Grocery coupons remain an important part of household food budgeting. In Q2 2024, 34% of surveyed consumers said they used more coupons and discounts to save money on groceries, while the same share said they bought products only when they were on sale or accompanied by a coupon. Digital offers are increasingly central, but print formats still matter to many shoppers.
Table of contents
- Grocery coupon usage and redemption
- Digital coupons and basket performance
- How shoppers prefer to receive coupons
- Budget pressure and coupon-related behavior
- Grocery spending patterns for coupon planning
- Food prices and the coupon context
Grocery coupon usage and redemption
The 2024 CPG + Grocery Consumer Report describes a market in which coupons are used as a practical response to grocery costs. In Q2 2024, 34% of surveyed consumers said they used more coupons and discounts to save money on groceries. Another 34% said they bought products only when those products were on sale or accompanied by a coupon. These are survey responses, so they describe reported behavior rather than a count of every household using a coupon.
Grocery stores accounted for 59% of total coupon redemptions in RRD’s modeled market activity during the first half of 2024. Redemption in mass stores increased 9% compared with the first half of 2023, while redemption in variety and discount stores increased 37% over the same comparison period. The different growth rates suggest that coupon activity was not uniform across retail formats.
The channel mix also shifted toward digital distribution. In Inmar’s mid-year shopper data for the first half of 2023, digital coupons were used by 62% of shoppers. Digital coupon distribution grew 62% year over year, comparing the first half of 2023 with the first half of 2022. Over the same period, free-standing-insert coupon distribution declined 33% year over year. These distribution figures measure changes in offers made available, not necessarily the value saved by each shopper.
Inmar reported that digital coupons represented 50% of coupon redemptions by method in the first half of 2023. Instant-redeemable offers represented 11%, free-standing inserts represented 9.7%, and direct-email offers represented 9.6%. Together, these figures show that digital redemption was the largest named method in that dataset, while several offline and direct channels continued to contribute measurable shares.
Digital coupons and basket performance
Digital coupons can affect more than whether a shopper receives a discount. In the first half of 2023, Inmar reported that the average basket of digital-coupon users was 68% larger than the basket of shoppers who did not use digital coupons. A larger basket does not by itself mean a lower total bill or a higher household saving; it indicates a difference in basket size between the groups.
Digital offers also played a role in retailer selection. Eighty-two percent of shoppers said digital-coupon availability influenced their choice of retailer in the same Inmar data. Among shoppers who said digital coupons influenced retailer choice, 20% described that influence as extremely significant. In addition, 56% of shoppers said they had switched retailers because of increased prices.
The relationship between an offer and added volume varied by category. Food-category volume driven by digital coupons was 59% incremental, according to Inmar’s first-half 2023 measurement. Food-category digital-coupon redeemers bought 20% above the offer requirement. For non-food products, 68% of volume driven by digital coupons was incremental, and non-food digital-coupon redeemers bought 22% above the offer requirement.
These percentages should be read as measures from Inmar’s shopper and category analysis, not as a universal rule for every promotion. For meal planning, the practical implication is to compare the discounted price with the planned need: an offer can support a stock-up plan, but buying above the requirement may also increase the amount spent during that trip.
| Measure | Food category | Non-food category |
|---|---|---|
| Volume driven by digital coupons that was incremental | 59% | 68% |
| Average purchase above the offer requirement | 20% | 22% |
Source: Mid-Year Trends Recap Guide, first half of 2023.
How shoppers prefer to receive coupons
Digital growth has not eliminated interest in printed coupons. In August 2024, 54% of consumers preferred receiving coupons through mailed ads or postcards, according to the 2024 CPG + Grocery Consumer Report. That preference was 5 percentage points higher than in June 2023. Fifty-one percent preferred receiving coupons through a coupon book in a newspaper or the mail, also 5 percentage points higher than in June 2023.
The increase in coupon-book preference varied among groups identified in the report. Millennials’ preference for coupon books increased 9 percentage points from June 2023 to August 2024. Hispanic consumers’ preference increased 12 percentage points, and baby boomers’ preference increased 8 percentage points. These are changes in stated preference across the stated periods; they do not establish why the preferences changed.
Coupons can influence where people shop, not only what they buy. In August 2024, 41% of consumers said coupons and discounts were a factor in selecting a retailer or brand. In August 2023, 55% said personalized discounts or rewards made them feel valued. In Q2 2024, 59% preferred retailers that understood their buying habits and consistently offered relevant deals, while 47% said tailored messages, offers, and recommendations fostered loyalty to a store or brand.
For a meal-planning routine, these findings support using more than one coupon source. A shopper who checks a store’s digital offers can still benefit from reviewing mailed ads, postcards, or coupon books when planning a weekly list. The reported preferences indicate that print and digital delivery should be treated as complementary channels rather than assuming one format reaches every shopper.
Budget pressure and coupon-related behavior
Grocery price pressure was widespread in the Q2 2024 consumer survey. Eighty-six percent of consumers expressed frustration with grocery shopping overall because of rising prices, and 80% expressed frustration with rising food and beverage prices. Forty-six percent were very frustrated by grocery food and beverage prices, while 34% were somewhat frustrated.
Concern also appeared across demographic and income groups. Eighty-seven percent of baby boomers expressed concern about food and beverage prices. Among households earning at least $100,000, 79% expressed frustration with grocery price increases. The figures describe survey sentiment and should not be interpreted as a measure of financial hardship for every respondent.
Consumers reported several ways of adapting their grocery purchases. Forty-one percent said they stocked up during sales to stretch grocery dollars. Thirty-seven percent said they purchased fewer grocery items to save money, and 37% said they switched to less expensive name brands. Thirty-five percent said they switched from name brands to private-label store brands. Thirty-two percent said they stuck to shopping lists to control grocery costs.
These behaviors make coupon planning most useful when it is connected to a list and a realistic consumption plan. Stocking up may fit shelf-stable foods or products used regularly, while buying fewer items, changing brands, or following a list can reduce unplanned additions. The survey does not quantify the savings associated with any one behavior, so the percentages should be used to understand prevalence, not to estimate a household’s expected reduction in spending.
Grocery spending patterns for coupon planning
FoodAPS provides an older but useful picture of where household food-acquisition spending occurred. In 2012, households spent an average of $78.41 per person per week across all food-acquisition places. Large grocery stores accounted for 55% of weekly food-acquisition spending, with an average of $44.77 per person per week at large grocery stores.
Small and specialty food stores accounted for 3% of weekly food-acquisition spending, and FoodAPS households spent an average of $2.12 per person per week at those stores. Other food-at-home stores accounted for 7% of weekly food-acquisition spending, with an average of $5.05 per person per week.
Because these FoodAPS figures are from 2012, they are not current grocery-budget estimates and should not be combined with newer price data as though they measured the same period. Their value for coupon planning is structural: they show that large grocery stores represented the largest named share of weekly food-acquisition spending in that survey, while smaller channels represented narrower shares.
The source reports these results in FoodAPS Survey Shows Where Households Get Food in a Typical Week. A household deciding where to focus coupon research can use the store mix as historical context, then rely on its own current receipts and shopping habits to identify the channels that matter most today.
Food prices and the coupon context
USDA Economic Research Service data show why coupons remain relevant to grocery planning even when the annual rate of price growth changes. Average U.S. food-at-home prices increased 11.4% in 2022, 5.0% in 2023, and 1.2% in 2024. The 20-year historical average annual increase in U.S. retail food prices was 2.7% for 2004–2023.
The 2024 category picture was uneven. Egg prices increased 8.5% in 2024, the largest increase among the food-at-home categories listed by USDA ERS. Beef and veal prices increased 5.4% in 2024. These category-specific changes matter for meal planning because a coupon’s usefulness depends on the product category, its usual price, and whether the household can use the quantity before it is wasted.
U.S. food-at-home spending reached $1.06 trillion in 2024. That total is a national spending measure, not an average household grocery bill. It provides scale for the market in which shoppers, retailers, and coupon providers operate.
The price series and spending total are reported in Ag and Food Statistics: Charting the Essentials – Food Prices and Spending. Taken together with the shopper surveys, the figures point to a practical coupon strategy: track the categories that are rising fastest in a household’s own basket, compare digital and print offers, and keep each promotion tied to a planned purchase.