Juniper Research (News - Alert) has released new figures that show that retailers will, by 2011, will send out 3 billion mobile coupons. The figures also go on to demonstrate that just under $7 billion of these discounts will actually be used.

The study conducted by Juniper Research states that mobile coupons are a valuable marketing tool for vendors. These vendors range from brand owners to retailers, and they are looking to provide a `push to purchase' capability for mobile marketing and advertising campaigns.

The important factors which are responsible for the general movement in this direction of the trend are the cost savings on campaigns, an increase in ARPU, one-2-one marketing opportunities, an increase in customer retention for mobile operators (which means a lower churn), higher conversion rates, the expansion of mobile value added services, and lastly, reduced fraud.

In addition to the actual figures, Juniper also earmarked some of the potential challenges that face the segment. These include issues like hesitancy from some retailers to adopt mobile coupons. Apart from that, the retailers would have to overhaul their existing equipment, for example they would have to change from using laser scanners to optical readers. These would necessarily incorporate the required CCD technology to read barcodes, especially those from mobile phones.

Some of the other salient points covered in the report were that 2.6 billion mobile tickets were set to be delivered by 2011. Additionally, the early use of mobile barcode technology will be gradually complimented by the emergence of NFC (Near Field Communication) and a total of almost $87 billion worth of mobile ticketing transactions will be seen by 2011.

Juniper Research has defined the mobile coupon as "a coupon sent and stored on a mobile phone that can be exchanged for a rebate, a financial discount etc. at a retailer when the consumer purchases a product." In comparison to the older system of paper coupons, mobile coupons offer a number of distinct advantages allowing the coupon issuer a direct connection between themselves and the consumer using the coupon.

Juniper Research has reported the current and near-future status of mobile ticketing and coupons using inputs from representatives of some of the organizations in the growing mobile ticket and coupon industry.

Calvin Azuri, TMCnet Contributing Journalist.

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