Magazine: Hungarian consumers took a liking to coupons

This summer bonuses, coupons and vouchers were covered widely in the media. The reason of this popularity was a study on the topic, published by GKIeNet and BCE E-business Research Centre. After the success of Groupon, about 50 coupon websites were launched in Hungary and on average they offer products and services with a 50-percent discount. Websites receive a 30-50 percent commission after sales realised. For shops it is good that coupon users often buy other products or services too and they are likely to return as well. Coupon websites are expected to generate sales between HUF 2 billion or 3 billion this year. Ágnes Ladányi, sales director with KuponOk told Trade magazin that shoppers need to be educated about how to use and look for coupons, which is impossible without proper distribution channels and quality services. The company’s experience is that some of their partners try to strengthen consumer loyalty with coupons, while others attempt to activate passive members of target groups or support product launches. Gábor Bombera, managing director of Infonity Kft. – they operate the website kupon.hu – is of the opinion that a well-prepared and executed coupon promotion represents real value in the eye of customers and greatly influences the venue and object of shopping. Online coupons are cheap to distribute and their efficiency can be measured easily. Prerequisites of successful implementation: precisely defining the offered discount and its conditions on the coupon, creating the environment for coupon usage in stores, training and involvement of store personnel. Many coupon advertisers use Origo’s portfolio, in 9 different categories: beauty, gastronomy, travel, entertainment, experience, wellness, sports, education, health. Some of them exclusively advertise here and certain advertisers plan 10 times bigger budgets for online advertising than for offline activities – informs Kornél Huber, Origo’s sales executive. Origo registered a 178-percent growth in list price spending by the top 8 advertisers in the first 6 months of 2011, and for the second half of the year they forecast an 18-percent growth at the minimum. Mobile applications are becoming increasingly important as iPhone and Android owners can browse discount offers. Sodexo Motivation Solutions provide employee benefit and recognition programme services. Employee benefits belong to 4 tax categories and the most poplar of these are hot meal vouchers (with a 19.04-percent tax imposed), which can be used in more than 40,000 places in Sodexo’s network. Marketing director Boglárka Dezse told Trade magazin that their latest product is BÓNUSZ voucher, which is easy to acquire, manage and store, plus recipients can use it for several different purposes. From this year the voucher can be ordered in customised Premium Packaging and used to reward or motivate partners or employees. Sodexo vouchers are regularly given to more than one million employees and coupons/coupon books are attached to these vouchers – the goal is to call the attention of voucher users to certain places of usage and to offer them favourable deals. KuponOk developed a coupon dispenser that gives out the coupon right next to the product. The company also offers clearing, distribution, coordination, measuring and tracking services. Infonity Kft. specialises in fashion, online shops and FMCG with kupon.hu and they forecast an increase in the number of online coupons, together with the growing popularity of social shopping websites. Sodexo’s expert reckons that in the future coupons will not be distributed in voucher envelopes but on cards, creating new opportunities for both users and shops offering discounts.