Sunnyvale, California — Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc., on Monday unveiled a new website called Yahoo Deals, a site that provide daily deals, online coupons, grocery coupons, local coupons, store circulars and exclusive deals and shopping related tips in a searchable format, and also includes social and community features as well as video content.
According to the release, the company claimed that web searches for “printable coupons” on Yahoo are up 50 percent in 2009, as compared to that in the same time in 2008, and up 135 percent compared to 2007. The most favorite coupon-related Web searches in the past month have been for pizza restaurants, major retailers and grocery coupons, the release stated.
The site offers some decent deals right up front, offering both online bargains and printable coupons for brick-and-mortar stores. Yahoo has struck a partnership with Coupons.com. As mainstream news readers abandon their print subscriptions for online news sources, Yahoo’s alternative form of coupon clipping is likely to increase brand loyalty and help families weather the recession.
Said Greg Hintz, head of Yahoo Shopping: “Frugality is the new cool. We now know that couponing and bargain hunting are losing their mark and are now a regular habit for many people. Our goal at Yahoo is to be the center of people’s online lives and we are making Yahoo the easiest place for consumers to find and manage the coupons and deals that are relevant to their lives.”
Some “Overwhelming Offers” appear to vanish quickly, like the so-called “Bag of Crap” on Woot.com: another offer that came-up on the Yahoo page was a coupon for $40 back when you spent $44.99 at OmahaSteaks. Those coupons (10 were available) vanished rather quickly, I imagine. Coupons can be saved, however, and the site allows you to search for deals that are in your ZIP code or local area.
The daily deals section is by far the most fascinating feature as users can check for deals in the verticals of their choice and be redirected to daily sale sites like Smart Bargains and Woot via Sellout.Woot. But now, Yahoo finally gets a chance to really display their 2007 Woot partnership in a shopping experience that isn’t a maze of click-thrus. For those readers who are already following Woot on Twitter, you may want to also follow Yahoo Deals and increase your chances of scoring cheap computer equipment or stereo gear.
The site also accumulates circulars from Target and others, in addition to a small microsite that focuses on deals that are available from Visa. Other partners include Ecobunga! and Greenzer (for eco-friendly products); TechBargains.com and LogicBUY (for computers and electronics); plus coupons and deals on a variety of products from CouponAlbum, CouponMountain, BradsDeals.com and Dealnews, Yahoo said.
The revamped Yahoo Deals feature includes:
- Grocery coupons for kitchen staples through Coupons.com
- Offers for local chain and neighborhood restaurants, retailers and service providers provided by Valpak
- Exclusive deals from new partners including Visa and Next Jump; Ecobunga and Greenzer (for eco-friendly products); TechBargains.com and LogicBUY (for computers and electronics); plus coupons and deals on products from CouponAlbum, CouponMountain, BradsDeals.com and Dealnews
- Video stories on consumer shopping trends and savings tips provided by Inside Edition
- Gas finder module that helps users find the cheapest gas by zip code
- Improved search function to help users quickly find deals from across the site
- New social features that allow shoppers to share deals with friends via email and popular social networks, and to save deals for later use
- A new community feature that lets users post or read comments on each deal
Online couponing has been growing rapidly for awhile, but the momentum increased when the economy went south. As for the coupons section, if Yahoo Deals gains real momentum, coupon clippers might be found abusing office supplies (namely toner cartridges and paper) across the country. One great way to combat the waste of old school coupon clipping would be for Yahoo to offer a mobile version complete with scannable bar codes. This way a deal finder could simply load up their mobile phone with the correct bar codes and cashiers could scan the jpegs.
A Yahoo! survey displays that 43% of participants are using coupons more than they did a year ago. It also showed that if online coupons were easier to find, 76% of women would be motivated to use them more.
Even more, 59% reported feeling good when they use coupons. When people feel good about buying your product, that’s a huge association.
Yahoo Deals also provides a Twitter feed that churns out deals in real-time.