They’re back! While paper coupons have never gone away, they have been declining in use, with digital coupons overtaking paper coupons in 2021. According to BusinessDasher, 57% of shoppers now favor digital coupons over paper…unless you are a Baby Boomer or a member of the Silent Generation (where preference for paper coupons sits at 56% of Boomers and 89% of Silent Generations, respectively).
Source: ChatGPT/eMarketer
But searching for digital coupons can be time-consuming, and even once shoppers find them, the success rate of those coupons is spotty. More than one-third of consumers say digital coupons only work about half the time or less.
Man the Presses!
Enter the resurgence of paper. According to a report released by eMarketer yesterday (August 18, 2025), more retailers—both upstarts and established companies—are experimenting with print coupons. Citing Modern Retail, eMarketer notes that direct-to-consumer upstarts like Viv For Your V, Culture Pop, and Blume, as well as traditional retailers like Kroger, are adding paper coupons.
Kroger, for example, will make its paper coupons available in its store flyers on Wednesdays after customers complained that the digital coupons were too difficult to use.
At a time when consumer confidence is dipping for the first time in four months and 41% of consumers are searching for sales or coupons to offset tariff-driven price hikes, the appeal of paper coupons makes sense.
In this, eMarketer sees opportunity:
Marketers distributed 50 billion coupons last year, down sharply from 330 billion in 2010, per RD data cited by The Wall Street Journal. Redemptions also cratered—from 3.3 billion in 2010 to 750 million in 2024. While 87% of coupons distributed are still on paper, nearly two-thirds of those actually redeemed are digital. That imbalance makes paper a potential differentiator.
It’s Not Just Coupons
eMarketer also notes that this trend is occurring at the very time that companies ranging from the “budget friendly” Dollar Store to high-end Neiman Marcus (and even online giants like Amazon) are bringing back print catalogs. (See our coverage of the resurgence of print catalogs here.) The book industry is seeing growth as well. According to Publishers Weekly, 2024 saw its first annual increase in book sales in three years.
Funny how we keep ending up in the same place: consumers love the convenience of online everything, but like all shiny objects, “all digital, all the time” has its downsides, too. There is something comfortingly familiar about paper coupons. They come in the mail, so you don’t have to look for them. They are easy to tack to the family bulletin board or clip to the fridge so they don’t get lost. And you can count on them to work!
The Promise of Simplicity
In a world that is increasingly complicated and messy, paper coupons offer the promise of something so many of us crave: simplicity and certainty. And, did we mention that paper coupons work? Now that’s a differentiator.
Long live paper coupons!
