According to giant research firm Inmar, the use of coupons in the U.S. has grown 35% since 2006. And during the first quarter of 2014, redemption for digital coupons grew 53 percent compared with Q1 2013. In 2013, more than 66 million digital coupons were redeemed (a 141 percent increase over 2012).
Free-standing Inserts (FSIs) are the most desirable of digital coupons – for device-carrying consumers and marketers who don’t have to spend as much printing paper coupons. FSIs represented 91.8 percent of all digital coupons distributed in Q1 2014 and accounted for 44.4 percent of all redeemed coupons. It all sounds like great retail news. But for all its success, the digital coupon faces a serious threat: high-quality counterfeit coupons are increasingly prevalent, making retailers and manufacturers wary.
