80% of Consumers are Actively Looking for Rebates

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By US Daily Review Staff.

Parago, a global engagement management company and the US’ largest rebate provider, today unveiled its third annual consumer research study. One highlight of the 2012 research: consumer preference for rebates versus instant discounts is growing. The survey shows that while economic recovery may be on its way by the numbers, consumer sentiments around spending are still timid.

According to the study, bargain hunting is still a priority among shoppers and rebates are highly popular with consumers. In fact, today 95 percent of consumers are interested in products that come with rebates and 80 percent of consumers actively seek out rebates.

“With our third annual study of consumer shopping behavior, we have seen sustained sensitivity to price and willingness to hunt for bargains. Price perception is king, and consumers are indifferent to how that price point is achieved, whether through rebate, coupon, club or sale,” said Juli Spottiswood, Parago President & CEO. “However, because consumers understand that rebates offer deeper discounts than other sales, there is a strong interest in the promotions and shoppers are actively looking for rebates before and during the shopping experience. As such, marketers are able to leverage rebates to drive lower price perception while gaining high value customer information during the redemption process.”

The rebate research was conducted independently through online delivery and surveyed more than 1,000 consumers. Key findings include:

Consumers’ preference for higher value rebates versus instant discounts grew
80 percent of consumers look for rebates
Because rebates are only offered for a specific period of time, they make 54 percent of shoppers feel like they caught an exclusive sale
57 percent of consumers feel that rebates are easy to redeem nowadays

Today, marketers are looking at the (nearly ubiquitous) value-seeking consumer differently. Rebates and other redemption programs give consumers value, and in turn marketers are able to gain reciprocal value from their customers by gaining valuable data, opt-in and email capture in ways that coupons, clearance and sales cannot. Building a CRM strategy around a rebate campaign has become a successful way for marketers to deliver on price perception, but drive incremental value from that value-seeking consumer. This approach can also be a gateway to a long-term engagement strategy.

Parago provides consumer incentive and customer acquisition rewards to one out of every two US households, for several Fortune 500 companies and for some of the largest brands in America.