Consumers will now receive coupons from local merchants when they check-in to a location. Where offers one of the most comprehensive collections of mobile coupon and offer inventory available from restaurants, retail stores, spas and other service providers.

“Merchants are increasingly turning to mobile coupons to drive consumers into retail locations and seeing great success on the Where platform,” said Dan Gilmartin, vice president of marketing at Where, Boston.

“Our strategy has three elements,” he said. “First, we aim to connect local merchants with a local audience. We do this through our own product Where as well as through third party publishers in our Where Ads Network.

“Next, we create an actionable conversation between the merchant and the audience. Lastly, we seek to participate in the value that is created by that dialogue. On a monthly basis, we create over 7 million of these connections.  Some of these connections will deliver coupons, creating even great value in each connection made. “

When using Where to help discover local places, consumers will now receive coupons from local merchants when they check-in to a location.

If no coupon is available at that specific venue, the user is presented with a coupon to another merchant nearby, generally within a mile radius.

Users can save coupons for use at a later date and customize settings to be alerted if the coupon is about to expire.

This functionality is now available on the Where Android application, and will be launching on the Where iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm and feature phone platforms within the next few weeks.

Consumers are ready for and open to mobile coupons.

Analysts across the board are bullish.

For example, Yankee Group believes that mobile coupon redemption will increase eleven-fold by the end of 2010 and Jupiter Research predicts $6 Billion in redemption value and 200 Million mobile coupon users by 2013. 

Borrell Associates predicts that mobile coupons will grow from $2.7 billion in 2009 to $57 billion in 2014.

The redeemed value of mobile coupons is 24 percent higher than Internet coupons and nearly half as high as paper ones.

A recent Mobile Marketing Association survey, conducted in partnership with Luth Research, also found that mobile users are more likely to respond to mobile advertising delivered with location-based targeting than regular advertising.

Where coupons and offers are not only hyper-locally targeted, but are also targeted by context and time of day.

“As a consumer, how often do you intend to remember to bring a coupon with you when you go shopping and forget, or leave a restaurant having paid full price only to find out afterward that you could have saved 20 percent,” Mr. Gilmartin said.

“Where coupons will help users save money at their current location, or other merchants nearby,” he said. “Due to the real-time and contextual nature of the experience on mobile, these coupons provide local merchants with the ability to influence purchasers who are seeking product and services immediately.”