As inflation persists, shoppers continue to look toward coupons to save at checkout, according to the Food Industry Association’s “2023 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends—Shopping Trends” report. But the old coupon standard has some problems, shares FMI senior manager of industry relations, Tom Cosgrove, in a blog post.
The legacy printed coupon standard, AI 8110, has experienced a decline because of fraudulent activity and decreases in paper distribution, he writes. Following are some of the challenges of the coupon type, provided by The Coupon Bureau, a nonprofit data exchange platform:
• Barcode contains human-readable data
• The coupon can be validated by multiple entities
• Coupons cannot be validated in real-time
"Thankfully, members of FMI and the Consumer Brands Association (CBA) have coordinated to build and grow the Joint Industry Coupon Council (JICC) to help combat this trend," wrote Cosgrove. "Due to this effort, the industry is fortunate to be able to transition to a new coupon standard, (AI) 8112, the Universal Coupon. (AI) 8112 provides universal, single-use coupons validated in real-time through The Coupon Bureau’s (TCB) Positive Offer file."
AI 8112 provides a single-use coupon that is validated in real-time by The Coupon Bureau. The method is also more secure because they “are serialized at the time of distribution, which allows manufacturers and providers to ensure that each coupon is only used once,” wrote The Coupon Bureau on its website.
Although the initial version AI 8112 was only available via mobile, it is now available via print and is gradually being used by many CPG businesses. Blog post
Related: Online Grocery Shoppers’ Habits Change; USDA Announces Regional Food Business Centers