Web Sites Let You Net Shopping Coupons

So you've spent hours clipping coupons and fumbling at check-out counters - and you're wondering if there's a better way to save some bucks.

It's becoming the catch-all answer for so much else, why not go to the Web? Several sites dispense discount coupons.

The sites generally have one of two ways - or both - of tackling the coupon task. One way is to let you get online coupons to cut the cost of items you buy from an online retailer.

With the other way, you find the coupons you want, print them out on your printer and take the coupons to the store for redemption.

The online coupon generally gives you a link to take you from the coupon site to the online retailer. In the other method, after going to the coupon site, you key in your zip code for a search of the participating stores near you.

Web sites offering coupons include CoolsSavings, which is owned by Chicago-based Coolsavings.com Inc. , and Bedford, Mass.-based CouponSurfer.com Inc.

A third such service is offered by ValuPage. It's operated by SuperMarkets Online Inc., a unit of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina Marketing Corp.

Most sites make money by charging stores to carry their coupons or similar promotions. Some get a small piece of every sale made using their site-generated coupons.

The Web is a great vehicle for coupons, say observers. Web surfers search for select coupons. By contrast, coupons distributed by direct mail are just broadly going out to big numbers of people, the great majority of whom will throw away the coupons.

The number of sellers using Web coupons still is relatively limited, but growing. CoolSavings offers coupons for 300 companies, says Chief Executive Steven Golden. The companies include J.C. Penney Co., Kmart Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

We're giving consumers one place to stop and save before they shop - be it in traditional brick-and-mortar stores or in e-commerce,'' Golden said.

Begun in March 1997, CoolSavings claims to have signed up 1.4 million members. Golden says the site is signing up about 7,500 members per day.

CouponSurfer is another Web site that lets consumers print out coupons and then redeem them at applicable shops. CouponSurfer lets you search for coupons based on product or category. You also can be notified by e-mail when certain discounts become available.

CouponSurfer went online in October. ''We think our site is the easiest to use,'' said Chief Executive Adam Schwartz. CouponSurfer offers discounts from 30 to 40 companies at any given time. They include national brands such as Florsheim Shoes and Alamo Rent A Car.

Most of the site's coupons are for online purchases.

Schwartz says CouponSurfer is on track to reach its goal of more than 1 million registered users by year-end.

ValuPage carries coupons, rebates and other offers from 9,000 supermarkets nationwide, such as Pathmark, A&P and Grand Union. Enter your zip code and the site will direct you to coupons for supermarkets in your area.

When you click on the supermarket of your choice, you'll get lists of discounts.

''You access all supermarket savings available on the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week,'' said David Rochon, president of the company that runs ValuPage.

ValuPage credits your savings in terms of ''Web bucks.'' You use a Web buck the first time and the store will credit your account, but you don't actually get the savings until the next time to go to that same store.

Rochon says Web bucks are a more secure way of giving discounts online. It also keeps customers coming back.

Rochon says ValuPage is getting about 650,000 visits a week, compared with a few thousand when the site opened in January 1998.