Can't Find a Working Promo Code? 65% Posted Online are Expired, According to Dealspotr Study

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- E-commerce is booming in the US, but one part of the online shopping experience that leaves much to be desired is the search for working discount codes. Consumers want to fill in that empty promo code box, but in too many cases, an online coupon search leads to a sea of expired codes and wasted time.

Dealspotr, the leading crowdsourced savings platform, conducted a study on popular coupon websites to better understand why so many coupon codes online are expired. The results were stunning: among popular and mid-tier coupon sites and browser extensions, only 35% of discount codes listed actually provided a working discount. Further, the study found that nearly half the coupon searches happening using current tools result in failure.

"Maintaining a truly accurate database of coupon codes across tens of thousands of retailers is major challenge requiring significant resources," says Dealspotr's CEO Michael Quoc. "At Dealspotr we apply crowdsourcing at scale and a technology-first approach to solve this."

Dealspotr, launched in 2015, applies crowdsourcing, gamification, and micro-incentives to solve the problem of expired coupons. The site has grown to nearly 200,000 community deal curators who make over 30,000 edits per day, keeping Dealspotr's industry-leading database of 5 million promo codes accurate, verified, and checked each day.

How Dealspotr solves the scale problem with promo codes

Coupon sites and extensions face a challenging problem of data curation at scale. To illustrate, Dealspotr provides coupon coverage for over 100,000 stores in the US alone. Currently, Dealspotr's system contains over 5 million promo codes. Across stores, an estimated 10,000 promo codes are launched each day which need to be tested, verified, and edited.

To solve the scale problem, Dealspotr has developed a sophisticated crowdsourcing platform that provides micro-incentives for community members to collaborate to keep the site's coupon codes accurate and verified at all times. Members receive points for adding codes, testing them, and removing those that don't work. Members also earn reputation and can "level up" as they participate, creating social incentives to make helpful edits that help shoppers.

Importantly, Dealspotr requires all members to provide screenshots proving that every code works as described, and to provide accompanying tips to outline rules, exclusions, and fine print so shoppers have a fully transparent view into the codes they're using.

By leveraging the power of crowdsourcing, Dealspotr has achieved the industry's highest coverage of non-expired coupons, with 3.7 times as many working coupon codes as compared to any competing site.

Stores that don't offer promo codes

Since there are many times in which a normal promo code is not available for a given store, Dealspotr goes a step further than other coupon sites to provide non-standard codes that can unlock discounts for shoppers. These include:

Friends & family referral codes. Some stores offer their customers social discount codes to share with friends. Dealspotr's platform allows members to share these codes, and will display these codes as options to shoppers looking for codes for specific stores.

Single-use codes. Some stores offer discount codes that are only good for a single use. Most coupon sites don't post these because they expire so quickly. On Dealspotr, the community can upload these codes for thousands of stores, and the platform will accurately remove them after they are used.

Third-party codes. For brands like Fitbit or Samsung that are sold on third-party stores, Dealspotr tracks site-wide codes on those third-party sites that can be used for a discount for the brand a shopper is seeking. So, on those days that Fitbit is not running a code on their own site, using Dealspotr shoppers may find a 20% off code on Fitbit watches at Best Buy that provides a discount.

Exclusive codes. Dealspotr is a business-oriented social network, like LinkedIn. Brands login to Dealspotr everyday to share exclusive discount codes only available to the Dealspotr community. In this way, shoppers can find promo codes that simply can't be found on other sites.

About the study

Over a two month period in late 2017, Dealspotr reviewed and manually tested 19,805 promo codes on 20 popular coupon sites to assess their accuracy. See the data and read the coupon site reliability report here.

About Dealspotr

Dealspotr is a crowdsourced savings platform that leverages the power of community to maintain the industry's largest and most accurate database of promo codes. With thousands of influencers in our community, brands can also tap into Dealspotr's influencer marketing platform to promote their best offers through blogs, YouTube, Instagram, and other social platforms in partnership with micro-influencers at low cost. Some brands are seeing 500% ROI on their influencer investments using Dealspotr. Learn more at https://dealspotr.com.

CONTACT: Michael Quoc, 1-310-862-6323, [email protected]

SOURCE Dealspotr

Related Links

http://www.dealspotr.com