A new report from Juniper Research has found that there will be 1.05 billion mobile coupon users by 2019, up from just under 560 million this year.

The report – Mobile Coupons: Consumer Engagement, Loyalty & Redemption Strategies 2014-2019 – claimed that the surge in user numbers would in large part be driven by increased retailer engagement with the various mobile channels. It stated that retailers were now integrating coupons into loyalty programmes to a far greater extent, while focusing on delivering coupons direct to consumers rather than relying on aggregator sites.

At the same time, the report observed that mobile coupon deployments were benefitting from retailers restructuring their businesses to reflect the wider transition to the utilisation of online engagement channels. It noted those businesses are becoming more agile, more efficient and able to implement change more rapidly than would have previously been the case.

HCE & Beacon to Boost Coupon Growth

Meanwhile, the report argued that while the use of MMS for couponing was expected to cease, disruptive technologies such as NFC (Near Field Communications) and Beacon had the potential to boost in-store engagement in the medium term.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “While NFC has failed to achieve traction thus far, the emergence of a cloud-based secure element through HCE (Host Card Emulation) is likely to stimulate greater integration into wallets. We believe that this in turn will provide the visibility that should encourage brands to run campaigns using the technology.“

Other findings from the report include:

• Geotargeting has provided SMS-delivered coupons with a new lease of life, with retailers seeing high redemption rates from coupons pushed to consumers near their stores.

• Brands are increasingly leveraging the retail database to deliver targeted coupons.

• Lack of adequate POS redemption technology remains the key hurdle to greater deployment and adoption.

The whitepaper, Mobile Coupons ~ The Redeeming Factor? is available to download from the Juniper Research website together with further details of the full report, the attendant Mobile Coupons Excel and further details of our forthcoming Digital Coupons report http://www.juniperresearch.com/reports.php?id=723.