Discount Marketing Statistics (2026): Do Discounts Actually Work?

Highlights. Most American consumers (91%) are willing to circulate referral links and codes in exchange for deals or discounts.

78% of successful referral programs reward both the referring and the referred customer.
92% of American shoppers redeem at least one discount each year.
91% of Americans check for discounts before making an online purchase.
Online retailers report that consumers who use coupons spend 24% more than those who don’t.
45% of U.S. consumers sign up for email offers specifically to receive discounts.

Grouped Bar Graph: U.S. Consumer Used and Preferred Discount Types including the percentage that use the type and the percentage that perfer the type (such as percent off, free shipping, etc.) according to Capterra

Discount Shopper Statistics

Almost all U.S. consumers use discounts regularly, particularly digital discounts.

80% of American shoppers would be open to purchasing from a brand for the first time if offered a discount.
68% of U.S. consumers have made a purchase they weren’t planning on after being offered a discount.
41.4% of U.S. consumers intend to look for sales or coupons to offset price increases related to tariffs in 2025.
In 2024, 165.5 million consumers redeemed digital discounts, or 62.0% of all U.S. adults.
Americans redeemed 337.8 million digital coupons and 230.2 million paper coupons in 2021.
There were 47% more digital redemptions than paper coupon redemptions in 2021.
Of the 34 billion coupons distributed in 2025, only 810 million or 2.38% were redeemed.
Over 50% of consumers under the age of 44 redeemed digital coupons in 2023.
Also in 2023, 65% of consumers earning over $150,000 per year used digital discount coupons.

Bar Graph: Number of U.S. Adults Who Use Digital Coupons in millions from 2015 (119.8) to 2025 (172.6) with a projection for 2026 (176.5) according to Statista & eMarketer

Referral Program Marketing Statistics

Customers who use referral links or codes end up buying 3-5 times more often than average consumers.

Referred customers return to a product or brand at a 37% higher rate than the average customer.
Compared to the average customer, referred customers spend 16% more over the long-term.
86% of shoppers seek out reviews, referrals, and recommendations.
44% of American consumers use referral links or codes.

Bar Graph: Share of U.S. Shoppers Using Referral Programs by age, 18-27 (23%), 28-43 (46%), 44-59 (24%), 60-69 (6%), and all ages (44%) according to Impact

Digital vs. Paper Discount Marketing Statistics

Paper coupons are still widely used, but digital coupons are increasingly popular.

From 2019 to 2021, the number of paper coupon redemptions fell by 43.6% while digital coupon use grew by 11.9%.
In 2023, 82% of Americans redeemed paper coupons, accounting for 89% of coupon users.
79% of Americans used online coupons in 2023, or 86% of coupon users.
40% of Americans used in-store coupons, and 19% used free-standing insert coupons in 2023
In 2025, 53.9% of redeemed coupons were digital load-to-card, while only 2.3% were free-standing inserts.
34% of consumers access digital coupons while shopping in a physical store.
In 2021, 51% of U.S. consumers preferred to receive discounts on their smartphones, up from 45% in 2019; for those aged 26 to 40, this was 73%.

Grouped Bar Graph: Share of U.S. Shoppers Using Coupons, digital and paper, according to Statista

Discount and Spending Habit Statistics

Discounts are effective in pushing American consumers to make purchases they otherwise would not have made.

70% of consumers can be influenced by discounts to make an impulse purchase; 46% can be influenced to change their planned purchase.
62% of clothing shoppers will delay purchasing until they can receive a discount.
Consumers are twice as likely to purchase a product with a 20% discount than at the regular price.
With a 50% discount, consumers are 99% more likely to purchase a product than at the normal price.
33% of Americans used more coupons in grocery stores in 2024 than in 2023.
79% of consumers use coupons when planning their shopping and 64% say discounts speed up their decision to purchase.
49% of online shoppers in the U.S. use digital coupons for at least half of their e-commerce purchases.
The remaining 51% of online shoppers use digital coupons occasionally.

Bar Graph: US Shoppers Who Will Try a New Brand with a Coupon by age group according to Statista

Digital Discount and Spending Habit Statistics

The ease of receiving and redeeming discounts digitally speeds up purchasing decisions for many consumers.

Shoppers using digital coupons have an average basket size that is 68% larger than that of shoppers not using a coupon.
82% of online shoppers report that the availability of digital coupons influences where they choose to shop.
Digital coupon redeemers purchase an average of 22% more than the discount offer requirements.
48% of consumers find discounts through online searches.
87% of consumers reported that a discount would most strongly motivate them not to abandon a digital shopping cart, more than any other incentive; on average, 70.2% of digital shopping carts are abandoned.
15% of online shoppers regularly abandon their online shopping carts when they cannot find a digital coupon.

Consumer Discount Preference Statistics

The high importance of price to consumers drives the popularity of discounts and coupons.

Discounts are a major factor for 62% of U.S. online shoppers in 2025.
In 2022, 60% of Americans said coupons and discounts were more important than ever.
62% of Americans identify price as a key factor influencing their online purchases, higher than any other factor.
93% of online shoppers in the U.S. use percent-off coupons; 67% prefer them.
While 90% use free shipping coupons, just 57% prefer them.
61% of online shoppers enjoy buy-one-get-one-free discounts, and 48% like receiving a fixed amount off their purchase.
63% of Americans say they feel like smarter shoppers when using discounts.

Bar Graph: US Consumers' Preferred Discount Sources according to eMarketer

Email Discount Marketing Statistics

For most consumers, email is the preferred way to source discounts.

77% of U.S. consumers want to receive promotional emails with discounts.
61% of those consumers prefer to receive emails with discounts at least weekly, while 15% prefer to receive them daily.
On average, marketing emails that offer discounts generate 48% more revenue per email than those that don’t.
Personalized promotional emails that offer discounts have 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click rates than those that don’t.

Bar Graph: Where Consumers Find Discounts Online, according to Don't Pay Full

Loyalty Discount Statistics

Discounts are among the strongest drivers of consumer loyalty and use of loyalty programs.

51% of consumers want exclusive discounts based on their loyalty.
44% of consumers will join a rewards program, and 93% of users said they earned a reward in the past six months.
74% of shoppers prefer to receive discounts as loyalty rewards.
53% of shoppers want to be offered discounts based on their purchase habits; 51% want to be provided with new discounts regularly.
27% of consumers participating in paid membership programs did so for consistent discounts.
77% of students prefer to shop with brands offering student discounts, and 69% would make repeat purchases with brands offering student discounts.

Bar Graph: Reasons US Consumers Use Loyalty Programs according to Merkle

Discount and Brand Perception Statistics

Many consumers report that discounts improve their perception of brands that offer them.

93% of U.S. consumers would make repeat purchases from a brand that offers good discounts; 48% of Americans avoid brands that don’t.
55% of U.S. shoppers have a more favorable impression of brands that offer discounts.
26% of Americans are loyal to a brand because of its discounts.
10% of U.S. consumers say that the most important way a brand can interact with them is by surprising them with discounts.

These data and insights were compiled by the Capital One Shopping team based on publicly available data.

Discount Marketing Statistics