Merchants will now be able to offer fixed discounts on items and set price minimums for coupons. You could offer, for example, $10 off when the customer spends $50.

Etsy is also testing Thank You emails as a way to introduce shoppers to the deals.

“Buyers can opt in to receive an email with a promotion when shops they’ve purchased from have an active Thank You coupon,” the company explains in a blog post. “Bought a necklace as a birthday gift and got rave reviews? Maybe that shop is offering a discount and you can pick up the matching earrings for under the tree!”

Etsy has offered Coupon codes since 2010, and about 3,000 of them are used every day, according to the company.

Etsy has instructions for offering and promoting coupon codes here.

Retailers can use the product to extend their existing incentive programs.

“Unlike traditional media, Zavers’ real-time data gives manufacturers new ways to measure coupon redemptions and analyze consumer preferences so they can manage distribution, tailor campaigns, and optimize budgets for maximum ROI,” says Google Commerce Director of Emerging Platforms, Spencer Spinnell. “Zavers also offers access to an extensive network of manufacturer coupons, opening up new retail revenue streams.

“With Zavers, shoppers find manufacturer discounts on their favorite retailer websites, and save the digital coupons to their accounts,” he explains. “Then they simply shop for those products and check out as usual. Redemption occurs in real time, with savings automatically deducted at checkout when shoppers provide their rewards cards or phone numbers—no scanning or sorting necessary. Manufacturers only pay when a product is moved off the shelf.”

The coupons are applied to purchases without the need to show and scan paper or digital goods. Customers using Google Wallet can redeem coupons instantly by tapping their phones at the checkout.

Google has New York grocer D’Agostino on as a partner, as well as A&P, Bi-Lo, The Food Emporium, Harris Teeter, PathMark, Price Chopper, SuperFresh and Waldbums. The company says it will be announcing new partnerships with major retailers in the coming months.

The news was even tweeted by Googler Mike Dudas (h/t: TechCrunch):

Follow @mdudas

Mike Dudas
@mdudas

Google acquires Incentive Targeting to power highly targeted manufacturer and private label coupon programs: http://t.co/ClqPBjxm

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
2 hours ago via Buffer · powered by @socialditto

Follow @mdudas

Mike Dudas
@mdudas

“Incentive Targeting..[does] for retail couponing what Google [does] for online advertising: make simple, relevant, measurable, & effective”

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2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Incentive Targeting’s Ben Sprecher also tweeted about it:

Follow @bensprecher

Ben Sprecher
@bensprecher

I’m excited to announce that my company, Incentive Targeting, has been acquired by Google! http://t.co/M8KrVhz4

Follow @mdudas

Mike Dudas
@mdudas

@bensprecher Welcome aboard Ben!

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2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

The Incentive Targeting Team says on its site, “When we founded Incentive Targeting in 2007, we set out to do for retail couponing what Google had done for online advertising: make it simple, relevant, measurable, and effective. So, it is both humbling and gratifying to be joining the ranks of the company that inspired our initial vision.”

“As part of Google, we will have the resources and expertise to continue the transformation of couponing from a way to give discounts to a way to build business,” the team adds. “And, we can now work towards that vision as part of a company that improves the lives of hundreds of millions of people every day.”

“We didn’t reach this milestone alone,” the team says. “From day one, we have relied on the support and commitment of our retailers, brands, investors, partners, and advisors, as well as the hard work and dedication of our team. We could not have done this without them, and as we look ahead, we are thrilled to be part of Google!”

Incentive has been around since early 2007. It partners with retail chains to provide targeted marketing services to manufacturers of grocery and consumer products.

No word so far on terms of the deal.

The survey gauged the performance of 10,000 randomly selected ad campaigns on Facebook. As far as the promise of gratification goes that drives any campaign, my speculation is that a coupon is the most accessible and immediate reward. Giveaways and sweepstakes aren’t as guaranteed and, as you can see in the graph below, nobody wants to do any work extra work to engage your ad. So yeah, don’t make us write essays or compose visual media. Just give us discounts on burritos and new pants we’ll need after our waistlines bulge from gorging ourselves on too many burritos.

However, if you’re more interested in getting some semi-viral interaction among consumers, offering up quizzes for people to take is a great way to do that. According to the survey’s findings, 82% of Facebookers were likely to click on quizzes posted by their friends and actually went on to take the quiz. That’s a lotta earned impressions your ad campaign gets as a bonus. Plus, who doesn’t love a good quiz? You can find out what kind of latte you are or which Beatle you are or what your odds are of surviving an invasion of mutant zombies. It’s happy meal science and doesn’t actually reveal any insightful discoveries about your subconscious, but it’s fun to pass around and compare with your friends.

[Via AllFacebook.]

“We believe this is the easiest Rewards program in the world for both merchants and consumers,” said Jay Hoffmann, General Manager for Groupon Rewards. “Merchants can leverage the power of Groupon’s active customer base to launch a loyalty program with real impact, using the systems they already have in place. And thanks to the scale of Groupon’s network of high quality local businesses, consumers can enjoy increased savings from a wide variety of merchants in their backyard and all over the U.S.”

Hoffmann posted an announcement of the product launch on the Groupon blog, where he pointed out some of the details of how Groupon Rewards works. Users who want to participate in Groupon Rewards must use a credit card they have saved with their Groupon account when making purchases for them to count toward rewards. Also, the amount of spending needed to obtain a reward is set by the retailer, not Groupon.

Groupon will be facing fierce competition in the near future, as Google expands its Google Offers into Google Maps and Facebook releases its own “Offers” program. Also, Facebook recently acquired TagTile, a company that was implementing a similar program to Groupon Rewards. It’s probable that Facebook will have a Rewards-type program soon, possibly involving smartphone NFC technology instead of credit card tracking.

What do you think? Will programs such as this one help Groupon compete as internet giants encroach into their business territory? Leave a comment below and let us know.

User’s must check-in at the local establishment to unlock the power of the deal, but will that be enough to attract others to the location? We will find out in July when they launch their new app that lets merchants take advantage of the service.

I guess the value of Square is that you don’t have to go through extra steps like printing, you just scan them right off your phone in the store. Walgreens is one of the first businesses to take advantage of the service. Do you think Foursquare can outdo Groupon trying to make money off theses offers? Perhaps the necessary check-in will make all the difference.

Offers let businesses and organizations share discounts with customers by posting offers to their Facebook Pages. Facebook describes them as coupons you don’t have to pay anything to create. When a customer claims an offer, they’ll get an email to show at the physical location for the brand to get a discount.

Facebook has a help center with guidelines for using Facebook Offers (hat tip to AllFacebook).

Under the “best practices” section, Facebook says it encourages businesses to experiment with offers to find out what customers respond to best, but suggests the following to have a better chance of success:

• Make discounts substantial. Discounts should be at least 20% off regular prices. Additionally, offering things for free performs better than discounts even if the percentage off is the same implied value of the free item.
• Keep it simple. Describe your terms and conditions as simply as possible, and don’t require customers to perform unusual activities.
• Use an engaging image. Photos of people using your product typically perform better than photos of your product by itself. Photos of your product perform better than your business’s logo.
• Keep language natural and direct. Make sure your headline leads with the value of the offer instead of marketing slogans. Avoid using unconventional capitalization or punctuation.
• Set a reasonable expiry date. Give people at least a few days to see and claim an offer. Take advantage of word-of-mouth promotion by allowing time for your offer to spread by word of mouth in people’s News Feeds.
• Promote your offer. Run sponsored stories and pin your offer to the top of your Page so new visitors notice it. We recommend sharing an existing offer instead of creating the same offer twice so it’s easier to track how many people are claiming it.
• Train your staff. Make sure your employees know the terms of your offer and how to help people redeem it. Some people will print out the offer while others might show the offer on their phones.

For now, Offers are only available to Facebook’s managed advertising clients. If this applies to you, you can go to your Page, and click “Offer” from the sharing tool at the top of you timeline.

These are complicated economic times and people are looking for whatever break they can get when it comes to parting ways with their hard-earned money. “Across the country, more Americans than ever before are turning to digital coupons to help them save their hard-earned cash,” said Jeanette Pavini, Coupons.com household savings expert. “The South and Midwest dominate the list of most frugal U.S. cities, out-saving other regions including the West and Northeast.”

Joining Atlanta in some good old southern frugality were Tampa (#2), Raleigh (#4), and Nashville (#10). However, the distinction of the most frugal region in the country belongs to the Midwest, where nine cities rank among the top 25 most frugal cities.

See below for the full list of the most frugal cities in the country. Oddly, what’s going on east of the Mississippi that’s got everybody couponing so much?

You may have noticed that Ohio has three cities in that list, two of which are in the top ten. Those three coupon-clipping cities have given Ohio the distinction of most frugal state in the United States.

People in Atlanta aren’t just printing off coupons and zipping out to stores, either. The city was the most “on-the-go” frugal city, as well, due to the high number of people using their mobile devices in order to cash in their coupons.

Anybody in these cities (or beyond) an unabashed couponer? What’s your favorite way to save? Share with the rest of us below in the comments.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Groupon has begun offering discounts of up to 80% on products sold on the web, to UK customers. Customers get a code to enter on the manufacturer’s site for the discount on their online order.

Nothing groundbreaking there, but it could provide another huge source of revenue for Groupon if it expands to the rest of Groupon’s markets, and it could do a whole lot for e-commerce businesses who struggle in their quest for online visibility.

Groupon’s classic pitch to businesses is that they can get repeat customers after offering a deal on Groupon, but I could see this being an even better pitch to online businesses. It’s a lot easier for a customer to come back to a web site than it is a brick and mortar store. As long as you offer them a great experience when they get there, they may just come back for future purchases. E-commerce businesses will want to make sure their sites are at the top of their games when they run an e-commerce Groupon.

But for now, this appears only to be a limited test, and there’s a chance it will never become more than that. Groupon’s not talking about it, but if the test goes well, we can probably expect this to become a widespread offering for Groupon.

A study released this week finds that businesses who offer Groupons tend to have lower reviews on Yelp, indicating that Groupons aren’t the best for a business’ reputation.

Meanwhile, Yipit reports that Groupon’s revenue increased 13%T from July to $121 million.

Deals are accessible through a mix of feeds and local media placements. LivingSocial will also be the headlining daily deal company in Examiner.com’s upcoming "Insider Deal" marketplace, an online discount center.

"Our readers come to Examiner.com to connect with what they are passionate about,” said Rick Blair, CEO of Examiner.com. “Now they also have access to discounts that let them experience more of what they love doing in their communities."

"We are excited by the opportunity to engage the Examiner.com community with the same great deals that are available through LivingSocial," said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. "As users enjoy interacting within their local communities, they can take advantage of outstanding deals on all the services and experiences LivingSocial offers in their area — from restaurants and spas, to travel and outdoor adventure."

LivingSocial will be Examiner’s premier Daily Deal partner and distributor across Examiner’s network of sites. Visitors will gain access to discounts of up to 90% at local bars, restaurants, spas, theaters, etc. 

The actual discounts are not exclusive to Examiner.