Do coupons and promo codes still drive online sales?

Online shopping and entertainment have changed the way people spend their money. Many online brands choose to offer coupons and promo codes to attract business but are they still useful for driving sales?

Retail coupon sites

Such has been the popularity of using coupon and promo codes, websites have been created specifically to bring people the latest codes.

In a study conducted by DontPayFull.com, 71% of shoppers have switched to a competitor's product because they offered a better coupon.

RetailMeNot is a good example of a coupon codes website and in 2020, they were receiving over 30 million visitors to their website per month and all via organic search.

There were so many people wanting to find discount codes for products online that websites specialising in coupon codes did not have to do any advertising to attract visitors to their website.

However, if we look at the numbers for recent months, the number of visitors to the website has dropped to around 12 million per month.

In August 2023, RetailMeNot received 11.9 million organic visitors and the following month the website received 10.9 million organic visitors. So, there is no doubt there has been a drop in the number of visitors to RetailMeNot since 2020 and that could mean that coupon and promo codes no longer drive online sales.

Entertainment promo codes

Although there may have been a drop in the number of visitors to a single retail coupon website, that does not necessarily mean that promo codes have stopped driving online sales.

The online gambling industry is still in its infancy in many regions around the world, such as the United States.

Only recently has it been legal to gamble online in the US and we have witnessed the introduction of new online gambling sites in the country. Just like when buying a physical product online, people want to get the most for their money when gambling online and that is where bonus codes come into play.

Online gambling sites offer welcome bonuses to new players but by using coupon codes found at gambling promo codes websites, it is possible to claim a bigger bonus. Gambling promo code websites have witnessed an increase in traffic and we can assess the organic traffic of GamblingPromoCodes as an example.

The organic traffic as this promo codes website has continued to increase month-by-month and the organic traffic from May to September 2023 has more than doubled to over 13,000 visitors.

This may not seem like a huge amount when compared to RetailMeNot but the online gambling sector in the United States is young and on the rise.

Online promo code search

There are millions of people searching online for promo codes and in 2022, over 59% of people searched for a coupon code before buying anything.

That does not mean they have looked for a coupon code initially, it could be that a potential customer has reached the checkout stage on a website and seen a promo code field appear.

That has prompted the potential customer to search online for a promo code before committing to buying the product or service. It is unclear if the majority of people continue to buy the product or service without a promo code or if they abandon their cart if they did not find a working coupon code.

A study from Ivestp found that 30.6% of women often use discounts and coupons for day-to-day shopping compared to only 16.8% of males. So, there is a discrepancy between males and females when it comes to using coupon codes.

Perhaps promo codes are still driving sales for female customers but not so much for males and this is a study worth pursuing.

The holidays

One of the most expensive times of the year for most people is the holidays and when Christmas is on the horizon, many shoppers are looking for bargains.

Over 70% of people in the United States claim that discounts have the biggest impact on their buying habits for the holidays. That leads to an increase in the number of people searching for promo codes online.

This means, that much like male and female shopping, there could be a difference between the number of people searching for and using coupon codes online at various times of the year.

There is no doubt millions of people continue to look for the best deals online and use coupon codes to get discounts. Promo codes are also common in other areas, such as online gambling, and this is one sector where coupon codes are certainly working to entice new customers.