For an average Joe, one of the short-comings of coupons, and of coupon sites, is the motivation necessary to page through, search, burrow and worry your way through large offerings to find something of use to you. 8coupons is trying to address this concern by marrying its offerings to geolocation.
When I enter my location – Eugene, Oregon – the coupons available for my use populate an interactive local map. I can get a free burrito at Chipotle’s, a deal at Walgreen’s, a “green phone” for $10 at T-Mobile and a break on Nutri-Dog at Petco.
National coupons good anywhere are also featured and a series of tabs across the top let you drill down to areas of interest like services, beauty and spa offerings or entertainment.
Click through a coupon and you find not only the offering but a list of every person or group that has posted an offering and a link that takes you to the details of the deal and the action point. The site takes advantage of community input to put deals up or down in the mix. “Is this a real deal?” you’re asked at each coupon, and vote either plus or minus.
It strikes me that there is nonetheless a lot of clicking one needs to do to find the buried treasure. Perhaps that’s part of the hunt for a coupon lover. For this average Joe it’s a bit tedious. Another element that might make it more usable to such as we would be mobile versions of each, or most, or at least some of these coupons. If such a thing exists here I’m having a hard time finding it.
If nothing else, the site gives a defined sense of community to the lonely job of clipping coupons and saving cash.
The site is fairly robust. Nationally, the company says it currently has 194,720 deals nationwide. These deals come in from a multitude of source, not least among them a 150,000-member coupon community. Merchants can also sign up and use on-site tools to create and disburse coupons. Major coupon groups like Valpak, Money Mailer and Red Plum partner with the site. Finally, a group of about 20 regional deal blogs, like Chicago’s Fantabulously Frugal, NYC Recession Diary and New Orleans on the Cheap pitch in.
