Best Sites and Resources

With the help of the Internet, the recession, and plain old thrift, consumers cashed in 3.2 billion coupons in 2009, saving $3.5 billion, according to a study by NCH Marketing Service Inc, the total amount of money consumers saved jumped 30 percent over 2008. Why? It’s the ease of the internet and the cell phone surge. According to a recent report by Juniper Research, retailers will send as many as 3 billion mobile coupons to wireless phone users by 2011, resulting in $7 billion in discounts redeemed.

Breakdown of Site Selection

To use your discount you either bring the printed coupon into the store or copy and paste a Promo code into the stores check out cart before you pay.

Basically there are sites that let you search for coupons by brand or item. Next up are sites that let you search and share coupons. Lastly there are social networking sites that represent the extreme level of consumerism, talking about couponing! Also did you think there was a coupon in the Sunday paper you missed? This site collects all the big ones that are active NOW in your area:  http://www.sundaysaver.com/

Retailmenot.com  A site that surely should be on your favorites list is http://www.retailmenot.com/ This site features all name brand retailers with a bit of social networking. Many of the deals are promoted but then they are ranked as to the chance of actually working. Many coupons expire who have unrealistic redemption rules

Restaurant Gift Certificates: The best site with over 50,000 restaurants is http://www.restaurant.com/

Local Small Business Coupons: http://couponclipper.com/ if you are in a semi large marketplace and you receive the Clipper Magazine in the mail, this is a great site for online coupons and an all new Iphone App for when you are mobile.

If You are Not In a Hurry. Did you know there is a market for trading and buying coupons? If you have a home improvement project coming up, would you spend $3 for a 10% off coupon on a $600 purchase at Lowes…. Or Home Depot…? Look here! 

Let’s  Get Social. If you are using any of the social networking sites,  just search for “coupons”.  Again, Retailmenot.com has inter-member communications.

In a recent survey,

46% say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook.

44% of Twitter users have recommended a product.

36% of YouTube users have gone to an online retailer or ecommerce site after learning about a brand on a social network site.