Coupon activity on upswing, as are sales

No Wonder Walmart’s U.S. sales are on the upswing. Kantar’s Marx media solutions group this week in its mid-year report noted free standing insert pages for Walmart increased nearly 82% to 2.5 billion pages during the first half of the year.



That is a stunning increase, so it is worth noting that the Marx definition of an FSI page includes any type of promotion piece that appears in either the News America Smartsource or Valassis Red Plum coupon delivery vehicles inserted in Sunday newspapers. Also included in the tally would be any ad pages contained in the Valpak blue envelope for products, which indicate they are available at Walmart.



With 2.5 billion pages under its belt during the first half of the year, Walmart is ranked at the top of the list, compared to just a few years ago when it availed itself of FSIs to a lesser degree and was ranked 16th.



Second on the mid-year list was Walgreens, up 71.1% to 1.4 billion pages. Target was ranked third, but it actually declined 11% to 940 million pages, while Family Dollar increased to 932 million.



“Retailers may gain a competitive advantage by participating in retailer FSI promotions to capture a greater share of shopping trips among households that use coupons,” said David Hamric, Marx general manager. “For consumers, coupons are a proven way to save money on a specific item. For retailers, coupons can increase the overall retail value of each shopping trip by adding more items to the shopping basket and increasing the budget by the value of the coupons.”