GURGAON: India's burgeoning online shopping market is being driven by the widespread use of coupons, according to a recent study by Cuponation, the Indian online shopping portal.

It found that 500 out of 600 Indian respondents said they were attracted to promotions issued by online retailers, reports Inside Retail Asia.

The research also found that 85% of Indians use coupons to take advantage of discounts, compared to a global average of 78%.

"The online shopping scene and the concept of using coupons in India looks very promising as compared to the advanced markets for online marketing, such as the US, Germany and Brazil," said Sahil Shah, managing director of cuponation.in.

Most of the traffic for coupons and other discounts comes from search engines such as Google, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and from blogs, and these play a substantial role in popularising coupons and online marketing.

The survey also found that 76% of Indians who replied shop online three or more times a month, and this has been driven by the emergence of a new breed of popular online stores such as Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Tradus and Dominos.

Other factors that drive Indians to shop online include reliable payments systems and better services such as cash on delivery.

Meanwhile, a Nielsen paper found that while issuing coupons is an increasingly common practice, it has been limited by the still regular use of paper coupons. These are not personalised, and their sheer number makes them less useful as a marketing tool.

Nielsen's report found that the increased personalisation afforded by mobile and digital coupons is much more effective at targeting consumers and allowing them to select the promotions that interest them. This, the authors noted, is likely to be a growing trend.

Data sourced from Inside Retail Asia, Nielsen; additional content by Warc staff