Non-Food Marketers Grab Greater Share of Digital Coupon Space

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As the digital coupon space continues to flourish, non-food marketers are increasing their share of the market, according to a new report from Kantar Media.

The number of digital coupon "events" increased by 12.3 percent in 2011, according to the report, with non-food marketers now accounting for 40.5 percent of the overall market. That's an increase of 8 percent over 2010.

Leading the non-food categories was personal care, which represented 15.2 percent of digital coupons in 2011. Healthcare was second with 8.5 percent, followed by household products with 6.7 percent. (Healthcare showed the greatest share increase with 3.7 points.)

Food continued to dominate the space, with dry groceries accounting for 32.4 percent, and refrigerated food 16.7 percent. But all five food categories decreased as a share of the market, with the greatest decrease belonging to dry grocery, with a drop of 4.6 percent.

Taken together with previous Kantar research, the report suggests that digital coupons may now be eating into the off-line coupon market: A study from earlier this month showed a 6.5 percent decrease in free-standing insert coupons during 2011.

"The increase in the number of manufacturers that are active in the digital space makes it even more important to monitor competitive promotion activity across all media," said David Hamric, general manager of Kantar Media Marx, in the report. "Clearly, the majority of manufacturers view digital coupons and FSI coupons as complementary promotion tactics. However, the additional one-third of manufacturers that only distribute digital coupons can impact shoppers as they develop their shopping lists and plan their shopping trips."