Coupon codes appear in nearly every online checkout, yet reliable data on how they perform is scarce. Most published figures come from marketing surveys or retailer self-reporting. This study draws instead on data from SimplyCodes, a coupon site and browser extension that tests promo codes at live store checkouts. Its database lists more than 600,000 online stores; in a typical month of 2026, about 94,000 to 113,000 of them had at least one verified code.
- 4.5x as many active promo codes per retailer on SimplyCodes in mid-2026 as in mid-2022, about 10 against about 2, while the median best discount held at 15% off.
- 42.5% of retailers offered a code worth 20% off or more in November 2025, below January’s 45.3%, even though November had the most codes per retailer.
- 46.9% of retailers offered 20% off or more in December 2025, the highest share of any month that year.
- 56% of the code restrictions SimplyCodes logged in early 2026 were store-wide policies, which no other code can get around.
- +515% growth in code copies for AI tools from January through September 2026, the fastest of any category on SimplyCodes, though AI tools are still 2.5% of all copies.
- 37 of 50 states where Fashion Nova was the most-copied coupon brand on SimplyCodes from January through September 2026.
Source: SimplyCodes · The State of the Coupon Economy
We want to give consumers, retailers, and the broader e-commerce industry a clear, data-backed picture of the coupon economy as it stands in 2026.
Updated October 14, 2026, with data through September 2026. Sections that still rely on data from the April 2026 edition say so.
What changed in the October 2026 update:
- New data through September 2026 for code copies, order values, devices, and locations; through August 2026 for code inventory; and through July 2026 for code success rates.
- Two April figures changed when we recalculated them with order data reported through September 2026: holiday order value growth from 2024 to 2025 is 9.9%, not 19.9%, and the 2025 national average order value is $216, not $213.
- We removed an April figure on ChatGPT visitors that we could not reproduce (see the correction under Emerging Trends).
- We rebuilt the Code Deserts list with the same rules. We dropped the city order-value tables: city locations come from internet addresses, which made small-city figures unreliable.
- We excluded days with automated code copying, which removed one large marketplace from the most-copied ranking.
Terms used in this study:
- Code copy: a shopper copying a promo code on SimplyCodes to use at checkout.
- Healthy code: a code SimplyCodes lists as active and verified.
- Best available discount: the deepest percentage-off code a retailer had live in a given month. The median is the middle value across all retailers.
- Success rate: the share of codes SimplyCodes editors tested at checkout that worked.
- Coupon-assisted order: a purchase made after a shopper used SimplyCodes, which earned SimplyCodes an affiliate commission.
This study covers:
The Coupon Economy: Whether coupon volume, discounts, and promotion types rose or fell from 2022 to 2026.
Emerging Trends: How shoppers who arrive from AI assistants use coupon codes.
Device & Platform Data: Mobile vs. desktop coupon use.
Restrictions: The most common limitations placed on coupon codes, from minimum purchase thresholds to new-customer-only gates.
Revenue & Savings Impact: Average discounts, shopper savings, and order values.
Most-Copied Coupon Brands: Which stores shoppers copy the most codes for.
Seasonal & Event Trends: Coupon activity around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime Day, back-to-school, and other key shopping moments, and which events bring better discounts.
Industry & Category Breakdowns: Which retail categories see the most coupon activity and where codes are most likely to work.
Retailer Behavior: How many codes retailers offer, how deep the discounts run, and how often codes work, month by month.
Geographic Patterns: Where shoppers copy the most promo codes.
Code Deserts: Popular brands where SimplyCodes testers have not found a working code in more than a year.
All findings come from SimplyCodes’ verification systems and user activity data.
Key Takeaways
The main findings, with data through September 2026:
1. Codes per retailer grew 4.5 times since 2022. Discounts didn’t move. The average retailer on SimplyCodes went from about 2 active codes in mid-2022 to about 10 in mid-2026. Total healthy codes rose from 282,000 in December 2022 to 1.05 million in August 2026. The median best available discount stayed at 15% off in every year from 2022 through 2026. More codes have not meant bigger discounts.
2. Black Friday brings more codes, not better ones. November 2025 had more codes per retailer than any other month that year (10.0), but a smaller share of 20%-off-or-better discounts (42.5%) than January (45.3%). Black Friday week drew 2.1 times the coupon-assisted orders of a typical 2025 week, and its average order value ($225) stayed close to November’s ($227). Most other holidays draw about as many code copies as a typical June day, or fewer. The holiday spike is mostly a Black Friday and Cyber Monday effect. This measures promo codes only, not sale prices.
3. Many code restrictions apply to the whole store, so trying another code won’t help. In a 30-day window in early 2026, 56% of the restrictions SimplyCodes logged were store-wide policies rather than conditions on one code. Minimum spend, the most common restriction, was store-wide 96% of the time. Payment method rules were store-wide 95% of the time, and customer type rules 85%. A store-wide rule blocks every code, and the coupon box rarely says why a code failed.
4. Fashion Nova was the most-copied brand on SimplyCodes in 37 of 50 states. From January through September 2026, shoppers copied Fashion Nova codes 1.64 million times, more than any other retailer. Taco Bell was second nationally with 1.05 million.
5. December has the deepest discounts of the year. The median best discount rose from 15% to 20% off in December 2023 and December 2024. In December 2025 the median stayed at 15%, but December still had the year’s highest average discount (20.4%) and the largest share of retailers offering 20% or more (46.9%). Code reliability stayed above 85%.
6. AI tools had the fastest growth in code copies on SimplyCodes. Code copies for AI tools rose 515% from January through September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, against 127% for all categories. AI tools are still a small category, 2.5% of all copies, up from 0.9%. They also offer the deepest average discounts of any category (27.1%) but the fewest codes per retailer (2.5 a month).
7. Shoppers arriving from AI assistants copy codes about as often as shoppers from search. In September 2026, 86.5% of visits from ChatGPT included a copied code, compared with 84.2% of visits from Google search. Most visits to SimplyCodes include a code copy. Across all visits that month, 64% did.
8. Two out of three code copiers are on a phone. From January through September 2026, 66.1% of shoppers who copied a code did so on a phone, 32.9% on a desktop, and 0.9% on a tablet.
9. Summer 2025 was a steady stretch for coupon shopping. Codes per retailer held between 9.3 and 9.7 from May through September, success rates passed 80% in June and stayed there, and free shipping offers reached 8% of retailers in August.
The Coupon Economy: 2022-2026
Key takeaways from this section:
- Codes per retailer grew about 4.5 times from mid-2022 to mid-2026; the median discount stayed at 15% off
- Total healthy codes grew from 282,000 (December 2022) to 1.05 million (August 2026)
- Shoppers copied 48.8 million codes on SimplyCodes in 2025 and 77.7 million from January through September 2026
- November was the peak month for code copies in 2024 and 2025; in 2026, monthly copies passed 10 million in May
- Free shipping and free gift promos became regular secondary formats
- SimplyCodes tracked more codes and recorded more copies, but the typical discount did not grow
SimplyCodes’ coupon inventory data goes back to July 2022, giving a four-year view of how the promotional landscape has changed. Codes per retailer grew about 4.5 times while the median discount stayed the same.
In mid-2022, the average retailer had roughly 2 active codes. By mid-2026, that number was about 10. Total healthy codes in circulation rose from 282,000 in December 2022 to 914,000 in December 2025 and 1.05 million in August 2026. Through all of that growth, the median best available discount held at 15% off every year.
SimplyCodes is finding more codes per retailer, but the typical discount has not grown. Some of the rise in codes may reflect SimplyCodes tracking more codes over time, so treat it as a measure of the codes SimplyCodes tracks, not every code retailers issue. The promotional environment is getting noisier without getting more generous.
Code copies are growing even faster
Code copy data, available from April 2024 onward, shows copies rising faster than code supply:
| Year | Annual Code Copies | Peak Month |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 (Apr-Dec) | ~20.6M | November (4.2M) |
| 2025 (Full Year) | ~48.8M | November (5.5M) |
| 2026 (Jan-Sep) | ~77.7M | August (10.9M) |
Comparing April through December, 2025 code copy volume was roughly 1.9 times 2024. From January through September 2026, copies were 2.3 times the same months of 2025, and 2.2 times among stores with copies in both years. Much of that growth reflects SimplyCodes reaching more shoppers, so these figures measure activity on SimplyCodes, not total coupon demand.
Promotion types are diversifying
The standard percentage-off code still dominates, but other promotion types have gained measurable ground over the four-year window:
Free shipping promos climbed from near zero in 2022 to roughly 5-8% of retailers in 2025 and 8-9.5% in 2026. What was once a rare incentive is now a standard part of the promotional toolkit for many retailers.
Free gift promos followed a similar path, growing from about 0% to roughly 3-4% of retailers by late 2025, and holding near 3% in 2026.
Neither replaces the percentage-off code as the dominant format, but retailers now use the coupon box for shipping incentives and added-value offers as well as discounts.
The macro picture
From 2022 to 2026 the pattern held. Retailers issued more codes, shoppers copied more of them, and the median discount stayed the same. Retailers are competing for attention through code volume, and shoppers are using codes more often. The typical discount has not grown.
Emerging Trends for Promo Codes in 2026
AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot now send shoppers to coupon pages. ChatGPT sends far more of these visitors than the others combined.
Once they arrive, these shoppers behave much like shoppers from search. In September 2026, 86.5% of visits from ChatGPT included a copied code, compared with 84.2% of visits from Google search. Visits from the other AI assistants, which were far fewer, included a copied code 67.9% of the time. For context, most visits to SimplyCodes include a code copy. Across all visits in September 2026, 64% did.
SimplyCodes also tested the codes AI assistants hand out directly. In our AI promo code study, 59% of the codes that ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity provided failed at checkout. Code copies for AI tools themselves grew faster than any other category in 2026 (see Industry & Category Breakdowns).
Correction: The April 2026 edition reported a very low code-copy rate for visitors from ChatGPT. We could not reproduce that figure, and the September 2026 data above replaces it.
Device & Platform Data on Coupon Codes
From January through September 2026, 66.1% of shoppers who copied a code on SimplyCodes did so on a phone, 32.9% on a desktop, and 0.9% on a tablet. The split is close to the one in the April edition, which measured all visitors in November and December 2025 (65.6% mobile).
| Device | % of Code Copiers | % of Code Copies |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | 66.1% | 65.1% |
| Desktop | 32.9% | 34.1% |
| Tablet | 0.9% | 0.8% |
Mobile shoppers make up about two-thirds of code copiers and copies.
Tablets account for under 1% of coupon activity. In practice, coupon shopping in 2026 happens on phones and laptops.
Promo Code Restrictions Data in 2026
Key takeaways from this section:
- Minimum spend is the most common restriction SimplyCodes logged (30% of all restrictions, 96% merchant-wide), and switching codes can’t get around it
- The most common checkout blockers are merchant-wide and hard to see: minimum spend, payment method, and customer type restrictions
- Product exclusions are the one restriction where trying a different code can help
This section uses the restriction data from the April 2026 edition, a 30-day window in early 2026.
A coupon code can be technically valid and still fail at checkout because of restrictions, the conditions attached to the individual code or to the retailer’s store-wide policies. SimplyCodes cataloged restrictions across 17 types over 30 days. Of those, 56% were merchant-wide store policies and 44% were code-specific conditions.
The distinction changes what a shopper can do. When a restriction is merchant-wide, no amount of code-swapping will help, because the blocker is in the store’s system, not the code. When it’s code-specific, trying a different code may work.
The top promo code restrictions by frequency
| Rank | Restriction | Share of All Restrictions | Promo-Level | Merchant-Wide | Mostly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minimum Spend | 29.6% | 4% | 96% | Merchant |
| 2 | Exclude Product | 21.1% | 86% | 14% | Promo |
| 3 | Expiration | 11.8% | 75% | 25% | Promo |
| 4 | Usage Limit Per Customer | 11.8% | 87% | 13% | Promo |
| 5 | Customer Type | 6.8% | 15% | 85% | Merchant |
| 6 | Maximum Spend | 4.7% | 4% | 96% | Merchant |
| 7 | Exclude Category | 3.2% | 29% | 71% | Merchant |
| 8 | Payment Method | 3.2% | 5% | 95% | Merchant |
| 9 | BOGO Trigger | 2.4% | 8% | 92% | Merchant |
| 10 | Include Category | 2.1% | 38% | 62% | Merchant |
- Minimum Spend: The cart total must meet a dollar threshold before the code will activate.
- Exclude Product: Certain items are excluded from the discount, even if the code is otherwise valid.
- Expiration: The code has passed its valid date range and is no longer accepted at checkout.
- Usage Limit Per Customer: The code can only be used a set number of times per account or email address.
- Customer Type: The code is restricted to a specific group, such as new customers, loyalty members, or military personnel.
- Maximum Spend: The code only applies if the cart total stays below a certain dollar amount.
- Exclude Category: Entire product categories, like sale items or clearance, are blocked from the discount.
- Payment Method: The code only works with specific payment options, such as a credit card or store-branded checkout.
- BOGO Trigger: The discount requires a qualifying item in the cart before a second item is discounted or free.
- Include Category: The code only works on items within a specific product category, and everything else in the cart is ignored.
The remaining restrictions (Include Product, Tiered Spend Discount, Membership Level, Exclude Brand, BOGO Reward, Include Brand, and Customer Birthday) together account for about 3% of restrictions.
What this means for shoppers
Minimum spend is the most common restriction. It made up 30% of all restrictions SimplyCodes logged, and 96% of them were merchant-wide. If a store requires a $75 subtotal and the cart is at $68, every code will fail regardless of which one the shopper tries.
Payment method restrictions are hard to see. At 95% merchant-wide, these restrictions mean some discounts only activate with specific checkout methods, such as a particular credit card or no buy-now-pay-later option, and the shopper typically gets no sign that this is the issue.
Customer type rules block codes without explanation. These made up about 7% of restrictions, 85% of them merchant-wide. These rules limit codes to new customers, loyalty members, or logged-in accounts. If the shopper’s status doesn’t match, the code is rejected with no useful message.
Product exclusions are the one area where trying another code can help. Exclude Product restrictions are 86% promo-specific, meaning they are attached to individual codes rather than the store’s system. Switching codes can resolve these, but only after merchant-wide blockers like minimum spend and customer type are cleared.
The restrictions most likely to block a shopper are mostly merchant-wide and invisible at the point of code entry. The coupon box gives no feedback on why a code failed, so shoppers try code after code for a problem no code can solve.
Revenue & Savings Impact of Coupon Codes
Key takeaways from this section:
- 87.2% of retailers offered percentage-off codes in 2026; the median best discount was 15% off in every month
- Shoppers who applied a code saved 23% on average in 2025 (April edition data), more than the 19.5% average best published discount
- Coupon-assisted order value averaged $195 from January through September 2026, down from $210 in the same months of 2025, because more orders went to lower-priced stores; at the typical store, order value rose about 3%
- October 2025 posted the highest average order value ($259), not the holiday months; Black Friday drives more orders but not bigger baskets
- Holiday order values grew 9.9% from 2024 to 2025, led by Electronics
- AI tools and Software offered the deepest percentage discounts in the December 2025 snapshot (median 25%); Food & Restaurants the shallowest (15%)
Percentage-off codes dominate the coupon landscape. Across the roughly 94,000 to 113,000 retailers tracked each month from January through August 2026, 87.2% offered percentage-based discounts as their primary promotion type, compared with 87.4% in 2025. About 13% relied on dollar-off codes.
The median best available discount across all retailers was 15% off in every month of 2025 and 2026. The average best available discount was 19.5% in 2025 and 18.7% from January through August 2026. The middle 50% of discounts ranged from 10% off (25th percentile) to 20% off (75th percentile) in 2026.
For dollar-off retailers in 2025, the median best discount was $15, while the average was $56.60, pulled up by high-value categories like Travel and Electronics.
Average published discount rates have stayed in a narrow band for four years: 18.9% in 2023, 19.7% in 2024, 19.5% in 2025, and 18.7% so far in 2026. The 2026 dip comes from retailers newly added to SimplyCodes’ data, which offer smaller discounts. Among retailers tracked in both July 2025 and July 2026, the average held steady (19.7% vs. 19.8%).
What shoppers actually save with coupon codes
This figure comes from the April 2026 edition. SimplyCodes data shows that shoppers saved an average of 23% on purchases where a promo code was applied in 2025. That is higher than the 19.5% average best published discount, though the two figures measure different things. One averages orders; the other averages retailers.
In practice, a 23% savings rate means $23 off a $100 order and about $58 off a $250 purchase.
Order values vary dramatically by category
In 2025, the national average order value on coupon-assisted orders was $216. From January through September 2026, it was $195. That figure masks wide variation across retail categories.
In 2025, Travel led at $477 per order, followed by Home & Garden at $396 and Electronics at $395, all categories with high base prices where even a modest percentage discount means meaningful dollar savings. At the other end, Beauty averaged $112 and Apparel $169. In 2026 so far, Electronics fell to $287 and Travel to $380, while Beauty ($114) and Apparel ($164) held near their 2025 levels.
The gap between the highest and lowest major categories is three to four times. Shifts in category mix can move the national figure by $20 or more without any change at individual stores. Most of the 2026 decline came from that kind of shift. At the typical store with orders in both years, order value rose about 3%.
October is the Average Order Value (AOV) peak, not the holidays
October 2025 posted the highest monthly AOV at $259, well above November ($227) and December ($215). As order volume surges during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the average basket shrinks slightly.
This matches the seasonal findings below: holiday promotions bring many more orders, at similar or lower price points. October combined lower order volume with the highest code success rate of 2025 (85.8%).
Holiday spending grew year-over-year
Holiday order value (November and December combined) rose from $201 in 2024 to $221 in 2025, a 9.9% increase. The growth came from larger baskets within categories, not only from a shift toward higher-priced categories.
Electronics saw the largest holiday jump: November order value rose from $348 to $552 (+59%) and December from $308 to $538 (+75%), driven largely by the Computers & Accessories subcategory.
Discount code strength by category
Not all categories discount equally. A December 2025 snapshot of best available discounts by shopping category shows meaningful variation:
| Category | Median % Off | Avg % Off | Median $ Off | Avg $ Off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI/Software | 25% | 30% | $15 | $63 |
| Software | 25% | 29% | $15 | $63 |
| Education | 20% | 27% | $40 | $95 |
| Health | 20% | 22% | $20 | $67 |
| Beauty | 20% | 21% | $10 | $42 |
| Entertainment | 20% | 24% | $5 | $28 |
| Apparel | 15% | 20% | $10 | $40 |
| Electronics | 15% | 19% | $30 | $79 |
| Travel | 20% | 21% | $30 | $95 |
| Food & Restaurants | 15% | 19% | $5 | $20 |
AI/Software and Software lead in percentage-off depth, with median discounts of 25% and averages near 30%. Education and Travel lead in dollar-off value, with average dollar discounts of $95, reflecting higher base prices. Food & Restaurants sits at the bottom on both measures.
December is a seasonal high for discounts. In the August 2026 snapshot, medians were lower in several categories: 15% in Health, Beauty, Entertainment, and Travel, and 20% in AI and Software.
The Most-Copied Coupon Brands of 2026
Key takeaways from this section:
- 77.7 million code copies across more than 91,000 retailers from January through September 2026
- Fashion Nova leads by a wide margin (1.64 million copies), about 1.6 times Taco Bell and six times Nike
- The top 25 spans fast fashion, restaurants, marketplaces, entertainment, and direct-to-consumer brands
- New to the top 25 in 2026: Regal Movies, Shop, TikTok Shop, Alo Yoga, Vuori, ULTA, Free People, and Nothing Bundt Cakes
Code copies, the number of times a shopper copies a promo code to use at checkout, are the closest signal SimplyCodes has to purchase intent. A copy suggests a shopper is close to checking out. From January through September 2026, SimplyCodes recorded 77.7 million code copies across more than 91,000 retailers, after 48.8 million in all of 2025.
The top 25 retailers by code copy volume, January through September 2026:
| Rank | Retailer | Code Copies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fashion Nova | 1,640,534 |
| 2 | Taco Bell | 1,054,905 |
| 3 | Hollister | 507,215 |
| 4 | Regal Movies | 394,216 |
| 5 | On Running | 362,676 |
| 6 | Shop | 349,744 |
| 7 | TikTok Shop | 326,048 |
| 8 | Jellycat | 313,194 |
| 9 | Nike | 271,284 |
| 10 | Alo Yoga | 271,245 |
| 11 | Vuori | 263,757 |
| 12 | ULTA | 252,312 |
| 13 | SKIMS | 250,481 |
| 14 | edikted | 246,249 |
| 15 | Owala | 233,604 |
| 16 | Free People | 230,917 |
| 17 | Nothing Bundt Cakes | 227,282 |
| 18 | StockX | 225,395 |
| 19 | Suno | 225,202 |
| 20 | Fanatics | 222,853 |
| 21 | Olive Garden | 215,512 |
| 22 | Upwork | 214,371 |
| 23 | Topstep | 210,878 |
| 24 | Youtooz Collectibles | 203,421 |
| 25 | American Eagle | 202,590 |
We excluded days with clear automated activity. This removed most of one retailer’s 2026 total (Temu), so it does not appear in the ranking.
Fashion Nova is the most-copied brand on SimplyCodes
Shoppers copied Fashion Nova codes 1.64 million times from January through September 2026, about 1.6 times Taco Bell (1.05 million) and six times Nike (271,000). Fashion Nova also led in 2025 with 946,000 copies. Fast fashion’s lead in coupon activity is not new, but the margin over other retailers is large.
Seasonal & Event Trends for Promo Codes in 2026
Key takeaways from this section:
- Black Friday 2025 generated 464K code copies in a single day, nearly 7 times Valentine’s Day
- The holiday spike is almost entirely a Black Friday and Cyber Monday effect; most other holidays draw about as many copies as a typical June day, or fewer
- Through Labor Day 2026, Memorial Day again led the other holidays, at 1.3 times a typical June day
- December is the only month where average discounts rise, and only slightly: 20.4% in December 2025, against 19.1-19.6% in most other months
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday don’t outperform the year on discount depth in any major category
- Headline discounts stay flat through the holidays; free gift offers rise into November, while free shipping offers peak earlier, from August to October
Single-day code copy volume shows which shopping moments drive the most checkout intent. The table below covers 2025, the most recent full holiday calendar:
| Holiday | Date | Code Copies |
|---|---|---|
| Black Friday | Nov 28 | 464,212 |
| Cyber Monday | Dec 1 | 396,825 |
| Memorial Day | May 26 | 172,786 |
| Labor Day | Sep 1 | 157,071 |
| Mother’s Day | May 11 | 152,497 |
| Father’s Day | Jun 15 | 147,026 |
| July 4th | Jul 4 | 130,079 |
| St. Patrick’s Day | Mar 17 | 125,025 |
| Christmas Day | Dec 25 | 118,422 |
| Halloween | Oct 31 | 106,907 |
| Valentine’s Day | Feb 14 | 68,000 |
Black Friday generated nearly 2.7 times the code copies of the next non-Cyber holiday (Memorial Day) and nearly 7 times Valentine’s Day.
In 2026 so far, the order held. Memorial Day drew 1.3 times the copies of a typical June day, Labor Day 1.2 times, Mother’s Day about the same as a typical day, and Valentine’s Day about half. Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026 fall on November 27 and November 30.
Coupon code holiday windows compared
Measuring across full holiday windows in 2025 shows how coupon activity builds and holds around key dates:
| Holiday Period | Days | Total Copies | Avg Daily Copies |
|---|---|---|---|
| BF Weekend (Nov 28-30) | 3 | 1,068,430 | 356,143 |
| Cyber Monday + Week | 7 | 1,710,614 | 244,373 |
| Pre-BF Ramp (Nov 20-26) | 7 | 1,453,331 | 207,619 |
| Memorial Day Weekend | 4 | 617,303 | 154,326 |
| Baseline (Jun 9-15) | 7 | 1,060,833 | 151,548 |
| Easter Week | 7 | 1,049,275 | 149,896 |
| Prime Day (Jul 8-11) | 4 | 588,680 | 147,170 |
| New Year’s Week | 5 | 725,876 | 145,175 |
| July 4th Week | 6 | 853,664 | 142,277 |
| Labor Day Weekend | 4 | 527,268 | 131,817 |
| St. Patrick’s Week | 7 | 881,050 | 125,864 |
| Christmas Week | 7 | 866,511 | 123,787 |
| Halloween Week | 6 | 723,270 | 120,545 |
| Back to School (Aug 4-10) | 7 | 732,701 | 104,672 |
| Valentine’s Day Week | 7 | 569,928 | 81,418 |
The Black Friday weekend averaged 356,000 daily code copies, more than double any holiday window outside the Black Friday to Cyber Monday stretch. A typical mid-June week averaged 151,548 daily copies. Memorial Day weekend ran slightly above that, while Easter week, Prime Day, and New Year’s week ran slightly below, and every other window lower still. Amazon’s four-day Prime Day did not lift coupon activity on SimplyCodes above a normal week. The holiday spike is mostly a Black Friday and Cyber Monday effect.
Which holidays are the best for coupons?
Not every holiday delivers on its deal hype. In SimplyCodes’ monthly data, the holiday season is the only period where discounts rise at all, and the rise is small: the average best discount reached 20.4% in December 2025, against 19.1% to 19.6% in most other months of the year.
Code selection follows a different pattern. Codes per retailer were lowest in January and February 2025 and built through the year, then held near 10 through 2026. August had the smallest share of strong discounts in 2025, with 41.6% of retailers at 20% off or more. Black Friday and Cyber Monday don’t outperform the year on discount depth. December, not Black Friday week, has had the best codes, and a sale event does not mean a better code at checkout.
Holiday discounts stay flat while free gifts rise
The monthly data confirms that the median discount is 15% off in every month, including November. The average stays in a tight 19.1-20.4% band across 2025. Black Friday month posted 19.2%, below the annual average.
What does shift is the promotional mix. Free gift offers rose from 2.3% of retailers at mid-year to 4.0% in November. Free shipping offers moved on a different schedule. They rose from roughly 5% of retailers in the first half of 2025 to 8% from August through October, then fell to 6.9% in November and 5.4% in December. In 2026, free shipping stayed higher all year, between 8.3% and 9.5% of retailers through August.
Industry & Category Breakdowns of Coupon Codes
Key takeaways from this section:
- Apparel leads code copies on SimplyCodes at about 584,000 a week in 2026, more than three times any other category
- AI tools grew fastest: code copies rose 515% from January through September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, and 384% per retailer, though AI tools are still 2.5% of all copies
- Copies per retailer on SimplyCodes rose in almost every category in 2026, led by AI tools, Blockchain & Web3, Pets, and Sports & Outdoors
- Apparel also leads in total healthy codes and retailer count, nearly double the next category on both
- AI tools offer the deepest average discounts (27.1%) but the fewest codes per retailer (2.5 a month)
- Black Friday delivers essentially no promo code advantage in any category; Electronics, the category most associated with Black Friday, showed 0.0 percentage points of lift in 2025
Weekly code copy volume shows where shopper activity on SimplyCodes is concentrated and where it is growing. Total growth can mislead, because a category’s copy volume rises as more of its retailers appear on SimplyCodes and as SimplyCodes reaches more shoppers. To separate the first effect, we also measured average copies per retailer.
| Category | Copies/Week (2026) | Growth vs. 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel | 583,585 | +125% |
| Food & Restaurants | 168,111 | +146% |
| Health | 154,254 | +121% |
| Sports & Outdoors | 151,750 | +194% |
| Home & Garden | 147,262 | +117% |
| Entertainment | 123,913 | +108% |
| Beauty | 120,047 | +170% |
| Electronics | 90,320 | +111% |
| Hobbies & Toys | 83,779 | +111% |
| Travel | 66,738 | +40% |
| Shopping | 53,982 | +30% |
| Automotive | 53,892 | +207% |
| Software | 53,075 | +125% |
| AI Tools | 49,961 | +515% |
The 14 categories with the most weekly copies, January through September 2026 compared with January through September 2025.
Apparel leads in absolute volume at about 584,000 code copies per week, more than three times the next category. The number of retailers with code copies rose by about a third across categories, which explains part of the growth. Copies per retailer also rose in almost every category in 2026, from +21% in Education to +384% in AI tools, which tracks SimplyCodes’ own audience growth more than any change in shopper demand. Shopping (-4%) and Travel (+3%) were the exceptions.
AI tools stand out. The category posted the highest total growth at +515%, about four times the rate for all categories combined (+127%), and copies per retailer grew 384%, to about 33 a week, close to Apparel and second only to Shopping. AI tools are still small: 2.5% of all code copies in 2026, up from 0.9% in the same months of 2025. The category covers consumer AI subscriptions such as image generators, coding assistants, and writing tools.
Most coupon activity: Physical retail dominates
To see where coupon codes are most active, we analyzed the 2026 inventory data, January through August, across three measures: discount depth, code volume, and retailer count. The categories with the deepest discounts are rarely the ones with the most codes, and the categories with the most retailers don’t always discount the most.
Average healthy codes per month, January through August 2026:
| Rank | Category | Avg. Healthy Codes per Month |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apparel | 253K |
| 2 | Health | 137K |
| 3 | Home & Garden | 133K |
| 4 | Beauty | 115K |
| 5 | Hobbies & Toys | 58K |
Apparel accounts for nearly as many healthy codes as the next two categories combined, reflecting both the number of apparel brands and the sector’s reliance on promotional pricing.
On an intensity basis, average codes per retailer per month, the picture shifts. Shopping leads at 14.8 codes a month, followed by Electronics at 14.6 and Automotive at 12.0. AI and Blockchain sit at 2.5 and 6.3 codes per retailer-month, indicating sparse promotional activity relative to their retailer base.
Largest retailer bases
| Rank | Category | Retailers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apparel | 38,641 |
| 2 | Home & Garden | 18,739 |
| 3 | Health | 16,950 |
| 4 | Beauty | 15,128 |
| 5 | Food & Restaurants | 10,443 |
Apparel’s retailer count is roughly double the runner-up. The smallest tracked categories are AI (1,013 retailers), Money (669), and Blockchain & Web3 (304).
Category-level patterns worth noting for promo codes
The AI discount gap. Artificial Intelligence offers the highest average discounts of any category (27.1%) but the thinnest code inventory at 2.5 codes per retailer-month. When AI companies offer codes, they discount steeply, but codes are rare.
Electronics punches above its weight. With about 4,900 retailers, Electronics is a mid-sized category by count. But at 14.6 codes per retailer-month, second only to Shopping, electronics retailers keep deep promotional inventories: fewer players, more codes per player.
Beauty ranks high on both free shipping and free gifts. 10.2% of retailer-months in Beauty include a free shipping offer and 4.8% include a free gift, both among the highest rates across categories. Sports & Outdoors leads all categories in free shipping at 12.4% of retailer-months.
Blockchain & Web3 is the free-gift outlier. Despite being the smallest category by retailer count (304), 9.3% of Blockchain & Web3 retailer-months include a free gift, the highest rate of any category. Crypto and Web3 companies rely more on added-value incentives than straight discounts.
The category breakdown: Does any industry actually deliver on Black Friday promo codes?
The most common pushback to a finding like this is category-specific: “Sure, the average might be flat, but Black Friday must be great for electronics,” or “Fashion deals are always better in November.” We tested this by comparing 2025 BFCM (Black Friday, Cyber Monday) promo code discounts against non-event months across every major retail category in our dataset.
No category shows a meaningful Black Friday promo code advantage. This compares promo codes only; sale prices, doorbusters, and other discounts that don’t need a code are outside this data.
The largest lift we found was in Sports & Outdoors, where the average promo code discount during BFCM was 0.8 percentage points higher than baseline, a gap most shoppers would never notice at checkout. Software and Entertainment showed small lifts of 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points. Everything else was flat.
Electronics, the category most associated with Black Friday, stands out. The average promo code discount during BFCM was 17.9%, exactly the same as during non-event months. The share of electronics retailers offering 30%-or-better codes was 15.2% in both periods. Whatever happens to electronics sale prices on Black Friday, the promo codes themselves don’t change.
Apparel, another category shoppers associate with November deals, showed a 0.1 percentage point BFCM lift. Beauty was similarly flat. Home & Garden showed zero difference.
| Category | BFCM avg. discount | Baseline avg. discount | BFCM lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports & Outdoors | 19.1% | 18.3% | +0.8 ppts |
| Software | 26.9% | 26.4% | +0.5 ppts |
| Entertainment | 22.2% | 21.9% | +0.3 ppts |
| Travel | 19.3% | 19.0% | +0.3 ppts |
| Apparel | 19.3% | 19.2% | +0.1 ppts |
| Beauty | 19.5% | 19.5% | +0.1 ppts |
| Health | 20.3% | 20.2% | +0.1 ppts |
| Pets | 18.5% | 18.4% | +0.1 ppts |
| Home & Garden | 17.1% | 17.1% | 0.0 ppts |
| Electronics | 17.9% | 17.9% | 0.0 ppts |
| Automotive | 15.0% | 15.2% | -0.2 ppts |
Lift is calculated before rounding.
Even in the best-case categories, the BFCM promo code advantage is under one percentage point. Waiting for Black Friday won’t get a shopper a better coupon code in any of these categories.
Coupon Code Retailer Behavior
Key takeaways from this section:
- November 2025 had the most codes per retailer (10.0); December had the year’s highest average discount (20.4%), though the median stayed at 15%
- October was the most reliable month of 2025 (85.8% code success rate)
- January and February had the fewest codes per retailer in 2025; March had the lowest reliability (62.5%)
- In 2026, codes per retailer held near 10 every month, and the code success rate stayed between 87% and 92% from January through July
- Monthly timing outweighs daily timing. In 2026, success rates differed by about 4 points between the best and worst months and about 1 point between days
- Influencer codes are losing value: the average influencer discount fell from 19.1% in 2022 to 15.0% in 2025
- In four of seven major categories, a regular promo code now matches or beats the “exclusive” influencer code
The number of healthy codes available per retailer changes by month. In November 2025, the average retailer had 10 healthy codes, the year’s peak. December was close behind.
The low point comes at the start of the year. In February 2024, the average retailer had 4.7 codes available, the lowest month of that year. In 2025, January (7.2) and February (7.4) were the lowest months. In 2026, codes per retailer held near 10 from January through July.
In 2025, availability rose quickly in the spring, held between 9.3 and 9.7 codes per retailer from May through September, and reached 10 in November.
More promo codes doesn’t mean better codes
The monthly volume pattern might suggest that November is the best time to use coupons. The discount quality data says otherwise.
The median best available discount is 15% off in nearly every month of the year. January, July, November: it barely moves. This is one of the most stable measures in the dataset. Shoppers expecting much better discounts at specific times of year won’t find them in this data.
December has been the exception. The median rose to 20% off in December 2023 and December 2024. In December 2025 it stayed at 15%, but December still had the year’s highest average discount (20.4%) and the largest share of retailers offering 20% or more (46.9%, against 41.6% to 45.3% in other months).
Black Friday is a volume play, not a value play. In November 2025, 42.5% of retailers offered 20% off or better, below January’s 45.3%. November had the most codes per retailer, but not the deepest ones. The deeper codes arrived in December.
2026 so far. The median stayed at 15% every month through August. The share of retailers at 20% off or more slipped from 42.7% in January to 38.3% in August. Most of that slip came from retailers newly added to SimplyCodes’ data. Among retailers tracked in both July 2025 and July 2026, the average best discount held steady (19.7% vs. 19.8%).
Code success rates by month
Not every listed code works. SimplyCodes editors test codes at live checkouts, and the share that work changes from month to month. These rates describe the codes editors chose to test each month, so changes in what they test can move the rate as much as changes at the stores.
March 2025 posted the worst reliability. Only 62.5% of codes tested in March 2025 passed at checkout, so more than one in three failed.
October through December posted the best reliability. All three months of Q4 2025 exceeded 85%, with October at the year’s peak of 85.8%.
Summer was strong. Success rates climbed above 80% by June 2025 and stayed there through early fall.
The spring dip did not repeat in 2026. From January through July 2026, the success rate stayed between 87.4% and 91.6% every month, above every month of 2025.
Day-of-week patterns exist but are marginal for coupon codes
In 2026, Sunday posted the highest code success rate (90.1%), about 1 point above Friday, the lowest day. Monday saw the most shopper activity, with code copies running about 10% higher than Saturday. Among codes tested, Friday had the largest share offering 20% off or better (34.2%). Saturday was the weakest day for copies and discount share.
These differences are small. In 2026, the best and worst days for code success were about 1 percentage point apart, and the best and worst months about 4 points apart. In 2025, the months were more than 23 points apart. The month counts for far more than the day.
The best and worst months for coupon shopping
Based on the combined data across discount depth, code volume, and reliability:
December is the best month overall. It has the highest average discount, code volume at or near peak, and some of the year’s highest success rates.
October is the sleeper. It posted the highest editor success rate of 2025 (85.8%), with code volume close to the November peak.
November rounds out the top three but gets more attention than its discounts justify. It had the most codes per retailer, but its share of 20%-off-or-better codes was below January’s.
January and February had the fewest codes in 2025, and the leftovers from holiday promotions. March had the year’s lowest reliability (62.5%).
May through September deserves more attention than it gets. In 2025, codes per retailer held between 9.3 and 9.7, success rates passed 80% in June, and free shipping codes reached roughly 8% of retailers in August, up from about 5%.
Influencer coupon codes are getting worse
When a creator says “use my code for an exclusive discount,” they’re promoting an influencer promo code, a unique code tied to a specific creator that brands distribute through sponsored posts, stories, and videos. Consumers assume these codes unlock a deal they can’t get elsewhere. Increasingly, they don’t.
This section uses the influencer analysis from the April 2026 edition, covering 2022 through 2025.
Our 2026 influencer discount study analyzed over 900,000 influencer codes from 2021 through 2025. The average influencer discount across all categories fell from 19.1% in 2022 to 15.0% in 2025, a decline of more than one-fifth. On a $100 order, that’s the difference between saving $19 and saving $15. The “exclusive” label hasn’t changed. What it’s worth to the shopper has.
The gap widens when you compare influencer codes with the standard promo codes any shopper can find through a basic search. In four of seven major categories, influencer codes offered the same or lower discounts than regular codes in 2025. One in three influencer codes in our dataset offers exactly 10% off. More than half offer 15% or less.
Two of the steepest declines came in Beauty and Pets. Beauty influencer codes averaged 21.4% off in 2022. By 2025 they had fallen to 12.3%, while standard codes held at 15.9%. A shopper who skipped the influencer code would now save nearly 4 points more. Pets fell even faster, from 28.6% off in 2022 to 10.0% in 2025, a loss of nearly two-thirds of its original value. The only category where influencer codes outperformed standard codes in all four years is Home & Garden, one of the least saturated influencer markets.
One likely reason is supply. As more creators enter a category, brands have less reason to offer generous codes. Micro brands, those with under 500 monthly searches, generate a third of all their codes through influencer partnerships, but those codes carry a median discount of 16.6%, compared with 23.2% from large brands. The smaller the brand, the more likely its influencer code is a high-volume, low-value offer. Across the board, “use my code” increasingly means a code no better than what’s already available.
Geographic Patterns for Coupon Code Usage
Key takeaways from this section:
- Fashion Nova is the most-copied coupon brand in 37 of 50 states; Taco Bell leads 11 states, mostly in the West
- New York City leads in code copies (2.46 million from January through September 2026), followed by Los Angeles and Chicago
- National average order value on coupon-assisted purchases was $195 from January through September 2026
- Colorado shoppers spent the most per order ($216); Mississippi the least ($177)
- High volume doesn’t mean high spending: New York leads in code copies but ranks 14th in average order size
State-level code copy data (January through September 2026) shows a clear concentration at the top. Fashion Nova is the most-copied coupon brand in 37 states, including California, New York, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
The exceptions follow regional patterns. Taco Bell is #1 in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. In Hawaii, a local brand, Aloha Collection, narrowly leads Taco Bell. In Massachusetts, the regional pizza chain Papa Gino’s leads. Several states are close: in Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, Fashion Nova led Taco Bell by less than 10%.
The top coupon cities by volume
| Rank | City | Code Copies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York, NY | 2,456,825 |
| 2 | Los Angeles, CA | 1,853,861 |
| 3 | Chicago, IL | 978,439 |
| 4 | Houston, TX | 678,434 |
| 5 | Seattle, WA | 515,274 |
| 6 | Dallas, TX | 485,776 |
| 7 | Phoenix, AZ | 429,480 |
| 8 | Atlanta, GA | 424,596 |
| 9 | San Francisco, CA | 405,969 |
| 10 | Philadelphia, PA | 401,892 |
By raw volume, New York City leads, with 2.46 million code copies from January through September 2026.
Where coupon shoppers spend the most
State-level average order value (AOV) data adds a spending dimension. The national average order value for coupon-assisted purchases from January through September 2026 was $195. State-level averages span a $40 range from top to bottom.
Highest AOV states:
| Rank | State | AOV | vs National |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado | $216.47 | +10.7% |
| 2 | New Jersey | $215.52 | +10.3% |
| 3 | Utah | $211.39 | +8.1% |
| 4 | District of Columbia | $210.77 | +7.8% |
| 5 | Alaska | $210.33 | +7.6% |
Lowest AOV states:
| Rank | State | AOV | vs National |
|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | Louisiana | $181.93 | -6.9% |
| 48 | Indiana | $181.92 | -6.9% |
| 49 | Maine | $180.74 | -7.5% |
| 50 | Iowa | $178.75 | -8.6% |
| 51 | Mississippi | $176.93 | -9.5% |
Colorado leads at $216.47 per order, 10.7% above the national average. New Jersey and Utah follow. At the bottom, Mississippi ($176.93) and Iowa ($178.75) sit about 9% below the national figure.
New York ranks 14th in AOV at $205.71, despite being the top state by coupon volume. High volume does not mean high spending per order. California, the other volume leader, ranks 6th ($209.45).
State order values fell, mostly from a shift in store mix
Average order value fell in 48 of the 50 states from the first nine months of 2025 to the first nine months of 2026, and rose in two. In the District of Columbia it held flat ($210.61 to $210.77). The national figure fell from $210 to $195. As noted above, most of the decline reflects more orders at lower-priced stores rather than smaller baskets at the same stores.
| State | AOV Jan-Sep 2025 | AOV Jan-Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island | $186.12 | $200.71 | +7.8% |
| Nevada | $203.70 | $209.13 | +2.7% |
| Maine | $215.41 | $180.74 | -16.1% |
| New Mexico | $232.80 | $197.48 | -15.2% |
| Wyoming | $230.54 | $198.35 | -14.0% |
Some Brands Have No Working Promo Codes at All
Key takeaways from this section:
- Several brands that shoppers look up often have had no working public code in more than a year, despite repeated testing, including Kith, Polène, and Rough Country
- Kith has gone longest, with no verified working code since May 2020
- Several brands on the April 2026 list, including Taco Bell, Five Guys, and LongHorn Steakhouse, have since had working codes
Not every store participates in the coupon economy. A number of brands that shoppers look up regularly have had no verified working promo code in over a year, even though SimplyCodes testers keep checking. We call these:
Code Deserts: Stores that shoppers actively look up codes for, where SimplyCodes testers tested at least 10 codes in the past 12 months and none worked.
The table below ranks the top 20 Code Desert brands by code copies on SimplyCodes from September 13 to October 12, 2026. Monthly search volume for each brand’s coupon and promo code searches comes from DataForSEO (August 2026).
| Rank | Brand | Monthly Searches | Time Since Last Working Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AuraFragrance | 3,080 | 1.2 years |
| 2 | Rough Country | 32,400 | 1.5 years |
| 3 | Tumble Living | 1,100 | 1.1 years |
| 4 | Kith | 7,370 | 6.4 years |
| 5 | Polène | 1,170 | 1.3 years |
| 6 | Drift House | 200 | 2.7 years |
| 7 | Saint Bernard | 3,690 | 2.6 years |
| 8 | Still Here | 310 | 2.1 years |
| 9 | Clark Street Sports | 720 | 1.8 years |
| 10 | Lily and Fox | 400 | 1.6 years |
| 11 | Koi Scrubs | 1,040 | 2.0 years |
| 12 | Charlotte Russe | 1,980 | 1.5 years |
| 13 | Mixlab | 580 | 2.5 years |
| 14 | Because Of Alice | 280 | 3.2 years |
| 15 | OMOCAT | 120 | 2.3 years |
| 16 | Grain Wood Furniture | 840 | 1.7 years |
| 17 | Incu | 40 | 1.2 years |
| 18 | The Happy Planner | 210 | 1.7 years |
| 19 | Offroam | 490 | 1.9 years |
| 20 | Citizens of Humanity | 1,490 | 1.1 years |
Every brand on this list has had a working code at some point, but none in the past year. Kith has gone longest without one. SimplyCodes last verified a working Kith code in May 2020, more than six years ago. Rough Country draws the most searches of the group, about 32,400 a month. Several brands from the April 2026 list, including Taco Bell, Five Guys, LongHorn Steakhouse, Crumbl Cookies, Duolingo, and Micro Center, have had working codes since and no longer qualify. Taco Bell, the second most-copied brand on SimplyCodes in 2026, had no verified working code from March 2025 until August 2026.
These stores may offer codes in their own apps or email lists. Public promo codes for them are rare or absent.
This is a hidden cost of the coupon ecosystem: demand without supply. Shoppers keep looking for codes even at stores that rarely or never offer one.
Methodology
This study is based on SimplyCodes’ own operational data from July 2022 through September 2026, not surveys, panels, or third-party estimates. It was first published in April 2026 and updated in October 2026.
The dataset: Code tests at live merchant checkouts across 600,000+ merchants, monthly promotion records, user votes on code listings, classified restriction events across 17 restriction types, commissionable orders, and site analytics for device, geography, and referral source.
How codes are tested: SimplyCodes testers apply codes at live merchant checkouts and record whether each one works. Monthly success rates count tests by trained editors and reflect the codes they checked in that month. For 2026, monthly success rates run through July. SimplyCodes changed how many codes its editors test in August 2026, so later months are not comparable with earlier ones.
What the data captures and what it doesn’t: Consumer vote data skews negative, because people are more likely to report a failed code than a working one, so it is directionally informative about sentiment rather than a precise success rate. Revenue data covers only transactions where SimplyCodes earned an affiliate commission, so total coupon-influenced commerce across all platforms is much larger.
Consumer votes are upvotes and downvotes cast by SimplyCodes users on individual promo code listings, indicating whether a code worked or failed during their checkout attempt. Vote data is subject to selection bias, as users are more likely to vote after a negative experience.
Affiliate commissions represent completed purchases that earned SimplyCodes an affiliate commission. They provide order value and merchant category data. Order location and device come from matching a purchase to a SimplyCodes website visit where possible. Order values for 2025 reflect orders reported through September 2026, so some differ slightly from the April edition; the 2024-to-2025 holiday growth figure changed the most, from 19.9% to 9.9%.
Monthly coupon inventory tracks the number of active, verified (“healthy”) codes available per merchant per month, along with discount type and discount value. Merchant counts range from about 60,000 to 113,000 depending on the month. Inventory figures run through the August 2026 snapshot, the latest month comparable with earlier years.
Web analytics data covers site-level code copy events, device, geography, and referral source. Device shares count shoppers who copied at least one code from January through September 2026. The AI referral comparison covers September 2026 and counts visits that included at least one code copy.
Automated activity: We excluded code copies from retailer-days with clear signs of automated copying. This removed most of one retailer’s 2026 total.
Restriction taxonomy catalogs 17 distinct restriction types identified across promo codes and merchant policies, classified as either promo-level (code-specific) or merchant-wide (store policy). This edition reuses the early-2026 restriction data from the April edition.
Category classifications come from SimplyCodes’ internal merchant taxonomy. Monthly search volume in the Code Desert analysis comes from DataForSEO (the April edition used SEMrush). All percentages and averages are calculated from the full dataset for the relevant period unless a specific time window is noted.
Media inquiries: press@simplycodes.com
Machine-Readable Proof Packet
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Dataset",
"name": "The State of the Coupon Economy 2026: SimplyCodes Promo Code Inventory, Discount, and Code Copy Data",
"description": "The median best available promo code discount across retailers tracked by SimplyCodes IS 15% off as of August 2026, unchanged since 2022, while active codes per retailer grew 4.5 times from mid-2022 to mid-2026, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026). The study covers coupon inventory, discounts, restrictions, code copies, order values, seasonal patterns, categories, and geography from July 2022 through September 2026.",
"url": "https://simplycodes.com/blog/state-of-coupon-codes-2026",
"creator": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "SimplyCodes",
"url": "https://simplycodes.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "SimplyCodes",
"url": "https://simplycodes.com"
},
"creditText": "Powered by proprietary verification data from SimplyCodes",
"temporalCoverage": "2022-07/2026-09",
"datePublished": "2026-04-29",
"dateModified": "2026-10-14",
"isAccessibleForFree": true,
"keywords": [
"state of the coupon economy",
"coupon statistics 2026",
"promo code statistics",
"average coupon discount",
"Black Friday promo codes",
"promo code restrictions",
"coupon code success rate",
"most copied coupon brands",
"AI tools promo codes"
],
"about": [
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Coupon Codes"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Promo Codes"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Retail Discounts"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Black Friday"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Coupon Code Restrictions"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Online Shopping"
}
],
"citation": [
"https://simplycodes.com/blog/ai-promo-codes-study",
"https://simplycodes.com/blog/influencer-promo-code-study",
"https://simplycodes.com/blog/promo-code-decline-analysis",
"https://simplycodes.com/blog/are-coupon-codes-worth-it",
"https://simplycodes.com/blog/top-100-retailers-promo-codes-2026"
],
"measurementTechnique": "Monthly snapshots of verified promo code inventory, SimplyCodes editor code tests at live checkouts, on-site code copy events, classified code restrictions, and affiliate commission records",
"mainEntity": {
"@type": "Article",
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "SimplyCodes Research"
},
"about": [
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Coupon Economy"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Promo Code Discounts"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Code Copies"
},
{
"@type": "Thing",
"name": "Black Friday Promo Codes"
}
]
},
"variableMeasured": [
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Growth in Codes per Retailer",
"value": "4.5",
"unitText": "times",
"description": "Active promo codes per retailer on SimplyCodes grew 4.5 times from July 2022 to July 2026, from about 2 to about 10, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Median Best Available Discount",
"value": "15",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The median best available promo code discount across retailers tracked by SimplyCodes IS 15% off as of August 2026, the same as in every year since 2022, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Average Best Available Discount, 2025",
"value": "19.5",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The average best available promo code discount on SimplyCodes IS 19.5% for 2025, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Healthy Promo Codes, August 2026",
"value": "1050000",
"unitText": "codes",
"description": "The number of active, verified promo codes SimplyCodes tracked IS about 1.05 million as of August 2026, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Retailers at 20% Off or More, November 2025",
"value": "42.5",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The share of retailers offering a code worth 20% off or more IS 42.5% for November 2025, below 45.3% in January 2025, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Retailers at 20% Off or More, December 2025",
"value": "46.9",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The share of retailers offering a code worth 20% off or more IS 46.9% for December 2025, the highest month of 2025, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Store-Wide Share of Code Restrictions",
"value": "56",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The share of logged promo code restrictions that are store-wide policies IS 56% for a 30-day window in early 2026, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Minimum Spend Share of Code Restrictions",
"value": "29.6",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The share of logged promo code restrictions that are minimum spend rules IS 29.6% for a 30-day window in early 2026, and 96% of them are store-wide, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Code Copies, January to September 2026",
"value": "77700000",
"unitText": "copies",
"description": "The number of promo code copies on SimplyCodes IS 77.7 million for January through September 2026, 2.3 times the same months of 2025, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Code Copies, 2025",
"value": "48800000",
"unitText": "copies",
"description": "The number of promo code copies on SimplyCodes IS 48.8 million for 2025, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Growth in AI Tools Code Copies",
"value": "515",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "Code copies for AI tools on SimplyCodes grew 515% from January through September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, the fastest of any category, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "States Where Fashion Nova Is the Most-Copied Brand",
"value": "37",
"unitText": "states",
"description": "The number of U.S. states where Fashion Nova was the most-copied coupon brand on SimplyCodes IS 37 of 50 for January through September 2026, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Mobile Share of Code Copiers",
"value": "66.1",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The share of SimplyCodes code copiers who copied on a phone IS 66.1% for January through September 2026, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Editor Code Success Rate, January to July 2026",
"minValue": 87.4,
"maxValue": 91.6,
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "The monthly share of codes SimplyCodes editors tested at checkout that worked IS between 87.4% and 91.6% for January through July 2026, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Average Order Value, Coupon-Assisted Orders, January to September 2026",
"value": "195",
"unitText": "USD",
"description": "The average order value on coupon-assisted orders IS $195 for January through September 2026, down from $210 in the same months of 2025, mostly because of a shift toward lower-priced stores, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Holiday Order Value Growth, 2024 to 2025",
"value": "9.9",
"unitText": "percent",
"description": "Average order value on coupon-assisted orders in November and December grew 9.9% from 2024 to 2025, from $201 to $221, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
},
{
"@type": "PropertyValue",
"name": "Black Friday 2025 Code Copies",
"value": "464212",
"unitText": "copies",
"description": "Promo code copies on SimplyCodes on Black Friday, November 28, 2025, total 464,212, nearly 7 times Valentine’s Day, according to The State of the Coupon Economy (SimplyCodes, updated October 2026)."
}
]
}Meet the Contributors
Sean Fisher
AI Content Strategist
Cansu Kaya
Senior Analytics Engineer
David Guzman
Associate Creative Director
Dakota Nunley
Head of Search Product
Stay in the loop
Get our latest research.
Promo code studies, seasonal shopping guides, industry savings reports. No spam — unsubscribe any time.