The concept of coupons first came into national use in 1902, when American merchants and manufacturers wanted to encourage consumers to buy their products. Breakfast cereals were among some of the first products to utilize the concept of coupons as a consumer incentive. Today, more than 700 corporations offer coupon discounts and it is estimated that coupons generate more than eight billion dollars in transactions in the United States alone.

However, what is now referred today to as ‘coupon codes’ bear little difference to the original concept of the coupon. The principle behind the coupon is the same, but in our rapidly changing world and our ever evolving technological advancement, commerce is not what it used to be twenty, even ten years ago. E-Commerce is quickly becoming the preferred choice of transactions for many people, and as such, business, service providers and various companies are employing the same consumer incentive strategy to the electronic world.

Online retailers such as JC Penney and other large departmental chain businesses refer to coupons that are available on the Internet (Internet Coupons) as Coupon Codes. Other names by which Internet Coupons are called include promotional codes, promotion codes, shopping codes, discount codes, voucher codes, promo codes and source codes.

Apart from the usual discounts regular coupons offer off the price of a given product, internet coupons may also provide for reduced or no cost shipping as online shopping does not end when you pay for the product, but ends when you have received exactly what you ordered in a non-damaged condition, or a specific dollar or percentage discount, or some other special offer that would encourage consumers to purchase specific products or to purchase from specific retailers.

Also, as with regular coupons that may get lost or stolen, internet coupons must provide some kind of protection against fraudulent use of a coupon code that does not belong to the person using it. This is done by a registry system which registers the number of times a particular code was, or is being, used.

But all in all, coupon codes are just like regular paper coupons that give some sort of discount on specific products, only internet coupons or coupon codes offer the same discounts but in a more technologically advanced way. They can be used they same way as regular coupons, and that is to help you save some extra bucks.

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Source: www.articledashboard.com