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Rebate Report

The Rebate Report is EcoRebates monthly newsletter covering the intersecting trends of technology service solutions, online/offline retail promotion & incentive strategies and ENERGY STAR efficiency programs. Below are selected articles from current and past issues.

To subscribe, email us at newsletter@ecorebates.com. We welcome your feedback and submission ideas.

February 2012

Trends in Product Promotion Strategies: Lowe’s launches comprehensive online Rebate Center
Building Consumer Awareness: TopTen USA adds water heaters to product review website
Spotlight on Utility Programs: Wide disparities exist in utility energy efficiency programs

January 2012

Product offers at any customer touch-point: EcoRebates helps clients expand reach
Boost showroom traffic: use mobile+QR code for multi-tactic engagement
Rebate Search hits new Milestone
Utilities continue to expand Energy Efficiency Programs

December 2011

Shop Mobile – Best Buy taps ‘real consumer interest’, extends rebate tools to mobile shopping
Product Innovation – EcoRebates goes beyond ‘green’ – surfaces incentives, promotions on any product in the store

October/November 2011

Client Deployments: Multi-Channel Success Stories
Mobile & QR Code Tools
Spotlight on Utility Rebate Program Trends

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Lowe’s Launches Rebate Center: one-stop for utility & trade rebates on thousands of SKUs points to future of product offers

Early this month we announced that Lowe’s had deployed its Rebate Center, an online tool that compiles and presents utility rebates alongside manufacturer or retailer-specific offers to help customers find lower prices for a variety of products.

The news highlights two trends we see that will accelerate the effectiveness of product rebates & offers for both customer participation and sales conversion.

First – with EcoRebates tools, any product incentive, from rebates to financing offers, can be combined into one tool. All stakeholders – utilities, manufacturers and retailers – can easily collaborate and create targeted offer bundles. (Imagine that image read ’5 offers up to $500′!) These offers can be delivered directly to consumers across online and offline channels, with measurable sales results. We see an incredible opportunity for retailers and manufacturer’s alike to rethink the opportunity for product promotions.

Second – the Lowe’s Rebate Center allows customers to search, submit and check rebate submission status online and is integrated with the Lowe’s point-of-sale systems. Automating offer submission is a differentiator that enhances customer adoption. In this case, EcoRebates worked with incentive marketing firm Young America, Lowe’s rebate programs processor, to accomplish this integration. We are talking with utilities and clients interested in how to tackle this level of automation and expect to see other projects in the future.

Want to learn more? Read more about it – CRM Magazine’s online news article, or call us (800-765-8093).

Partner Spotlight: TopTen USA adds water heaters to site, giving consumers more actionable product & rebate info

EcoRebates partner TopTen USA, a leading source of independent information on the energy efficiency of common products, recently added to its site product guides and rebate details for energy efficient water heaters.

We applaud TopTen’s initiative to enhance its free, consumer-oriented information site. Significant rebates exist. Our data shows the national average water heater rebate savings offer is $227 across the hundreds of available water heater programs. And, 67% of the U.S. population is eligible for these rebates.

TopTen USA’s site tools help consumers move quickly and confidently to energy efficient product purchase decisions by reducing product research time and offering local rebate incentives. That’s exactly the type of actionable consumer information that helps drive the energy efficient market forward.

Report finds wide disparities exist in Energy Efficiency Programs

In past issues, we’ve highlighted that utility-sponsored energy efficiency investments are proving to be important demand-side initiatives, given the size and growth of program budgets. (Program spending in the U.S. is projected to increase from $5.4 billion in 2009 to $12.4 billion per year in 2020.)

Yet, a benchmarking report identifies that there is still much that can be done to make these programs more effective. The recent report by M.J. Bradley & Associates and Ceres studied 50 U.S. electric utilities and found significant differences among them in how much money they are investing in these programs and how successful they are at saving energy.

Our takeaway:
While state policies, political support for energy efficiency, and regulatory changes will continue to be major drivers of utility spending, this report focuses the lens on where to expect additional program investment.

With benchmarking, utilities can identify best practices to enhance energy saving program investment, including appliance rebate program success factors.

Much of the projected budget increases will likely come from states that have not yet been big participants in energy efficiency programs. That’s good news. We will continue to collaborate with our utility partners, and retailer and manufacturing clients to work toward making energy efficiency program investments even more efficient.

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Product offers at any customer touch-point: EcoRebates helps clients expand reach

We have been busy adding new features to our EcoRebates tools that enable clients to provide additional access to our rich set of location-based, product-specific offers.

Examples of these enhanced capabilities include:

  • Direct Integration with CRM systems and call centers to provide localized rebate data
  • Rebate data embedded in transactional (order-confirmation) emails for post-sale participation
  • “Where to buy” details included in rebate & offer search results to target locally-available inventory at stores near the consumer
  • Integration of Rebate Finder with in-store terminals, kiosks and other tools for sales associates, including mobile devices, displays, and promotional items

​But, by far, our most exciting feature expansion is that our tools now cover ALL product-specific incentive types. In addition to rebates, we can surface location-aware promotional pricing, discounts, free shipping, extended warranty and ‘deal of the day’ offers. By combining all incentives into one tool, highly-targeted bundles can be created, managed and delivered directly to the consumer across any channel (mobile/web/email/print).

Boost showroom traffic: use mobile+QR code for multi-tactic engagement

 

Consumers like their smartphones. Every day we see evidence of the growing use of mobile shopping tools. Retailers are launching mobile tools to enable commerce and build in-store traffic.

Here are some examples of how a branded Rebate Finder mobile app (combined with a QR code) is being used by some of our clients.

A QR code can be embedded in advertising circular, a direct mail campaign, or email marketing efforts. The scanned QR launches location-based product offers like rebates, promotions and deals, that can be targeted to drive consumers to the showroom floor.
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We teamed up with a large, regional appliance retailer to use mobile+QR as a sales tool. The retailer’s goal was to give their extensive sales team a simple way (by scanning the QR on a handy tape measure!) to identify available, local utility rebates on the specific products as their customers were researching in the showrooms. (Consumers can save an average of $70-$200 on appliances and other home improvement product rebates, and more with manufacturer promotions, too.)

These forward-thinking retailers are setting the stage to transform product-offer marketing programs. We look forward to continuing to work with our clients on mobile+QR code projects.

Rebate Search hits new Milestone

As part of our standard service, we distribute monthly Program Usage Reports to our clients documenting how their Rebate Finder tools performed across a variety of measures.

The primary metric – Rebate Searches – measures the number of times a search was initiated – across any client channel – for a product SKU associated with available rebates. In mid-December we hit a new milestone, serving up in total more than 5 million searches/month. (Of course, thanks go out to our clients who are using our tools in ever-expanding ways, reaching more customers, every day.)

Utilities continue to expand Energy Efficiency Programs

A national trend is underway. Last month, Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog posted three great articles highlighting RMI’s report “Turbocharging Efficiency Programs: Going for Broader and Deeper Savings.” One key stat: from 2007 to 2010, program budgets for electric utility efficiency programs doubled from $2.7B to $5.4B and are expected to jump to nearly $11B by 2020.

While leadership states continue to push their successful efficiency programs, like residential rebates, other states are rapidly joining. 30 states now have legislated EERS targets which dictate continued efforts to increase the energy savings from these successful programs.

Natural gas energy efficiency programs are also expanding. According to a recent ACEEE report, utilities in 41 states have programs. 2011 total budgets could reach $1.2B. “The clear trend is acceleration and expansion of these programs.”

Our takeaway. Utilities will continue to look for ways to market their expanding energy efficiency programs. Service providers – like EcoRebates – are well-positioned to collaborate with these utility partners through midstream/upstream programs and, importantly, by working with retailers and manufacturers to drive enhanced homeowner awareness and adoption at the point of sale.

 

Shop Mobile – Best Buy taps ‘real consumer interest’, extends rebate tools to mobile shopping

Customers can now use their mobile phone to find millions in locally available rebates based on their location and product of interest.

“We are pleased to extend our relationship with EcoRebates, and offer these location-based savings opportunities as our customers rely on more places, like mobile, to seek energy-efficient products,” said Kris Bowring, senior director, New Business Customer Solutions Group, Best Buy.

As a leading provider of web and mobile local incentive search tools for retailers and brands, we recently announced the availability of our local incentive search tools on Best Buy’s mobile shopping platforms. Mobile users of Best Buy’s award-winning mobile app and mobile web tools now have access to the same local incentive search tools that visitors to www.bestbuy.com enjoy – location and product (SKU) specific rebates and incentives on ENERGY STAR appliances, integrated directly within the product pages of the Best Buy mobile tools, instantly showing savings for products of interest based on the user’s location.

“The Best Buy mobile deployment is yet another way in which we are helping the nation’s leading retailers and brands engage their customers across all touchpoints with location-based incentive search and shopping tools,” noted Brett Battles, CEO and co-founder of EcoRebates.   “We are now handling more than 4 million location-based incentive search queries monthly across our network,” said Battles, “We have helped consumers find hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives based on their location and the product SKUs for which they are shopping.”

Home Energy Management Retail Initiative

EcoRebates is part of Best Buy’s new Home Energy Management Retail initiative. On BBY’s home energy portal customers can use our hosted Rebate Finder to learn about locally-available energy rebates for the product they want to buy. Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn recently claimed, “Increasingly, sustainability issues are starting to creep up that list of what customers care about.” (Business & Social Responsibility Conference 2011)

Tools for the Growing Number of Smartphone Shoppers

In today’s environment, consumers are turning to their mobile devices to research products to buy, find deals and access location-specific services.  Approximately 40% of the nearly 250 million mobile phones in the US are ‘smartphones’ with that share growing rapidly which are now used by consumers to research products while at home, in stores or on the go (Source:  Nielsen).  Shoppers using Best Buy mobile app and mobile web pages now have instant access to thousands of location-specific rebates and incentives on energy-efficient products while they are browsing those products on their mobile devices.

Interested in Mobile Shopping Deployment Options? Contact us for a demo.

Product Innovation – EcoRebates goes beyond ‘green’ – surfaces incentives, promotions on any product in the store

Working with EcoRebates, a home improvement retailer recently launched a new set of promotion tools to make it even simpler for customers to find ALL incentive offers on a wider range of products, from washers and refrigerators to microwaves, bathroom faucets or ranges. Now when shopping for thousands of products, customers will see relevant utility rebates alongside available manufacturer or retailer-specific offers.

By consolidating incentives and promotions into one tool and deploying it online and in mobile format, the retailer is offering its customers more convenience and more value no matter how they shop. And the retailer sees sales potential in that offer.

Promotional Possibilities

Today, the tool surfaces rebates available from both manufacturers and utilities. But, it doesn’t stop there. The technology is capable of handling other SKU-based product promotions such as percentage discounts, free shipping, extended warranty, or other product or location specific incentives.

Search results are always localized and relevant – filtered so shoppers can pinpoint their exact product of interest by brand and SKU as well as by zip code.

Product Categories Expanded

The EcoRebates tool now includes a greater range of product categories. Applicable products include bathroom faucets, cooktops, ranges, microwaves, toilets, wall ovens and even wine chillers and even paint. These categories are added to the traditional major home appliance categories – refrigerators, washers, dryers, freezers and dishwashers – as well as home improvement items such as water heaters, furnaces, boilers, insulation, windows, and doors.

Rebate Finder has already been proven to drive more sales – both online and in-store. With manufacturer incentives stacked alongside utility program rebates, consumers can quickly identify and take advantage of combined savings, where applicable, driving greater sales. And, utilizing tracking data, retailers can see real-time product and offer results.

Interested in knowing how to put Rebate Finder to work for your incentives & promotional plans? Contact us.

 

October 2011

Client Deployments: Multi-Channel Success Stories

With more than 4 million rebates searches each month we’ve proven that consumers will change purchase behavior and buy high-efficiency products if you make it easy and simple for them to find eligible incentives. Clients typically see 10-15% increase in sales conversions by using our tools.

As we’ve grown, we’ve watched how our Rebate Finder has evolved. Clients now use our tools across all channels and all customer touchpoints, including:

  • As a lead generation tools in display ads
  • Embedded in Google Adwords campaigns
  • In interactive email marketing campaigns
  • In mobile sites, apps and QR codes
  • As a way to merchandise trade promotions, deals and incentives

Our deployment experience shows that clients who use a multi-channel approach demonstrate the most consistent and effective sales results. See below for how our Mobile &b QR tools can help your multi-channel strategy.

Mobile & QR Code Tools

A recent Google study said 82% of U.S. smartphone-owning consumers use their device while shopping in a store! Retailers can use quick-response (QR) barcodes to link consumers to websites or apps that provide relevant rebate and incentive information.

To help consumers and home owners make wise product purchases, a single QR code can provide a high-impact mobile rebate tool. Used across store signage, catalogs, product brochures, and print ads, the tool can also include any manufacturer’s rebates, promotions, incentives or ‘daily deals’. With our comprehensive API protocol, you an also embed the tools in your existing mobile apps.

Instead of being overwhelmed with irrelevant information, consumers report that our mobile rebate tools help them shorten their research time, give them specific, customized and product-level rebate information, and lead them to a purchase decision more quickly.

If you haven’t seen the EcoRebates mobile tool in action, let us put together a customized ‘live demo’ for you. To schedule a demo, call us at 800-765-8093 or email demo@ecorebates.com.

Spotlight on Utility Rebate Program Trends

We’re often asked to comment on energy efficiency trends across all types of incentive programs (state, utility, local and even manufacturer).

We see programs accelerating as utilities realize that energy efficiency is the low hanging fruit in the resource landscape. No wonder utilities have nearly doubled per-capita spending on energy efficiency programs in the last five years. (Check this recent ACEEE report.)

Also, more than half of states in the U.S. now have Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS), with either legislative targets or policy goals designed to reduce consumer energy consumption over time. Incentive and rebate programs are a key part of these efforts and the numbers are accelerating. (See the FERC report.)

These general policy trends are reflected in the following specific and enlightening stats:

  • Over 50% of the 200,000+ product SKUs we track are eligible for a rebate somewhere in the U.S.
  • Nearly 80% of the U.S. is eligible for a rebate (100% if you include the federal tax credits on home improvement products)
  • The average home appliance rebate is now $70
  • The average home improvement rebate (i.e., HVAC, insulation, windows/doors) is now $250

We welcome the opportunity to create on-demand, specific reports for your promotional planning, utility initiatives or sustainability reporting. Let us know.