Consumers Overwhelmed by Increased Volume of Local Deals

REDMOND, Wash., April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Desire to save money and the dramatic rise in the number of local deals providers has driven a 47 percent surge in the use of local deals compared with last year, according to a recent Bing/Impulse Research survey. Coupons and deals offering discounts on local products and services are going gangbusters, with retailers and service providers now collectively offering hundreds of thousands of deals daily — making it exciting but also challenging and time consuming for people to track and pinpoint the relevant deals. In fact, 74 percent of survey respondents admitted they search multiple coupon sources each week, and a quarter of respondents claimed to spend up to an hour sifting through possible deals.

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With the public on the verge of a possible deals overload, Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft Corp., now provides a service that makes it easier to make local deal decisions, helping people to save time and money. Bing mobile deals — available at m.bing.com— aggregates many of the Web's hottest local deals, including deals from Groupon, LivingSocial and Tippr, and gives people one-spot access to more than 200,000 local coupons in more than 14,000 cities in the U.S. People can search by daily deals, nearby deals, keywords or deals by category, such as restaurants, spa services, arts and entertainment, and even nightlife.

The Numbers Behind the Deals Craze

• Everyone loves a good deal. Approximately half (47 percent) of adults surveyed said they use more local deals and coupons than last year.
• People are struggling to manage their deals.
  • Sixty-three percent of adults will search two to 10 different coupon sources every week, and 11 percent will search through more than 10 sources.
  • Nearly 50 percent of adults surveyed will spend more than 15 minutes each week searching for deals, with almost one-quarter of adults surveyed spending between 30 and 60 minutes on the hunt.
• Deals just might get you that second date. Ninety percent of women said they would go on a second date with someone who paid for dinner with a coupon.
• Vacation deals or bust. Nearly 80 percent of people said they were likely to pick their summer vacation destination based on whether they could find a deal or redeem a coupon to save money.
• Moms live for good deals.
  • Eighty-one percent of moms will search multiple sources every week in their effort to find coupons and local deals.
  • When it comes to moms versus women in general, moms are approximately twice as likely to search 10 or more coupon sources every week.
  • Single moms lead the pack in frugality, with 96 percent saying they are "coupon believers," compared with 92 percent of adults overall.

Deals by location are available on iPhones or Androids atm.bing.com, which is a one-stop-shop for discounts, deals and coupons.

About the Survey

The survey was conducted online with a random sample of 1,058 men and women, ages 18 and older— all members of the Impulse Research proprietary online panel. The Impulse Research proprietary online panel has been carefully selected to closely match U.S. population demographics, and the respondents are representative of American men and women, ages 18 and older.

Research was conducted in March 2011. The overall sampling error rate for this survey is +/-3 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence.

About Bing

Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft Corp., represents a new generation of search. Bing was developed to deliver results in a visually stunning way that makes it easy for users to find the information they need. People today expect more than 10 blue links on a page, and Bing is Microsoft's first step in a broader effort to evolve search into a more refined tool that helps people cut through Internet clutter. Designed with today's searchers in mind, Bing provides intelligent tools to simplify tasks and help people make fast decisions.

Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/bing/videoGallery.aspx for a broadcast quality video.  Intended for broadcast journalists, this broadcast quality video highlights Bing mobile deals on m.bing.com.  It includes footage of the experience which gives people access to 200,000 local coupons in more than 14,000 cities in the U.S.  The video also includes shots of people using Bing mobile deals on their phones and sound from a customer and Lisa Gurry, Director, Bing.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.