If you’re someone who shops a lot online and you’ve never put RetailMeNot.com in your search engine, boy have you been missing out! Long story short, it’s basically a website that is a smorgasbord of coupons and promo codes for everything from clothes and food to hotels and technology (and everything in between!).

There are a couple of really cool things about the website. For one, it’s very easy to find the stores (well over 1,600 on file) that you are looking for as it relates to discounts. All you have to do is put the name in the search engine and, more times than not, there is a discount that is available. Secondly, not only do they list the coupons or promo codes, but also they also rate its effectiveness. For instance, if you wanted to get something from Bed, Bath & Beyond, after you put the name of the store in the search engine, you’ll (usually) first see what is called a “staff pick” (a favorite from the people on staff) and then other promo codes listed by their success rate. There may be a code that is 100% successful, while another may only be 76%. You’ll also see some (in a different color) that are expired (to keep you from wasting your time on those). It really is like having a year’s worth of Sunday paper coupons at your disposal all at once.

And as if that wasn’t already enough to get you all excited, RetailMeNot.com has recently announced that they will also be offering coupons and promo codes via an iPhone app. The super great thing about this is that you don’t just have to use the discounts online, but you can also surf around for coupons and daily deals to bring into physical store locations as well. There’s even an option within the app where you can save coupons that you may come across for later use.

How you can actually use the app at the store varies. Depending on the store itself, sometimes you will simply need to show the customer service associate your phone at the checkout counter after the code has been manually entered. At other places, you will be able to scan the barcode (via your cell phone) that’s featured with the coupon during the point of sale.

They have definitely done their research to see that it’s a beneficial idea. According to a study that they did alongside partnership with Ipsos Research, 62% of people with smartphones regularly download apps and 34% have actually used their smartphones or tablets to either research a store or to make a sale.

Although there are only one in five people who have currently been using their cell phones to retrieve coupons (seemingly, customers are still preferring to use printable coupons), it’s pretty certain that it’s only a matter of time before more consumers will get into the “shopping swing of doings things” with their phones. After all, if you have your phone on you and getting 30% off of your purchase or receiving free shipping is just a matter of running your phone across a checkout counter, why wouldn’t you?

Without a doubt, these ever-evolving changes in technology are definitely bringing new meaning to “promo code”. Not only are they promotional for the store, but more and more, they’re becoming convenient for the consumer as well.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

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