How is AI driving the future of coupon marketing? Share via

The thing with discounts is, the more, the merrier. Everyone loves discounts. And brands have been using discount coupons for many years to get the customers to buy their products. According to various surveys, more than 60 percent of shoppers use a coupon to get a better deal. But simply dishing out coupons to consumers without a strategy will diminish the promotion’s value and start impacting its performance. And since every brand in the digital space is now looking to gain market share and is hungry for the consumer’s attention,  the shoppers are loaded with several promotions throughout and will redeem the ones which are more suited to their needs.

Companies increasingly use artificial intelligence to understand what coupons will work with the customers, which shopper demographic needs to be targeted, and when to reach the potential consumers to increase the conversion rate. To get the best result from a brand’s coupon-marketing strategy, it needs to be on point, and artificial intelligence is helping brands achieve the best outcome.

With artificial intelligence, companies understand a large amount of shoppers’ data that is available to them and make decisions according to the findings. AI programs collect the buying patterns and insights from the information provided by the customers on the shopping websites to assume their future purchase patterns. Moreover, based on those assumptions, companies start reaching out to buyers who are more likely to purchase using those coupons.

In addition, artificial intelligence has also helped brands retain their consumers who would generally not shop again with them after making their first purchases. There are instances when the shopper would abandon their shopping cart looking for the best discount coupons, never to return. However, with artificial intelligence, websites today suggest the most appropriate coupon at checkout, leading to better conversions.

Also, having a clear idea about the customer who will use the discount coupon and is likely to make further purchases alongside, based on the purchase history, is paramount for the brands. Artificial intelligence does precisely the same. Browsing through the consumers’ shopping history and by understanding their buying behavior, AI sends the promotional offers to the specifically targeted customer set, which is assumed to drive future sales.

Various research reports have found that personalized coupons work way better than random ones. If the user feels that the brand is making a genuine attempt to make them shop by offering tailor-made promotions, they are more likely to purchase. Therefore, companies have constantly increased their focus on creating personalized offers for their patrons using artificial intelligence, which has shown positive results.

Finally, the emergence of chatbots in consumer-facing businesses has added an exciting dimension to the coupon marketing world. With companies relying heavily on chatbots for frequently asked queries and essential information, the AI bots have worked well to extract the intricate details about the shopping behavior and the likes and dislikes of the consumers they interact with. Chatbots dole out the most meaningful coupon to the consumer based on the interaction, getting the customer to shop more at their stores.  Since it is a personalized coupon sent privately to the consumer, its chances of misuse diminish drastically.

As companies reliance on coupons will increase in the coming times, their need to develop a newer and innovative coupon strategy will also take center stage. It will boil down to how they use artificial intelligence in their operations and how smart it could become to find ways to make the coupon marketing strategy more efficient, in sync with the changing times.