Coupon Interoperability

Coupon Interoperability

Ian Jacobs

W3C

Motivation

• Most coupons are still paper-based
• But mobile coupon redemption rate is 10 times better than paper
• Reasons to go digital: customization, analytics, lower distribution costs, in place offer-updates, etc.

Potential

"[A]ccording to Statista, the digital promotion platform, in 2014 more than 16 billion digital coupons were redeemed, which is expected to grow to 31 billion in 2019. Inmar’s 2014 Coupon Trends Report, also revealed that in 2013, the number of digital coupons redeemed, grew by 141 per cent in the U.S. alone."
— GSMA

Challenges

• Fragmented coupon ecosystem (regional variations)
• Complexity of coupon constraints
  • Time-sensitive
  • Location-sensitive
  • One per user
  • Only valid when conditions met

Interop Opportunity

• Lower cost of distribution to N merchants
• Lower cost of acceptance from M distributors
• Discovery (e.g., search engines)
• Customization
• Harmonized redemption experience

Some Existing Efforts

• Mobile Coupon Ad Unit from the Mobile Marketing Association
• Joint Industry Coupon committee Guidelines for digital coupons
• GS1 coupon specifications
• See also eKnow 2015 literature review

Opportunity for W3C

• Improved user experience
  • Integrate coupons into future version of payment API
  • Standards to enable payment apps to handle coupons
• Improved security
  • From strong authentication, hardware security
• Not for W3C: Identity

Workshop to Generate Momentum

• Organize a Workshop mid-2016 on coupons?
• Which IG participants interested?
• Which coupon associations (globally)?