By Lanji Ouko
The culture of couponing is relatively new to Kenya and unsurprisingly very common to the American folks. Couponing is a term used to refer to the act of consumers collecting and using coupons or vouchers offering discounts on goods and services. It basically entails paying a smaller percentage of the total bill thanks to the coupon.
Most people describe the benefit of coupons as a form of budgeting, planning shopping smart and enjoying services and goods without having to part with extravagant amounts of money.Coupons are the new revelation when it comes to saving money, especially while shopping. Coupons can be found on websites, in stores and even on the streets. The two tips of couponing successfully are, firstly to master the art of clipping and finding coupons. The second is using your coupons strategically by matching them to store sales. It all seems quite easy, however it is rather difficult to find the different coupons seeing as they are not always found at one spot.
Sharon Njoroge, 22, found the perfect solution to the problem of finding the various coupons by creating a book known as Discoucher. Essentially, DisCoucher is a book of discount vouchers to various restaurants, hotels and beauty services across Kenya. Each voucher within the book provides ‘buy and get one free offers’ to the customer. The book is an annual publication; therefore all the offers are valid for the whole calendar year. As the name suggests, DisCoucher came from the combination of the words discount and voucher, because that is the focus behind the business. It is inspired by a concept the 22-year-old saw in Dubai, England and other foreign countries. She however, saw the possibility of pursuing it in Kenya while she was in Dubai.
Conceptualized in 2014, she released the first DisCoucher book in 2015 with the dream to not only provide discounts and vouchers but to promote and boost local tourism. The concept of vouchers was not present in Kenya; there was a clear gap in the market. Having lived abroad for most of her life, she took the brave step to move back without the rest of her family to pursue a business. Upon returning to Kenya, Sharon realized there were barely any vouchers or offers to different restaurants, services and establishments. She later found out that the vouchers existed but it was each service offering their own coupon or discount. There was no provision for a single platform or medium that consolidated all the offers. She then decided to approach various establishments, pitched her product and once they saw the added value of the products, they agreed to come on-board.
So how does it work? Once you buy a product or service from a participating establishment, you trigger the use of a voucher. For example, once you pay for a Swedish massage at a spa, you are then entitled to redeem another service such as an eyebrow wax. The current edition includes a number of high-end restaturants, clubs, salons and hotels such as Diani Reef Beach Resort, Medina Palms, Le Palanka, Carnivore and many more. The total amount of savings from the DisCoucher catalogue amounts to over Sh300, 000 The vision for DisCoucher is to be a reliable, friendly and serve as an affordable avenue to save money. Being a new concept and a new product, the greatest challenge has been customer’s willingness to grasp the product, it’s use, and benefit. “A challenge, which has slowed down business considering we are the first to fill this gap in the market with such a product,” she says.
“My largest reservation was adjusting. It’s a very odd dynamic when you are from here, but you are not here. The greatest challenge is getting people to build trust with the product and see that it actually works, which takes time. I think when it comes to any system or program, which offers things for free, people are hesitant, “What if I go there and they say, no or refuse me.” So it’s about breaking down that barrier and as DisCoucher, finding ways to build credibility,” Sharon adds.