According to the company, this is an eightfold increase from $5.4 billion in value to be redeemed this year. Mobile coupons and steadily gaining momentum and many companies are using it as an incentive to drive consumers in-store.

“The key finding of the study is how important mobile coupons are becoming as enablers of the mobile commerce market generally – part of most mobile wallet launches – and particularly how important they are for bricks-and-mortar retailers in regaining the initiative they lost to online retailers during the online revolution,” said David Snow, senior analyst at Juniper Research.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

Role in mobile
According to the Juniper study, mobile coupons sit at the intersection of advertisements, payments and loyalty schemes.

Not only are mobile coupons a key catalyst for the mobile commerce market, but are essential for bricks-and-mortar retailers to help drive consumers to their locations.

More companies are incorporating mobile coupons into their day-to-day initiatives as they are a great incentive to engage consumers.

In addition, the study found that new innovative targeting techniques are being used to deliver mobile coupons.

This does not mean that the coupons are delivered solely on location.

Now, companies are looking at the consumer’s lifestyle, work patterns and real-time activity.

“The most surprising finding was how inventive some of the coupon targeting technology is – beyond location-based – and how creatively it can be used by mobile marketers,” Mr. Snow said.

Opt-in
The study also said that it is important to opt-in to mobile coupon schemes and not be subjected to unwanted promotions.

The mobile coupon builds consumer loyalty as the user enters into a permission-based exchange of information with the brand, per Juniper.

Juniper also said that companies should not ignore the potential of mobile coupons.

Not only are they going to play a major role in mobile in the coming years, but if handled the right way, mobile coupons can play an integral part in a marketer’s overall strategy.

“There’s not much of this year left, but short term there’s a lot of careful experimentation going on,” Mr. Snow said. “Marketers are running small scale campaigns on behalf of their clients, testing the market but making sure that users are not ‘turned off’ with irrelevant offers, building up loyalty user-bases in preparation for larger campaigns later.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York