Coupons over cell phone get a test
Posted
Mar 10 2008, 03:15 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Grocery coupons and technology haven't mixed well so far. Some stores flat-out reject Internet coupons because of fraud. It's too easy for counterfeiters to take an online coupon and change the dollar amounts, say grocers.
But coupons over cell phone are harder to forge, and five package-goods manufacturers are working with Kroger to test the idea. The system sounds convoluted and time-consuming, but it's a start to figuring out how to bring the age-old art of coupon clipping into the wireless world.
"Mobile couponing is the future," an IAG Research analyst told AdAge. Shares of the five manufacturers -- Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Del Monte, General Mills and Kimberly Clark -- haven't moved much today in response to the news.
Here's how it works. First, you have to download an application from a company called Cellfire to your phone. Then you click on a list of discounts being offered. Your choices are sent to Kroger, and the coupons ring up automatically when you swipe your shopper loyalty card at checkout.
I'm skeptical. There are too many dots here that need to be connected for the system to work. Plus, it sounds like a lot more hassle to click through Cellfire's coupon list than to just flip through the inserts in the Sunday paper.
But the idea has promise. And shoppers are interested. A JupiterResearch study out today says that 30% of consumers want to receive coupons on their cell phones. But only 1% has actually done it. Part of the reason is because few retailers have the technology or policies in place to handle mobile coupons. One option stores use is asking shoppers to simply show their cell phone screens to the cashier. But what if you have 10 coupons you want to use? The people in line with you won't be too thrilled.
I see value in mobile coupons. Stores could send you coupons for stuff you actually use, and they could entice you into making impulse buys. (Yes, you really need that four-pack of Starbucks bottled frappuccino for $3!) Shoppers wouldn't have to cut out coupons or remember to take them.
But the technology has to get there first, and that means meshing cell phones with grocery store computer systems, and then making it all fast and easy to use. That's going to take some time.
