A coupon revolution, years in the making, has taken a big step forward. CVS has become the first national retailer to accept a groundbreaking new type of “universal coupon” that the industry promises will be more convenient, more accessible and more secure.
CVS says an official announcement is coming next month. But in recent weeks, the drug store chain has been notifying industry insiders about the move that “modernizes and expands our coupon acceptance capabilities.” And now, CVS has been added as a “participating retailer” on the leading app offering universal coupons. So, official announcement or not, the cat’s out of the bag and the future of couponing is here.
“We’re pleased to offer these seamless, innovative and secure coupon solutions to our customers,” a CVS spokesperson said in a statement to Coupons in the News. Introduced in conjunction with real-time coupon validation at CVS’s checkouts, universal coupon acceptance will provide “a more convenient, mobile-friendly option for redeeming certain manufacturer coupons, while positive offer file validation improves real-time fraud protection at point-of-sale.”
During what CVS is currently calling “a soft launch for testing purposes,” shoppers can access these universal coupons on the Coupon24 website or app, operated by SigmaLedger. Sign up with your phone number, clip the coupons you’d like and redeem them in the store – just like you would with any other digital coupons.
But these coupons are different. All of the offers are bundled into a single bar code that the cashier can scan off your phone screen. You can clip the coupons within Coupon24, or you can access universal coupons from other sources like a manufacturer’s website, via email or text, or that you download by scanning a QR code in an ad, on a product or in a store. And the big selling point is that the coupons are not retailer-specific – you can use them anywhere universal coupons are accepted.
The addition of 7,260 CVS locations to Coupon24’s list of participating stores exponentially increases the number of locations where these universal coupons are accepted. Since the coupons were first tested at a single independently-owned grocery store in Minnesota four years ago, more than a dozen other food and drug retailers have signed on to accept the coupons, ranging from other single-store independent retailers to regional chains like Food Depot in Georgia and Texas-based Lowe’s Market.
Procter & Gamble is the primary source for coupons on Coupon24 right now, offering more than 100 coupons, while Nestle offers just five so far. The hope is that other manufacturers will join in, once the coupon format gains acceptance.
So getting a major name like CVS on board is a notable achievement for the industry-backed The Coupon Bureau, which was founded back in 2018 to manage the universal coupon initiative. The defining feature of universal coupons is, as the name suggests, their universality. While paper manufacturer’s coupons can be used anywhere coupons are accepted, the use of digital manufacturer’s coupons generally has been limited to the store where you clip them – you can’t load a digital coupon to your Kroger loyalty account and decide to use it at Target, for example. And a manufacturer can’t send you a digital coupon directly, because it has no idea where you plan to redeem it.
At the same time, earlier efforts to digitize paper coupons into a scannable mobile bar code were problematic, because – to get a bit technical – traditional coupon bar codes that begin with the prefix “8110” signify to the register to expect a physical coupon that’s needed to show proof of redemption and for the retailer to get reimbursed.
So, long technical story short, The Coupon Bureau was tasked with managing an industry-wide transition from 8110 coupon bar codes to bar codes that start with a new 8112 prefix. 8112 coupons are individualized, so they can only be scanned and redeemed once; they don’t require a paper trail, so they can be offered in physical or digital formats; and they can more easily be validated on the spot, by comparing them against a list of all known legitimate coupon offers.
And since they can be used anywhere that 8112 coupons are accepted – they’re “universal.”
“Universal coupons set a new industry standard and create exciting opportunities for brands, shoppers and retailers alike,” Brett Watson, CEO of The Coupon Bureau, told Coupons in the News. “We are thrilled to announce our recent connectivity with CVS, marking a major milestone in our mission to revolutionize the way shoppers save money. With Universal Coupons, shoppers can now enjoy increased savings, flexibility, and convenience at any stand-alone CVS location.”
Even positive change takes some getting used to, and the long process of getting all stakeholders on board – retailers, manufacturers, coupon processors, coupon providers, marketers and consumers – hasn’t always been easy, as some have expressed skepticism about the initiative. Do retailers who currently enjoy a captive audience with their loyalty-based coupon programs really want to embrace digital coupons that their customers can use somewhere else? Do manufacturers who already have to work with multiple vendors and platforms to issue paper coupons, digital load-to-card coupons, cash-back offers and in-store promotions really want to issue offers in yet another format on even more platforms? Do consumers who already juggle multiple retailer and cash-back apps – not to mention those who are digitally disconnected – really want to embrace yet another coupon format that involves an app and your phone?
The Coupon Bureau hopes CVS’s embrace of universal coupons represents just the tipping point that the format needs to become more universally accepted by everyone in the months and years to come. As more retailers begin accepting the coupons, and more manufacturers begin offering them, more consumers will be able to use them anywhere they’d like to shop – finally making this long-awaited new coupon format truly “universal.”
Image sources: CVS/Coupon24
