If you are someone who prefers shopping using coupons, here is a question for you…who is the father of the coupon system…don’t judge me for asking that, and nope, I have not gone crazy, but then like everything else, there must have been someone who came up with this fabulous idea….if you are stumped for an answer, here it is…it was none other than Asa Candler, one of the partners of Coca Cola who introduced the idea of providing buyers with a coupon which entitled them to a free soft drink per coupon.

It was this ingenious idea of Candler which brought up the popularity of the soft drink when it was introduced in the market. And from then on, coupons have stayed and become an important part of advertising techniques used by multiple manufacturers to attract customers to try out their products.

Coupons can be of multiple varieties. Though initially introduced by a soft drink company, and later on adopted as a marketing technique a food cereal manufacturer, these days coupons are available to make purchases on mostly all kinds of products. Right from groceries to hand bags, coupons seem to have covered it all. And normally, it turns out to be a win-win situation for both the customer as well as the manufacturer, as the manufacturer gets the much needed leverage and popularity, while a customer gets a chance to enjoy a product at a rebate or at a price which turns out to be negligible when compared to the original price.

Normally, coupons find their way into the customers’ homes through newspapers, and sometimes through fliers which are distributed either by the employees or sales representatives who do door to door sales. However, when a coupon is presented through these media, there is a very high chance of the coupons not catching the potential customers’ eyes. Sometimes, the coupons might get trashed along with spam emails and sometimes, it might just get lost, which ends up not serving the purpose for which it was made.

Keeping that shortcoming in mind, there are various coupon websites that have been set up which enables the customers to log on into these websites and find the coupons pertaining to the products they wish to buy, and make use of them.  These websites provide two options to the customers, which are printable coupons and coupon codes.

Printable coupons refer to the coupons that pertain to products which are purchased by making a visit to the store in person. All the customer needs to do is carry a print of the coupon with them when they visit the store so that they can exchange the coupon for making avail of the discounts.

The other option made available by these websites is a coupon code which does not require travelling to the actual store. All the customer needs to do is enter the coupon code while making a purchase online and that will help them get the discounts as promised by these coupons.

These are various methods of using coupons, and give you an idea as to where to look for them to help you make your purchases.