What Is A Coupon?

A coupon is a negotiable instrument or a certificate that can be redeemed for a discount or rebate whilst purchasing a product or service, for example: a food coupon. A coupon is usually in the form of a ticket or a document which is detachable. They are usually promoted and advertised by retailers to earn more customer base.  In the present scenario, sales promotion through coupons is almost a norm and clearly in every aspect, the consumer is the winner. You can find coupons making their presence in newspapers, magazines, mailers, Internet etc. Just enter the word "coupon" in a search engine and you will be amazed by the amount of coupon advertisements online.

The coupon first came into common usage in the year 1909 in the US, when an ambitious entrepreneur by the name of C.W.Post thought of selling breakfast cereals and other food products by giving the buyers an incentive for purchase. Today, a lion share of retail business in the US alone, totaling to about 9 billion dollars is being done through coupon alone. The concept of coupon sales is widely catching in Asian countries like India too. The word coupon is derived from the French word "coupon," which means to cut."

Starwin, 5 star vote for that answer!  Even provided the root of the word "coupon."  Like Wikipedia!  Nice work.  

I think the most exciting thing for consumers are websites that aggregate coupons from lots of stores in one place for consumers.  For example, Deals.com offers dealsm & coupons from tons of online stores.  It's a great spot to get coupon codes and see the price offers from many different sellers.