Digital coupons and grocery retailers go together like peanut butter and jelly. Shoppers love them, and digital coupon redemption has been growing steadily even as paper coupons have seen years of decline. And retailers know that digital coupons are a powerful tool for driving incremental store traffic and sales volume.
- In 2022, 68.2% of all adults in America redeemed digital coupons.
- Online consumers who use coupons spend 37% more money than those who don’t, with 2/3 of online shoppers saying coupons lead them to make unplanned purchases.
- Most consumers (82%) who redeem a digital coupon do so within a week of receiving it, with 30% using it within a day.
- And 93% of shoppers say they would make repeat purchases at a retailer that offered good discounts.
But despite the proven benefits of digital coupons for shoppers and retailers alike, many retailers struggle with the high costs and technical complexity associated with digital coupon technology.
Enter a new strategic partnership led by the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association (INFRA). INFRA joined forces with CoupDog, a digital coupon platform, to create a solution that would expand access to digital coupon capabilities for INFRA’s membership of more than 350 organic and natural food retailers in the United States.
Recently, CoupDog completed the first phase of the project’s integration with ECRS’s CATPAULT® Retail POS platform, which expands the benefits beyond INFRA’s membership to other grocers who depend on CATAPULT to power their retail touchpoints.
The project promises to revolutionize the use of digital coupons by making the technology more accessible not only within the natural and organic food retail space but also to the manufacturers that produce consumer packaged goods for this market segment.
“Finally, an affordable turnkey digital coupon solution that customers will love,” said Nick Auzenne, director of purchasing for INFRA. “I could not be more excited about the partnership with CoupDog. Their ability to enhance INFRA Deals with digital coupon offerings is going to drive more customer engagement, increase basket size and take promotional performance to the next level.”
Digital coupons made easy
At the core of the solution is CoupDog’s cloud-based infrastructure and blockchain-powered coupon platform, which make it easy for manufacturers to create digital coupons for food retailers to share, validate and redeem.
In turn, the CoupDog solution leverages ECRS’s POS solutions to deliver an intuitive omnichannel shopper experience at thousands of conventional and natural retail locations running on the CATAPULT platform.
Because CATAPULT Retail POS runs the same transactional logic across all retail touchpoints, this API integration seamlessly extends to ECRS’s eCommerce solution, loyalty suite and point-of-sale solutions.
Customers who create and use a customer account can effortlessly clip coupons by browsing a digital coupon gallery or discovering relevant coupons while exploring products. They can also find digital coupons through retailer websites and mobile apps, and across manufacturers’ digital channels.
The integrated digital experience makes it easy to redeem the coupons at checkout in-store or, for eCommerce-enabled retailers, online. Core components include:
- Integration with the core ECRS CATAPULT POS Unified Transaction Logic, which allows real-time acceptance, validation and redemption of CoupDog coupons in high-volume transaction environments.
- Integration with the ECRS WebCart™ eCommerce platform, which enables retailers to create a single customer sign-on experience and provide a personalized digital coupon gallery.
Retailers can easily activate and test digital coupons thanks to a seamless cloud-to-cloud integration between CoupDog and ECRS. In addition, retailers can reduce the cost and complexity typically associated with digital coupon technology, while minimizing risk thanks to CoupDog’s patented secure blockchain ledger for coupon security and settlement.
“More and more, independent retailers are looking toward innovative technology solutions that help them compete,” said Pete Catoe, founder and CEO of ECRS. “Our goal is to empower independents with new ways to enhance shopper experiences and elevate their promotional strategies. We are proud to partner with CoupDog and bring the integration to our retailer community to help them achieve exactly that.”
The shared digital coupon solution is already in use among a wide range of retailers, with more slated to adopt the solution soon.
Phase II to deliver even more capabilities
The ECRS and CoupDog partnership reflects a shared commitment to bring a new level of convenience and delight to shoppers through digital coupon innovation while simultaneously providing retailers with promotional solutions to stay ahead in the competitive retail landscape.
“ECRS has been a fantastic partner. They have a very elegant cloud-based architecture and talented technical team that resulted in a successful integration between our platforms,” said Rob Balfour, CEO of CoupDog. “Together, we also have a very exciting roadmap and will be delivering even more capabilities in 2024.”
Future plans include advanced coupon targeting and personalization tools, an AI-driven recommendation engine and a comprehensive in-store activation toolkit. These enhancements are expected to further drive customer engagement and sales.
