Getting coupons online, whether they are printable, in code form, or able to scan right off of your phone, can save you a lot of money and can get you some great items that you thought you may never afford. For the consumer and businesses, online coupons are probably one of the greatest inventions since the Internet came into being. However, there can be cons to online coupons, and these cons are mostly for the businesses that the coupons are for. Learning about both the pros and the cons of online coupons can help you make wise decisions when purchasing items from your favorite store, as well as give you a better insight as to how coupons effect businesses.

When people are browsing Internet blogs or coupon websites, they could see an advertisement or coupon for a certain business that they have never shopped at before. The ability to attract new customers is one of the pros of using free online coupons. This can be for online retailers or for stores with physical locations. People will see that you have a deal and they will want to take advantage of it. If they like what they see from your business, they may want to come back again, and they may tell other people about the business, too. You can also make them repeat customers if you have them provide an e-mail address, and you can send them more coupons, and updates about in store deals.

Another positive outcome from online coupons is that it can move inventory. If you have an excess of items that you want to be rid of, or they are slow moving products, putting out a specific coupon for this item may help the item sell faster. If an item is at a lower price, people will be more compelled to buy it. Especially if you put the original price of the item on the coupon, and show how much the customer will be saving, they will see the great deal and buy the item.

One last pro is that online coupons help advertise your business. When a person is on social media, or browsing sites like Groupon.com or RetailMeNot.com, you can put an advertisement for your coupon on the sites. This will alert people about your business, and it will show a wide audience that your business is about helping people save money with coupons.

Although online coupons seem like they can be very beneficial, there are a few cons that come along with them. One con is that when people see online coupons for your site or business, they may only come in for that one deal and not come back. They will find that paying a much lower price for a product is not as nice as paying a discounted rate.

Another con that can happen with online coupons is that it attracts the wrong type of customer for your business. People who use online coupons often do not like to purchase beyond the value of a coupon. They are only there for the deal, so there are low rates of spending, as well as low rates of return. These customers will rarely ever pay full value for an item, meaning you will only attract them when there is a deal.

A final negative that can occur when having online coupons is that it may lose your business money. You will have to calculate whether that discount will make a difference in your profit margin. You may be bringing more customers into the store, but because they are paying much less for an item, you may not actually make enough money to make a profit.

Although it may be hard for consumers to see anything but the positives that come along with online coupons, businesses can actually suffer from providing customers with these online deals. Making sure that everything breaks even, and the business is also flourishing because of the coupons, will keep both consumer and business happy.