will change just like online purchasing. I will be keeping my response brief. As you have experienced, the approach of cell phone barcode coupons is not a great solution yet because of some of the things you touched on as well as it does not reach every phone user from a retail outlet or brands view . Other mobile phone coupons solutions that I can provide exist that will work with every phone. Over time/over night, it can be user friendly and retail friendly. Also, as Melissa stated, the education process for retail outlets will be minimum.
This article is very important. We need to get over these hick-ups. The fog will rise as mobile will become a green solution as well as a user friendly solution for coupons, Incentive programs, Direct response, Sweepstakes, Infomercials etc.
Posted by: Jay Block | 05 January 2010 at 07:29 AM