Coupons? Aren’t they meant for older women with too much free time and more cats than they know what to do with? According to a recent study, consumers save $3.4 billion a year by using coupons and promo codes. Still think this is a trick from your grandmother’s generation?
Today’s coupons are powered by advanced technology and are easy to use on the latest devices, providing an innovative experience that offers a quick, easy, and convenient way to find, use, and save money.
Now that you’re convinced, the only question is which coupon sites and apps will actually save you money. Discover a few ways to separate the good from the bad so you can find all the deals and great savings you’re looking for.
Savings Style
The app’s functionality and the types of coupons available are the first starting points for evaluating a site. Does the service offer printable, scannable, or linkable coupons? Are there any discounts or just coupon codes? Groupon offers convenient downloadable coupons for instant purchases and direct delivery, making it a real hit. Meanwhile, RetailMeNot, an industry giant, offers over 500,000 deals at any given time, plus gift cards and in-store and online discounts, so you can find the savings you need. Plus, Coupon.com’s easy-to-print format is a feature that not all other sites have considered.
Range of Stores
We all have our favorite stores where we love to shop, and a platform that offers discounts at those stores is a big win. Some coupon apps focus primarily on grocery savings, while others include everything from appliances to furniture and clothing. Unless you plan to shop at specialty stores, the best sites are those that offer a wide variety of stores. Of course, industry giants like RetailMeNot have a huge selection and partner with over 130,000 retailers to provide a comprehensive coupon experience. If you want to try some of the smaller (but no less useful) sites, check out coupon aggregators like Money Saving Mom or SlickDeals. These apps collect (and evaluate) coupons from other coupon sites and also have private deals with retailers like Target, Macy’s, Amazon, and T-Mobile, so customers get the most bang for their buck on every purchase.
How Good are the Deals?
This aspect is admittedly a bit biased, depending on the industry and the shopper. Some sites offer great deals, but if they’re not right for you, they won’t be very appealing to you. In general, look for an app with a strong, engaged community (more on that below) and significant savings. LivingSocial, which lets you save up to 90%, is a good example of this type of combination.
Tools & Additional Features
If you don’t want to do a lot of the work yourself, the various tools and features a coupon app offers can make the difference between something you should download and something you should just ignore. Good apps are feature-rich and packed with helpful tools and resources that make them easy to use. From list builders to shopping card syncing, here are some cool tools to consider.
RetailMeNot
lets shoppers personalize and save lists of their favorite products so they always know when they’re on sale. Plus, its algorithm is geo-centric, so you’ll get the most relevant local deals. Speaking of lists, The Krazy Coupon Lady also does a great job. In addition to letting you create your own shopping lists, The Krazy Coupon Lady syncs them across all your devices so you can share them with your partner or manage them across multiple devices. Krazy Coupon Lady is also a great source of information for a frugal life. It offers tutorials, money-saving tips, and videos, like the fun 10-day guide to becoming a coupon expert. Best of all, there’s a YouTube channel that includes all of these videos. Hip2Save is another app that offers excellent educational resources for saving, with entire sections dedicated to recipes, couponing techniques, and other money-saving tips.
Other sites like SlickDeals offer perks like a dedicated Black Friday app (and a mobile app so you can take your savings with you wherever you go) that focuses exclusively on deals for that special shopping day of the year.
We found Coupon.com’s grocery card linking feature particularly impressive. This feature lets you link coupons to your grocery cards so they’re automatically deducted from your total when you shop at that store. Coupon.com also has a handy Smart Savings calculator so you can see how much you’re saving with your coupons and exclusive credit card offers.
Social Aspect
Of course, couponing has become much more than just clipping pages from the newspaper. Today, the industry revolves around and is heavily influenced by social media. The more integrated and engaged the community is, the better the experience. Some apps, like SlickDeals and Woot, have large and active communities. The great thing is that the coupons are reviewed by members, so you know you’re getting the latest deals. If a deal is subpar, expired, or invalid for some reason, you’ll be notified by a helpful community of advisors. SlickDeals even has a rating system for its coupons, and only the best ones are featured on the homepage. Woot community members are very active and offer a lot of details about the products they buy and the value of the deals.
Alerts & Notifications
This is one of the modern advantages that really sets traditional coupons apart from today’s version. You no longer have to scroll through pages of ads to find good deals. Today, you can set up alerts and get notified when products you like are on sale. Technology is truly amazing. With well-organized alerts and notifications, an app is incredibly useful. Apps like SlickDeals allow users to customize notification categories so that the products you’re looking for appear when they’re on sale. LivingSocial sends members a general email with the best daily deals, while DealNews lets you set up notifications for specific products.
User Friendliness
Ultimately, you want a smooth and simple experience. After all, one of the main reasons to use a coupon app is to save time and the headaches of using a more traditional option. We found SlickDeal’s website to be particularly easy to navigate, with a smart search bar and sections like Popular Posts and Trending Deals that stand out for their clean design. Coupon.com also offers a zip code search to quickly find local deals. DealNews was also very easy to navigate, thanks to its simple listings and good categorization. Hip2Save always puts deals at the forefront of the homepage, and you can quickly search by store, product type, favorites, and organized lists. Last but not least, Money Saving Mom lets you sort coupons by store, product, or expiration date.
Shopping in the 21st century just keeps getting better. So, take advantage of smart coupon apps and save more now.
