The global redemption rate of mobile coupons will average at over 8% by 2016 or an eightfold increase over the best paper coupons campaigns, a report said.
The Juniper Research report also said North American and Western European markets are now beginning to follow the same growth path as the Far East and China and by 2016 there will be over 600 million regular mobile coupon users worldwide.
The report found that mobile coupons have compelling advantages over their paper and online antecedents and are particularly strategic for bricks and mortar retailers in their quest to regain ground lost to online retailers during the internet revolution.
A mobile coupon bridges the divide between online and physical retailing and can be individually targeted to drive footfall to stores.
The report warned however, that the rise in mobile coupon redemption rates will only come after an initial period of experimentation by both coupon issuers and users, during which redemption rates may actually decrease slightly. After this period redemption rates will then start to rise steadily.
The report added that the integration of mobile coupons and mobile payment data is rare and an untapped opportunity and redemption values will exceed $43 billion globally by 2016, driven by better targeting and mobile apps.