Coupon is a voucher or a slip enabling the customer to avail a discount while purchasing a particular product. Traditionally businesses used to print and distribute coupons in volumes through newspapers and magazines. Proliferation of internet has changed all this. Now one can locate and print the desired internet coupon over the internet by visiting websites and avail the discount when the shopping is done. Manufacturers and retailers offer variety of coupons to promote their sales during lean seasons and some times to clear their old stocks.



There are basically four types of Internet coupons available online. Printable Internet coupons as name suggests can be sited online, printed at home, and exchanged at the shops for a discount. The other types are product code coupon and activated line coupons which can be only redeemed online. Product code coupons involve entering a code of alphanumeric characters during the checkout which enables them to avail certain amount of discount.

The last variety is click coupons which are transferred online to your shopping card, which avails the discount when you do shopping. User selects the coupons online and enters the grocery card number; the internet coupon discounts are applied electronically to his accounts. The next time when he goes to grocery shopping the internet coupons are automatically applied and the discount is granted.

Internet coupons are the most convenient way of getting discounts as they are easily accessible at all places. Right from newspapers to word of mouth, one can frequently hear about the names of websites who offer internet coupons and promotional codes. There are innumerable benefits to the consumer in using internet coupons. Internet coupons facilitate people as it can be sited online at any convenient hour. They are very user friendly; one can find and use them with little efforts. Printable coupons allow the people to print them at their home and use when they go for shopping.

The internet coupons are environmentally friendlier than the conventional coupons. Unlike traditional coupons, customers only print the required coupons, rather than trashing the pages of unwanted traditional printed coupons and advertisements.

As with any new technology, internet coupons are prone to some adverse effects. We often hear news about coupon scams, coupon frauds, illegal redemptions, auctioning, and so on. These illegal activates causes losses of thousands of dollars every year to manufacturers and retailers. Federal agencies and consumer organizations take actions time and again to contain such activities. Despite of all these drawbacks, internet coupons are going to stay for long helping people to save their hard earned money.