I owe you all a giant apology. However it definitely looks like I’m not on my own. In fact four out of five UK adults have used a discount or voucher code in the last 12 months (both online and offline).

This is according to research carried out by Browser Media. Here we’ll be taking a look at the study along with offering our own advice for how retailers should use vouchers codes.

Social taboo?

I wasn’t aware that the regular use of vouchers was necessarily a social taboo, however 41% of people in the study believe that voucher codes and discounts have become much more socially acceptable than they were before.

Were we afraid of people assuming that we’re in financial difficulty or somewhat miserly if we were seen to present a discount coupon at store checkout? There’s pride and then there’s common sense, and the latter should always prevail.

It actually turns out that households with a middle income of between £28-£41k are the most frequent users of vouchers and discounts. UK adults on average have used sixteen discount codes or vouchers each.

Clearly attitudes have changed in the last couple of years. There could be many reasons for this… the wider downturn in the economy has made us all a lot more savvy when it comes to saving and the proliferation of available loyalty or points schemes have also made it easier to make savings in a store we’re regularly visit.

Then there’s data. Discount vouchers or codes are a lot more personally tailored to our wants and needs then they were before.

It’s no longer about scouring a newspaper and clipping out a couple of coupons for items that are an approximation for something we sort of regularly buy. Now thanks to improvements in tracking and analysing our online behaviour, we have targeted emails or display ads with money-off the items we’ve actually browsed on a website.

We have barcoded cards that help supermarkets track the exact items we buy and send us vouchers for those specific products, which we would, frankly, be remiss not to use.

And for those who would be embarrassed to use a discount voucher in a high street, ecommerce has made flagrant bargain hunters of us all.

Multichannel behaviour

Online behaviour has begun invading the offline world.

28% of people say they’ll always compare prices online, even if they’re shopping in store.

We call this showrooming, and it can easily be used to a retailer’s advantage, especially if a store’s multichannel experience is seamlessly joined up. 

A consistent pricing strategy would help, as well as free home delivery for purchases made instore, click and collect and multichannel returns.

Practical advice for retailers

Use actual words and dates for your discount codes. 11% of people are more likely to use a discount code if the retailer makes it memorable rather than random letters and numbers.

Present the option to enter a voucher code as early in the checkout process as possible. 13% of people said they dislike checkout processes that only allow the voucher code to be applied at the very end.

However there is a danger here that shoppers will abandon the process and go off searching for a discount code on Google, when they were already practically committed to buy the item.

It’s a difficult balance to get right. As a customer with a discount code, it can be frustrating trying to find the place to enter it if it’s been concealed during checkout. However you also don’t want to needlessly lose profit from consumers already purchasing from you.

This can also lead to you a longer term problem of training your customers to only shop with you if they have a voucher code. People won’t want to pay full price on your site ever again if they’ve only experienced you with a discount.

For more advice check out How should online retailers handle discount codes? and click on the image below for a bigger version of Browser Media’s infographic…