At NextBigWhat, we’ve been crying hoarse about how coupon sites and price comparison sites need to really start changing to stay relevant. The good news is: Its beginning to change.
Coupon startup, CouponRani has launched an API which can be integrated to any sellers site if the seller wants to give away some free coupons to its buyer. The company has partnered with ticketing site Ayojak for the initial launch.
How does it work?
Like the folks at Ayojak have written, when you find a ticket on Ayojak, look for the free coupon icon. When you buy the ticket, you can select coupons worth the ticket price. Its like how Freecharge.in works.
The CouponRani API can be integrated to any seller (like Ayojak) who wishes to give some thing extra to their users.
Last month, coupon site Couponrani.com launched a Chrome extension that allows users to get online shopping coupons within the browser.
Why innovate?
There are over 100 coupon aggregation sites in India and over the last couple of years, its become a really crowded space. With ecommerce picking up and interest in ecommerce at an all time high in India, this is the period which will tell the men from the boys.
Slowly, innovation in this space is starting to happen. Earlier, we’d covered MakkhiChoose, a chrome plugin that alerts to you a lower price when you are shopping on any of the ecommerce sites. So instead of making you go to a price comparison sites, cheaper deals come to you.
The lay of the land
There are over 150 coupon aggregations sites in India. On a conservative estimate, these sites generate a combined 6-7 million page views per month. According to a report released by ComScore in August last year, around 4.6 million Internet users in India aged 15 and older accessed the coupons category from a home or work computer, reaching 10.4 % of the entire online population.At present, referral traffic from coupon websites is the largest source of sales eCommerce websites like Yebhi, Pepperfry and Myntra besides the traffic from organic Google search traffic and in certain cases, direct traffic. The coupon business is expected to continue its growth on the back of growing ecommerce. However, discounts might be in short supply in the coming days.
Recommended read: All about Online coupon sales and eCommerce in India
