Communications and Technology Industry Research

In a recent report, Juniper Research (News - Alert) examined the current and near-future status of mobile ticketing and coupons. This included analysis and interviews from representatives of leading organizations in this.

 

A mobile coupon, as defined by the Juniper Research, is a coupon sent and stored on a mobile phone that can be exchanged for a rebate, a financial discount, etc., at a retailer when the consumer purchases a product. Unlike their paper cousins, mobile coupons have distinct advantages allowing the issuer a direct connection with the consumer.

 

Juniper Research estimated that almost 3 billion mobile coupons will be issued to mobile users by 2011, with just under $7 billion of discounts redeemed. Mobile coupons are becoming an increasingly important tool for brand owners and retailers to provide a “push to purchase” capability for mobile marketing and advertising campaigns.

 

Factors behind this growth include cost savings on campaigns, an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU), one-to-one marketing opportunities, an increase in customer retention for mobile operators, higher conversion rates, the expansion of mobile value added services and reduced fraud.

The challenges regarding the acceptance of mobile coupons are hesitancy from some retailers to adopt mobile coupons, since doing so involves changing from the use of laser scanners to optical readers that can read barcodes, especially 2D barcodes from mobile phones.

Juniper also predicted that the emergence of near field communication (NFC) will gradually come to complement the use of mobile barcode technology.