• January 19, 2009

Consumers who were highly sensitive to price due to the economic conditions paved the way for an increase in online deal seeking in December, per Hitwise.

The weekly market share of visits to coupon Web sites increased 15% from the previous year during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and also increased 16% during the week of Cyber Monday. Overall, visits to the custom category of 70 Web sites increased 17% and 12% in November and December, respectively, as compared to the previous year.

In December 2008, the most commonly visited product categories following a visit to a Web site within the coupon category were department stores, computers, and appliances/electronics.

Many shoppers were looking for coupons from a specific retailer or brand, suggesting that many coupon searchers may be further along in the purchasing funnel and are close to making the purchase, but may have needed some type of final incentive, according to Heather Dougherty, research director at Hitwise.

For the week ending Dec. 27, 2008, 69% of the searches for the top 300 search terms that include "coupons" also included a specific brand such as Pizza Hut, JCPenney, or Target. The other 31% of searches to include the term "coupons" were generic in nature-- seeking out grocery coupons, online coupons, and free printable coupons.--Tanya Irwin