There are fewer coupons in your Sunday newspaper. Fewer coupons you can print yourself. Fewer ways to bring down what seem like ever-rising grocery prices.
Remember when couponing was fun? When saving was simple, and discounts were plentiful?
A new startup wants to help brands and shoppers alike to go back to the days when offering and using coupons was as fun as it was profitable, by bringing the “joy” back to couponing, with a modern twist.
CoupJoy has launched as a new coupon provider, featuring a mix of the new and old. The “tried and true” coupons it offers are available in a printable coupon gallery, which some might consider a throwback to another time, but others are likely to welcome as a renewal of a format that some bigger players have left behind in recent years.
The new coupons that CoupJoy plans to offer in the weeks and months ahead are universal digital coupons, which you can use at any store that accepts them, and you won’t need an app or any special download to access.
With these offers, CoupJoy is “focused on bringing a little more fun (and joy) back into the coupon world,” CoupJoy CEO Eddy Watson told Coupons in the News. “CoupJoy aims to make the entire coupon process easier and more seamless, from creation and distribution to discovery and redemption.”
Watson was the longtime president of coupon provider Qples, which had similar aims to be a premier printable and universal digital coupon destination several years ago. But that effort stalled as the company transitioned to new ownership. So Watson has moved on, and hopes CoupJoy will be the vehicle to bring his coupon vision to life.
The new company’s main mission is to help jump-start the universal digital format. Since CVS began accepting them late last year, many shoppers have become familiar with this new type of coupon via the Coupon24 app. Clip a selection of mobile coupons from participating brands, bundle them all into a single bar code, scan it at any one of about two dozen participating retailers representing thousands of stores across the country, and get your discounts, without having to deal with paper or load anything to a loyalty card.
Universal digital coupons “are secure, single-use, and universally accepted across participating retailers, offering a seamless and fraud-resistant experience for both consumers and businesses,” CoupJoy explains. You can’t reuse them, or redeem a screenshot, or create counterfeits like older coupon formats. And they can be distributed via email or text, on social media, in apps or on websites, to “reach consumers wherever they are.”
“It allows brands to actually control their own marketing,” Watson said. “They can take that coupon and put it anywhere.” By using CoupJoy as their universal digital coupon provider, the pitch is that brands can get their offers directly into their customers’ hands without making them download yet another app to fumble around with at the store. “We want to make it as simple as possible for consumers,” Watson said. “If they go to CoupJoy, they see a coupon, it actually delivers and they can redeem it right there.”
CoupJoy’s first universal digital coupon is set to launch in the coming weeks. Until then, CoupJoy offers a growing selection of coupons you can print yourself.
“It is kind of an old format,” Watson acknowledged about the print-at-home offers. “But the reason it’s still around is, it still works. And the industry doesn’t have a replacement for it.” Universal digital coupons have long been seen as that very replacement, but the format is still a work in progress, as brands and retailers very slowly get on board. Anticipating that they will continue to do so, “I see print-at-home fading,” Watson said, “but I don’t see it going away completely.”
In looking to the future, then, CoupJoy is aiming to preserve an older format as well. Print-at-home is “nice and inclusive, in that it’s not eliminating people who don’t have a smartphone,” Watson said. So while some may gravitate to universal digital coupons as they become more prevalent, printables still have a fan base that hasn’t had quite as many options lately.
So whether you’re happy with the tried and true, or looking forward to the next couponing innovation, the industry’s newest coupon provider aims to have you covered either way. And if it brings you a little extra “joy” in the process – even better.
