Is This the End of Paper Coupons?
Love saving money with coupons?
Coupons have come a long way since they were invented over 100 years ago. In addition, more resources are being released daily that help people save money, especially now that smartphones play a bigger role in delivering deals.
In fact, there are hundreds of mobile apps on the market that do everything from offering digital coupons and store loyalty cards to scanning receipts for cashback and sending notifications with deal alerts.
But with so many convenient applications available at our fingertips, we can’t help but wonder if the old-fashioned paper & print coupons may be disappearing anytime soon?!
Let’s take a deeper look…
How have coupons changed recently?
Over the past five years, changes in mobile technology have made using coupons easier than ever – and retailers have jumped on this opportunity to create mobile apps & digital offers to help shoppers save money on the go.
Today, almost every major retailer offers a mobile app with digital coupons & offers, including CVS, Kroger, Kohl’s, Target, Walgreens, and many others. Even Coupons.com, the online printable coupons giant, now offers a mobile app and has reduced the number of online printable coupons available.
Does this mean that paper & print coupon usage has gone down over the past few years?
Not exactly. According to this article, the redemption of both digital and print coupons is actually on the rise, with millions of Americans using coupons to save money on purchases every month. Shoppers are looking to save in any way possible!
Are paper coupons disappearing anytime soon?
According to this 2K19 Valassis Coupon Intelligence Report, paper coupons surprisingly still lead in preference when compared to other types of coupons. However, as you can see in the chart below, there has also been a steady growth in preference for paperless discounts on mobile devices and loyalty cards since 2017.
This study also found that a higher percentage of millennials and gen Xers are big users of websites and savings apps, while baby boomers are less likely to use them. Also, a higher percentage of millennials use paper coupons when compared to baby boomers, which goes to show that the latest generation of shoppers finds it HIP to Save. 😉
Here are a few other interesting coupon usage statistics:
- 92% of consumers use coupons in some way (source)
- 32% of customers say they prefer to receive coupons on their smartphones (source)
- 93% of millennials use mobile devices to compare deals online and in-store (source)
- 55% of consumers said they use both digital and paper coupons (source)
- 63% of shoppers say they’d use more coupons if they were available (source)
Our conclusion? We don’t see paper coupons completely going away anytime soon.
In fact, this study projects that digital coupon redemptions will total $91 billion by 2022 and account for 80% of coupon redemptions! Wow!
So how can you save money without using paper coupons?
We compiled three simple and easy ways that you can save money at your favorite grocery store or retailer just by using mobile apps and digital coupons… because one day, paper coupons may become a thing of the past!
Here are 3 of the best ways to save money without using paper coupons:
1. Take advantage of cashback & rewards apps.
With so many rewards and cashback apps available, you can easily earn money, free gift cards, and other rewards just by purchasing products that you’re planning to buy anyway!
From Ibotta to Fetch Rewards, check out our list here of 10 completely FREE and highly rated mobile cashback and rewards apps that will save you time and help you make money on your purchases. Talk about easy savings!
Hip Tip: Speaking of free apps, have you downloaded the Hip2Save mobile app yet? We keep you in the loop on the best deals, coupons, and offers for all of your favorite stores while on-the-go!
2. Clip digital coupons on your phone.
Many grocery stores offer digital coupons directly in their mobile app – so all you have to do is clip the offers on your phone before or while you’re shopping! Then, head to checkout and the discount will either come off at the register when you scan your loyalty card or a barcode found on your phone. Easy peasy!
Here are 15 grocery & retail mobile apps that offer digital coupons:
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- CVS/Pharmacy
- Dollar General
- H-E-B
- JCPenney
- Jewel Osco
- Kohl’s
- Kroger
- Meijer
- Publix
- Rite Aid
- Safeway
- Sprouts Farmer’s Market
- Target
- Walgreens
- Whole Foods
3. Shop online and use promo codes.
Instead of spending hours clipping coupons, a great way to save is by shopping online! Walmart Grocery Pickup is one of our favorite options as you can shop the sales and even apply promo codes to save on your entire order. Then just head to the store and pick up your order, without getting out of your car!
Current Walmart Grocery Pickup promo codes:
- DELIVERY – Free home delivery on $50 order, up to $9.95 value (exp. 1/31/21)
- WOWFRESH – $10 off first $50 order (new customers; limited time)
- SAVETIME – $10 off first $50 order (new customers; exp. 1/31/21)
Another option is to shop Amazon’s Subscribe & Save deals for Beauty, Grocery, Personal Care, Pet, Household, and more. Not only can you shop from home, but you’ll score free shipping, discounts with clippable coupons, and up to an additional 15% off whenever you add five or more items to your subscription. Sweet! We also have a post here sharing inexpensive “filler” items to get to the five S&S items needed for the 15% off discount.
Whether paper coupons disappear one day or not, Hip2Save will always focus on the hottest deals and the best ways to save you and your family lots of money. 🙌
For us, it’s about so much more than the coupons. This lifestyle allows us to continually pay it forward to people in need and to people who could use a little brightness in their day. ❤️
Now it’s your turn! Do you think paper coupons will be going away any time soon? Let us know in the comments!
Meijer’s also offers digital coupons. They opened one several months ago here in northeast Ohio and I shop there frequently and use the digital ones when available.
Thanks for mentioning that! Meijer has been added to the list!
Jewel & fresh thyme both digital
Thanks so much for letting us know! That has been added as well!
Just lower prices. It’s stupid to make us search for and save and than redeem these coupons.
That’s not going to happen. Stores aren’t looking to “help shoppers save money.” Coupons are promotional tools. To those who invest the effort go the savings. Which is why I generally simplify things and shop at Aldi and Lidl for staples and fill in from loss leaders at other stores.
Same here. I can spend $60 at Aldi for full stocked fridge and pantry and no stress with refused coupons or being accused of copying.
same
I seem to recall a JCP executive who had that same idea. When it was implemented though shoppers everywhere protested that they wanted the coupons for the satisfaction of seeing the discount come off of their purchase! It also nearly sent JCP into bankruptcy. Sorry, not too sure of all of those facts as it was a few years ago and I am not in the mood to research JCP.
I remember, when they brought the Apple guy that thought he knew better and knew nothing about who were JCP core customers. He lasted a year and a half. There is an interesting article about this…
https://business.time.com/2013/04/09/the-5-big-mistakes-that-led-to-ron-johnsons-ouster-at-jc-penney/
I remember this to. Sears tried the same thing. We like to see the 25% or 50% off signs. Didn’t work for either store.
There’s very few coupons for food items on coupons.com right now, they use to have tons.
The Sunday coupon inserts have been trending that way more and more, also. More non-food coupons, and too few for food!
Even the grocery stores’ own digital coupons are heavy on the non-food items.
Too much fraud, people printing the same coupon a bunch of times. I would just rather get them in the mail or ask the manufacturer to send them if they want me buying their stuff.
And CheckOut 51 and SavingStar hardly have any “coupon” offers now…
yes! After i reach my minimum on Ibotta Im gonna axe it all…done with this stupid .10 here and .10 there….
I’m hoping it’s just down because they know people aren’t shopping in person much right now, due to the virus. Maybe it will pick back up again.
I find paper coupons easier to use when I’m following a list. I live in a small town though, so most of the checkers know me and don’t accuse me of fraud. The app coupons are good for when I need to pick things up in a hurry, but I almost always use paper ones when I need to buy multiple items or want to check things off as I shop. The digital ones are usually okay, but some store apps can be glitchy when it comes to actually making sure the coupons come off my total (looking at you, Walgreen’s!), which can cause all sorts of problems when I check out with a whole cart full of items.
Also the paper ones are easier bc some managers are more likely to key them in (vs digital) bc with a physical one they get the money back (when they key in the amount eg $1), but with digital, if they key it in, they don’t get the money back (unless at like cvs they have sequence codes on the digitals that they can put in the register)… sometimes the digitals don’t come through at places like cvs or at Walgreens if you have register rewards (at least for me) they ALWAYS kick off the digital coupons 🙄🙄🙄🙄 vs with paper coupons for some reason they go through with the register rewards, no problem… digitals can be so frustrating (and if you have a big haul, making sure all the digitals come off is harder than handing over the paper ones and seeing them come off)
I use many of the apps like Target, Walgreens etc. I still like paper manufacturer’s coupons. Many times I have wasted so much ink and paper and printed coupons I never used.My pet peeve is that the paper coupons expire so fast, especially now. We are on pause in NY and will not be out again, until at least 5-15, probably longer. Many of yesterday’s coupons expire on 5-20. Honestly we will only be shopping every 2 weeks for what we need for the next few weeks. I am glad to see the L’Oreal and Maybelline coupons, but will not need makeup for many weeks. I am sure I am like most of you and have not put makeup on for 6 weeks! We normally go to the suburbs to shop and don’t go every week, so the coupons expire before we go! Also I hate that P&G no longer puts that Tide coupons in the inserts! I depend on Hip2Save as we rarely get circulars in our building and in our newspapers! Thank you fro all you do!
You’re SO very welcome, acgold! Thank YOU for the kind words. 🤗 Glad to help you grab what your family needs on the cheap. Stay safe. 💕
Bjs, price chopper, and shop rite also offer digital coupons. I live in NY and they have suspended all paper coupons and are only accepting digital for now.
I do both but prefer newspaper coupons. Usually the amount is higher.
I have noticed that store sales haven’t been what they used to be and digital coupons ( at least for Kroger) have been lacking.
I am fed up of going to Target/Walmart with printed coupon and they are looking at me as though I am a thief/Cheater and refusing coupon/not allowing more than one coupon/ accusing of copying the same coupon/not scanning coupons properly and saying it is already been used/ telling they stopped honouring coupons.
I am glad to shop with digital coupons than this no good internet coupons.
I’ve just been throwing away my coupons from the paper and mailers. They’re only good for about a month out and I don’t expect things to be back to normal by then. I’ve been doing grocery pick-up and they don’t take coupons for that.
I buy groceries for my church’s food pantry & toiletries for another organization. Therefore using only 1 digital coupon from stores is not much help. Folks at church know I do this and bring me their extra paper coupons. When Meijer went to a limit of 2 coupons per type per transaction was a real killer.
I hope so. Paper coupons are a HASSLE. The cutting, the printing, the organizing, the WASTE of paper when you don’t use a coupon… switching to digital and offering more + double uses on some would save time, energy, and even trees. (Paper)
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I used to be an extraordinary couponer in the heyday of the Grocery Game — rolling ECBs, Riteaid Rewards, re-loading the WAG old rebate card, and getting lots of free groceries and personal care items to donate to a Women’s shelter. It seems like those opportunities have all disappeared — I no longer set food in CVS, WAG, and RA. It’s been at least a year since I bought *anything* at one of those drugstores. Even the mass grocery stores don’t want to accept even newspaper coupons OR printed coupons most of the time, and so I’ve just given up. I stopped getting the newspaper, rarely print out a coupon, and mostly buy at places like Trader Joe’s and Costco, where prices are good to begin with. Once a month I *might* do a Target run in the pre-pandemic era, using their app and Ibotta, but it was rarely more than a few items, and usually with a giftcard category deal (like $10 back on beauty or laundry). I’m pretty much done with coupon-hunting though — the food is mostly junk, the personal care items are crap, and I’d rather buy what I want when a store like Sprouts has 25% off their entire personal care department with more natural stuff. All of my extended family have given up on serious couponing too. We buy a lot less, and get stuff we actually use up and want. I donate money to the Food Bank now instead of goods, and they can put it to use where it’s most needed.
I totally forgot about the Grocery Game. Man, those were the days! 🙂 My stockpile has certainly come in handy these days. My 16 year old was giving me a hard time with all of our “hoarded” paper products, but we’ve been in “lockdown” since March 17 and haven’t had to buy any (not that there are any to be found here).
I completely agree- maybe we were spoiled by being able to use the paper coupons and store sales, while now that is tougher. I think post pandemic, most coupons will only be digital (we were heading that way anyway) given that none of my stores are currently accepting paper coupons anyway- too many germs. Which is fine with me. This has pushed BJs to put all their coupons on digital- used to be only some- and I hope they keep that change. With less incentives to buy things I wouldn’t normally, I only buy what I need when its only sale and spend about the same. I have slightly less shampoo to give away, but I can live with that 😉
All stores have been accepting coupons here where I live throughout the pandemic (target, cvs, Walgreens, Walmart, etc) 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️ Money has and always will have more germs (among other things) than paper coupons 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️ (Money is basically the dirtiest thing- aside from newly minted money)
Paper coupons for laundry products are almost non-existent because of a combination of fraud, theft of coupons from the Sunday papers, and shelf clearing just for people to resell laundry products at yard sales and flea markets. Coupons for laundry products either have to be printed out with a limit of 1 and be used the next day or be digitally downloaded.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m going to make my own laundry products. It’s cheaper and there’s a lot less chemicals being used anyways.
I am in love with the walgreens app is awesome in so many ways all I do is scanned the product and the app tells me if there’s any coupons available for that specific item instead of arguing with cashier over coupons lol Cvs App works the same way 👌👌👌
Our groceries in Maryland always have double coupons up to $.99 (and sometimes super doubles where they double coupons up to $2–so you save $4), so a $.50 paper is much better than a $.50 digital. It would really stink if they got rid of paper coupons.
Wow, double coupons disappeared from our area ages ago. You’re lucky!
I agree! Our Safeway only doubles coupons up to 50c, but that’s one reason I prefer printed over digital. I was alarmed when I saw the headline, so I’m glad to know paper coupons are still going to be around for a while!
I used to save lots of money with coupons and stacking.
Now they seem to have it all figured out for themselves.
For instance, most will publish coupon deals and how much you will be saving.
I saved lots more when I figured it out for myself!
When they do this, I buy a lot less and do not buy without a deal!
As a Gen X-er who learned to coupon from day one from my mom (I still remember her sparkly gold coupon sorting box!), who has learned all the money-saving tips and techniques as they come along (many from this site! ♥), who is now working on teaching my three teens to save and be frugal this same way, can I just say this? I *LOVE* that y’all even wrote this post! Great info. Loved reading it. Thanks!
You’re SO very welcome! Super cool that you have been able to pass on the tradition of savings. Thank YOU for the kind words and for taking the time to comment! 🥰
I also noticed that the Maybelline and L’Oreal coupons say only one coupon per purchase. I hate that! I always wait for the buy 1 get 1 half off at Ulta on mascara, and can now only use 1 coupon instead of 2 plus the $3.50 off $15. Or when Walgreens has a great sale.
The expiration dates are very short! The stores will put an item on sale after the date expires.
I purchase the big container of yogurt at a popular grocery. They recently sent me a .25 cent coupon for 4 small yogurts. This is why I will never donate to their non profit, charity, tax write off, where they have plenty of $s for a ceo.
They act like they are giving you a bargain, but are only out for themselves!
I use paper coupons heavily. I just started couponing in March of this year. I’ve learned a lot. While I find digital coupons convenient; they aren’t enough. I also, can’t trust them to always come off. Retailers don’t seem to be flexible enough to give me the credit at the register. They refer me to pay up front and call customer service. Sitting on hold for 45+ mins waiting to be credited 1-2$ isn’t exactly helpful. Digitals get you 1-2 products for sale. Using paper coupons, I don’t have these issues. Most of the time, they go through with minimal rejections. Occasionally, I get a cashier that believes I’m taking her personal funds by using coupons, and insists on reading them line-by-line. As I gain experience, I’m learning which stores and cashiers to avoid in my area.