CouponKomodo.com

It should be no surprise to anyone to hear that the use of coupons are at an all-time high.

A recent article from utsandiego.com explains how people are utilizing discount coupons like never before.

It does not take a recession to motivate people to try to save money. Obviously, tough economic times calls for savings wherever possible. Companies are definitely taking note. Coupons are being found in more places and in larger numbers.

Although the article mentions that the Sunday paper is still the best place to find coupons, other spots like in store aisles, on cereal boxes, in emails, and on websites are making coupon savings that much more ubiquitous. This can definitely be seen as a win-win for both consumers and merchants. The article mentioned some staggering numbers; consumers saved 4.6 billion dollars last year. This was 500 million dollars more than 2010.

While newspapers are still the main source for consumers to acquire the coupons that they need, the Internet is becoming a large source for savings as well. Major merchants are starting to find more ways to offer their customer some online coupons. Merchants who make it easy for their customers to purchase things through their website are seeing some large value in making coupons available on the Internet.

Kraft Food, General Mills, and Nestle are some large food companies that are certainly taking advantage of this new medium for coupon distribution. What is great about the Internet is that you do not have to be a giant company to also utilize coupon discounts. Any company can devise of ways to help their customers save some money through coupons available on their main website or other places online.

Many industry experts see coupon use continuing at high numbers even as the economy gradually improves. This makes perfect sense. If companies make it easy for their customers to save money, why wouldn’t they take advantage? This is exactly what has been happening with increasing numbers.

So good for you if you consider yourself to be a savvy consumer. Saving money is becoming easier and easier. Happy shopping.

It seems like there is another daily deal company arriving…daily. Mr. Komodo thinks this is quite amusing. It is almost as sad and amusing as the energy drink market. Please excuse the digression.

One might think that our major banking institutions might consider this fact and not try to enter an over-saturated market. This is apparently not the case, as reported in a recent article from smartmoney.com.

Banks are increasingly offering their customers daily deal-like offers through their online checking accounts. This is not that surprising when you consider the amount of personal consumer information that credit card companies have on their typical customer.

The credit card companies and banks are using the same misleading message that their offers are chances for people to save money. Mr. Komodo can see right through this message and so does the author of the SmartMoney article. The way that the author put it was that these offers are just “one more push for an unnecessary purchase“. Again, the point here is that spending is not saving.

You can’t really blame these companies too much for this strategy. After all, “money makes the world go ’round”. Apparently if everyone were to stop buying stuff, then our whole world would collapse, or something like that.

Economic sustainability is what should be promoted instead. Yes, it is OK to buy things. No, it is not OK to buy something just because you can save 60% on it. Instead, every for-profit company is trying to make as much money possible, regardless of potential consequences. This will always be dangerous in a world filled with not so savvy consumers.

Ideally, coupons should only be used on things that you know that you need and have used in the past. Very few exceptions to that rule should exist. However, it is apparent that the lure of massive discount coupon savings is driving this daily deal market. It will most likely be a question of when, not if this daily deal industry bubble pops. So do us all a favor and be smart with your coupon decisions.

Mr. Komodo recently stumbled across a good coupon related article from the St. Louis, MO division of The Better Business Bureau.

The BBB has always been a trusted source for good consumer advice, and info about coupons online and coupons in general. The article detailed some basic advice that all consumers should follow before using any kind of coupon.

First of all, we should look at some numbers to see why this advice is most needed. More than 330 billion coupons were supposedly issued in 2010. The total value of all of these coupons were more than a billion dollars. Coupon industry analysis shows that this trend should have increased through 2011 and will even more in 2012.

The point of showing these numbers is to exemplify how important it is for the average consumer to be aware of proper coupon habits. The fact is that a coupon might sound like a completely positive idea, but this does not have to be the case at all.

The President and CEO of the BBB, Michelle L. Corey, said it best – “There’s no reason to buy products simply because you can save money on them“. Mr. Komodo has been saying this for years. This is exactly why he dislikes all of those daily deal sites out there. The bottom line is this – spending is not saving. It is amazing how this simple idea can be lost on so many people.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with taking advantage of some free coupons online. However, they should be used on products and services that you definitely need. This is why CouponKomodo.com strives to only showcase the most popular and trusted merchants online. The products and services offered by them are the most widely used and needed items that you will find.

Although much of the advice from the BBB article discusses coupons that are used in physical store locations, there is one piece of advice that bears repeating. That piece of advice is to only clip coupons on products or services that you already use. It also does mention “want to try”, but you should use caution here. Otherwise, you could end up buying a bunch of stuff that you do not end up using. This is what you need to avoid if you want to become a smart coupon user.

Being the frugal dragon that he is, Mr. Komodo likes to keep informed about trends in the coupon and daily deals industries.

He recently stumbled upon a good article from practialecommerce.com. The article basically analyzed the current “daily deals” companies to see how things might be shaping up for them in the near future. The main focal point came from the point of view of the merchants that have been doing business with the main players like Groupon and LivingSocial. The question that the article attempted to answer was, will merchants do more or less business with the daily deal sites in the near future?

Although these sites and the business that they do are not predicted to dwindle much, Mr. Komodo agrees with the main conclusion of the article. One of the main predictions is that more merchants will need to see a better return on investment from these new social coupon services. In a typical situation, a merchant has to not only severely cut the prices of a given product or service, but then obviously split revenue with the daily deal company. This leaves little-to-no profit left for the merchant.

This can end up turning into some kind of mass advertising campaign that is very unlikely to increase profits for the merchant. Most of the analysis so far shows that a high percentage of daily deals consumers do not purchase much in addition to the original coupon. For many merchants, the only way that they make money is by turning a daily dealer into a long term, repeat customer. This has not been the case for most merchants.

A very shocking and unfortunate statistic about consumers here is that about 20% of these purchased coupons go unused. That’s right, this easily amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions in money down the drain. The merchant and the daily deal site keep the money, but the consumer obviously loses here.

Google and PayPal also have big plans for getting their slice of this coupon pie. Google Offers is currently in 20 different markets as part of their “beta testing”. PayPal plans on hitting the mobile market pretty heavy with a GPS feature on smartphones to offer location-based deals.

While the initial allure of these companies and the discount coupons they offer starts to wear off, it seems that they are not going anywhere anytime soon. Mr. Komodo thinks that they will fade much sooner. It appears to be very unstable for 2 out of 3 of the parties involved. One possibility for longevity here is that the coupon companies might have to accept much less revenue and offer lower discounts. This just might make the merchants want to stick around for a while and keep working with these coupon giants.

2012 is now well under way as January is almost half way over.

Hopefully all of you have been keeping your New Year’s Resolutions so far. You should, it has only been a couple of weeks so far. Mr. Komodo is willing to bet that many people have decided to try to save even more money this year. After all, the economy has not seemed to improve since the Great Recession began a few years ago.

The good news is that you can get many of the best coupon discounts that you are looking for right here at CouponKomodo.com. Mr. Komodo’s site includes huge coupon savings on your favorite electronics stores, dating sites, and web hosting companies just to name a few. He’ll be adding many more coupons to his site as the year progresses, so make sure to check back often.

Saving money is obviously a good habit to get into. However, it is important to make sure that you are smart about it. Just because you can get an 80% or 90% discount on something, does not mean that you should take advantage of those discounts. You have probably guessed by now that the preceding statement was referring to those very popular social coupon companies.

While those large discounts may seem too good to pass up, you should most of the time. This is because you should not be buying a bunch of extra goods and services in the first place. If you can save money on a legitimate need, then go for it. If it is something that you can most definitely go without, then don’t buy it. The real way to save money is to only spend when you need to. Who cares if you can get 80% off when it is something you would not have purchased in the first place.

This is why Mr. Komodo strives to only offer coupons on the most sought after and reputable companies that you can find online. Many of these goods and services are difficult to go without. This idea, along with the discounts you will get, represent the concept of “real value”. This is what most savvy shoppers always go out of their way to find.

So here is to wishing you a more frugal 2012!

I hope you find the best deals on the things that you truly need.

Hello and welcome to CouponKomodo.com!

We hope to become your go-to site for the coupon discounts that you need. Why the Komodo Dragon as our mascot? It is because we offer “Dangerously Good” coupon discounts and savings on some of your favorite things online.

If you have ever searched for online coupons that are reliable, you know that they can sometimes be hard to come by. We promise to offer you coupon codes that you can always count on.

We will also strive to constantly add new coupons to the site, so please check back often. Better yet, just subscribe to the feed and you can stay informed about new discounts when they arrive.

Thanks for stopping by and happy shopping!