• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, September 2, 2010

September is National Coupon Month, and it's no secret that the recession ignited an American love affair with the humble little coupon. Whether shoppers cut them out with scissors, searched for them online, or stored them as text messages, coupon use grew by double digits every quarter of 2009, especially among affluent shoppers.

But it looks like the coupon craze may be losing steam. "While coupon use gained 13% in the first quarter of this year, it grew only 1% in the second quarter," Matthew Tilley, director of marketing for Inmar Corp., tells Marketing Daily. "And while that is still way up from two years ago and we expect to see somewhere between 3.3 and 3.5 billion coupons redeemed this year, the increases are sort of leveling off. We're not sure yet if the slower growth is just a blip, or a trend."

For now, the biggest changes in couponing continue to be demographic, Luke Knowles, founder of Coupon Sherpa and www.ilovecouponmonth.com, tells Marketing Daily. "The typical coupon user is still likely to be a mom with kids, and she still uses coupons mostly for groceries. But she is younger and more affluent. And she is more interested in different technology around coupons, whether that's the Internet, her cell phone, or discounts downloaded to a loyalty card."