Discounts and sales epitomize the consumer culture of the holidays. Conversely, major retailers emphasize the importance of strong fourth-quarter earnings on their balance sheet. Both parties’ best friend, the coupon, equalizes this proverbial holiday-season showdown.

The coupon affords the retailer the opportunity to hinge certain discounts on the chance that the customer possesses the voucher. Therefore the volume of customers who aren’t holding a coupon offsets the merchant’s discount.

For the buyers, coupons act as a utility to enhance peace of mind. By justifying a purchase with instant savings, the customer’s likelihood to remain loyal to a merchant, as well as walk away with a positive attitude from the shopping experience, increases.

Couponing has been an American pastime since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Today, merchants and customers are evolving to make coupons more accessible in the digital age. Several smartphone applications have been introduced to make the process more seamless for both parties during the holiday crunch time.

Foursquare, the location-based check-in social network, allows merchants to post discounts for customers who either enter their store or purchase a certain item. The user base of 25 million blossomed into one of the largest worldwide social networks, mainly because of its ability to discover new places and keep track of where your friends were hanging out.

Now, Foursquare is testing a new rating system that differs greatly than competitors like Yelp. Yelp rates locales in a very linear manner. By using a five-star approach, the customer only is able to browse the smattering of reviews and their corresponding star value. Foursquare has instituted several metrics that it feels better rate businesses, such as tips, popularity, likes, dislikes, loyalty and local expertise.

As Foursquare places less emphasis on the check-in aspect of its corporate structure, it is appropriating more resources to its business search function. The hope is that when businesses see the revamped rating structure, they will more likely use it as a platform to offer discounts because ratings tailor to the businesses expertise.

Another smartphone application that has increased in popularity this past year is Shopkick. This start-up has partnered with major retailers such as Toys “R” Us, Simon Malls, Best Buy, Old Navy, American Eagle and many more. This application allows smartphone users to be checked into a store automatically upon them entering the building. A user can also gather points by scanning barcodes and trying on clothes in the store.

Each one of these check-in tasks equates to a certain point value. After many trips to a store or many price checks, these points can be redeemed for coupons or gift cards at one of the partnering retail stores.

Apple’s release of iOS 6 and the Passbook application allows merchants to make online coupons available for instant download onto the iPhone. Sears and Barnes & Noble are two major retailers that are wielding the power of the iPhone to jumpstart their holiday season shopping frenzy.

When an Apple Passbook is presented at a place of business, the merchant scans the image of the barcode displayed on the screen of the iPhone and the discount is applied. The ubiquity of the iPhone coupled with the easy integration for retailers will likely make this a popular choice this holiday season.

It has yet to be seen if these digital coupons will play a significant role in the holiday shopping season, but if these micro deals amount to significant cost savings for budget-strapped consumers, then this new way of saving money may become more popular.

Jared Rosen is a sophomore advertising and marketing management major. His column appears weekly. He can be contacted at [email protected] or followed on Twitter at @jaredmarc14.

Published on November 13, 2012 at 2:23 am