Business Opportunities Weblog

June 19, 2009 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

Associated Press:

When Melissa Garcia was frustrated by Old Navy’s scanty coupon offerings, she didn’t just complain to the store. She vented on a message board tied to her blog consumerqueen.com, which is read by at least 30,000 people each month and now, increasingly, by corporate America.

Within weeks, chatter in the so-called mommy blogosphere led Gap Inc.’s Old Navy to begin issuing coupons several times a week, instead of just once a week.

Moms have always had marketplace muscle, but a new frugality driven by rising joblessness, housing woes and other economic problems has them exercising it like never before with the help of the Internet. In this recession, their talk online encompasses everything from complaints to advice on coupon clipping, low-budget meals and family finance.

Retailers and consumer product makers are listening, too — and responding.

After picking up chatter on blogs that was advocating layaway purchase plans be restored at its namesake department stores, Sears Holdings Corp. brought them back over the holidays after a two-decade hiatus. And Sears’ Kmart chain now accepts online coupons and has launched a Web site called Kmart.com/coupons that makes it easier to find specific deals, in response to chatter on mother-oriented blogs.

Photo by ConsumerQueen.com.

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Tags: Advice, Benefits, Blogging