The CouponCabin.com study looked at which industries consumers are most likely to use mobile coupons with daily deals, grocery items and free products leading the pack. CouponCabin.com commissioned the study with Harris Interactive.

“Mobile usage, on both tablet and smartphone, is increasingly pervasive in a variety of industries, including couponing,” said Jackie Warrick, president of CouponCabin.com, Whiting, IN.

“As more and more people use smartphones and other mobile devices in their daily lives, marketers are embracing that shift and using new technologies to get in front of consumers,” she said.

Couponcabin.com is an online coupon destination that claims to have saved users more than $250 million since launching. The company also has an iPhone application and plans to roll out an Android version in the future.

Instant deals
According to the Couponcabin.com study, 29 percent of smartphone owners search for deals on their devices at least once a month.

Of the mobile coupon users, 72 percent said that they are interested in using an app to find deals specifically. In fact, 41 percent of consumers used their devices to find mobile coupons for daily deal companies.

Thirty-nine percent of consumers were interested in finding mobile coupons for grocery stores, per the study.

Twenty-four percent of respondents were interested in using mobile for either free product samples or trials.

Additionally, the study found that 34 percent of consumers were interested in finding online coupon codes via their handsets.

Similarly, 29 percent of consumers surveyed were interested in using printable coupons from their mobile devices.

Although consumers are buying on mobile, these findings show how the medium is also being used as part of a larger, multichannel shopping strategy by consumers.

The online study was conducted from March 26 – March 28 and includes results from more than 3,000 adults in the United States.

Mobile savings
It is clear that consumers are moving beyond the stage of just browsing for deals on their mobile devices, per the study.

Instead, consumers are more interested in instantly acting on deals and offers that they can use right on the spot.

For marketers, the study backs up the need for brands to deliver targeted, relevant deals to mobile shoppers.  With consumers comparison shopping – often while still in a store – retailers and brands have a huge opportunity to sway consumers via mobile.

For example, Safeway recently rolled out a shopping app that lets users create grocery lists and find coupons and special offers (see story).

“While future behaviors weren’t asked about in this survey, based on market trends and mobile consumption habits, it’s likely that more and more consumers will embrace couponing via mobile app,” Ms. Warrick said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York