Many retailers and manufacturers offer digital coupons on rewards cards. For stores that do not offer rewards cards, additional types of media are used such as email, text and social networking. Smartphone users are often able to show a clerk a text coupon or discount at the register for dollars off or percentages off of their purchase. These are available for food items as well as footwear discounts.
Pairing Digital Coupons with Store Sales
In some cases it is best to save coupons, digital or paper, for end of season sale opportunities. If the expiration date of the coupon is before the sale, consider the price with the coupon and the sale price. Use the better discount to make your purchase. Some stores will allow digital or paper coupons to be paired with clearance items, end of season sale items, for footwear discounts and with other store sales.
Knowing When to Use a Digital Coupon
When coupons for retail items are received, browse the store to see if any special promotions are listed for items. Also view online websites and circulars to see if any sales are in the near future. When there are no sales or promotions scheduled, use the coupon on the item to gain the best discount possible. If sales are in the near future, save the coupon to use with the store discount or sale. This creates a deeper savings for you.
Some digital coupons require printing. Although they were obtained online or in an email, some stores require a physical copy of the coupon. Be sure to read the fine print so that you are not left paying full price for an item. If it is not stated whether or not a digital coupon can be shown to a cashier or a physical copy is needed, print one anyway.
Obtaining Digital Coupons
Some major retailers offer a large coupons section on their websites. For those that have rewards cards, those coupons can be loaded digitally to the card. It is always a good idea to load the coupons to your savings card a full 24-hours before you plan to shop. Some digital coupon programs take longer to apply them than others.
View the coupon policy for each store that you shop with. Some permit stacking of in-store coupons with paper manufacturer coupons or other digital offers. Digital coupons may also be able to be used for online ordering if there is a code associated with them. Reading these guidelines saves you a lot of trouble at checkout time.
Knowing when and how to use digital coupons, or paper coupons, is the deciding factor of your total savings. Pairing coupons with sales is the ideal way to get the best discount, even on end of season sale items. Finding footwear discounts is rare, but on the occasion that they are made available, take advantage of them with or without an upcoming sale. Impatience when a coupon or discount offer is received may lead to more money needing to be spent. Sit on coupons for a little bit and try to wait until the last minute to use them as you never know when an item is going to be discounted or go on sale.
