Sure! There are several reasons why shops offer coupons. It's a strategic move that benefits businesses in several ways:

**1. Attracting New Customers**: Coupons can lure potential customers who might not have shopped at the store otherwise. The lower prices due to the coupon are a great incentive for people to try new products or brands.

**2. Clearing Old Stock**: Coupons can help businesses sell off-season or near-expiry products faster. This makes way for fresh stock and prevents loss due to unsold goods.

**3. Boosting Sales**: Offering coupons can encourage customers to buy more than they initially planned. For example, a '20% off when you spend $100' coupon might motivate buyers to spend more to get to the discount level.

**4. Encouraging Repeat Business**: Many businesses offer coupons to reward and retain existing customers. This can encourage customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

**5. Cross-Selling and Up-Selling**: Coupons can often be strategically designed for certain related products (like buy a hair shampoo and get conditioner at 50% off), encouraging customers to buy more items.

**6. Spreading the Word**: Customers who find good deals are likely to share this information with their friends, online, or through social media, serving as free advertising.

**7. Data Collection**: When shoppers use coupons, businesses can track the purchasing habits of their customers, which helps them tailor their future marketing efforts.

Therefore, while coupons provide a direct benefit to customers through immediate savings, they are also a valuable tool for businesses and form a crucial part of their marketing strategy.

When customers use coupons, businesses can track their purchasing habits in different ways:

**1. Transactional Data**: When a coupon is used, the transaction becomes part of the company's sales history and the specific details of the transaction (like items bought, time of purchase, and the value of the discount) are recorded. This gives insight into the buying behaviors and preferences of customers.

**2. Customer Registration**: Many businesses require customers to create an account or join a loyalty program to use coupons. This way, businesses can track individual purchasing behavior and attribute it to a specific customer profile.

**3. Digital Coupons**: Digital coupons (online or via mobile) offer data collection opportunities. These coupons can be uniquely coded to each customer, enabling businesses to track who redeemed the coupon, what they bought, and even what prompted them to make the purchase.

**4. Survey or Feedback**: Sometimes, businesses may ask customers to fill out surveys or give feedback in order to redeem coupons. These surveys can provide more qualitative data about customer preferences and habits.

**5. Tracking Codes**: Coupons often carry unique tracking codes. This helps businesses to understand where the customer got the coupon from (like an email campaign, from a specific website, or via a social media post), which can help in evaluating the success of different marketing strategies.

By analyzing this data, businesses can get valuable insights into their customers' behaviors and preferences. They can see which products are popular, which promotions work well, and so on. This information allows them to tailor their offerings and marketing efforts to match customer needs and boost sales.

Absolutely, businesses use various other methods to track customer purchasing habits, including:

**1. Loyalty Programs**: These programs not only encourage repeat business, but also allow companies to monitor what customers purchase over time. This information can be used to create personalized offers and identify buying patterns.

**2. Credit Card Transactions**: When customers make purchases using credit cards, businesses can track and record what products were bought, when, and at what price.

**3. Online Tracking**: For online shoppers, businesses can track web activity, such as which items a customer viewed, how much time they spent looking at those items, what they put in their cart and removed, etc. to understand their interests and behaviors.

**4. Mobile Apps**: Businesses that have their own app can collect data about customers' purchasing habits. Notifications and mobile app only deals also allow businesses to see when users typically interact with the app and what anticipates a purchase.

**5. Sales History**: Just as with coupons, every transaction made provides valuable data about customers' buying habits.

**6. Social Media Activity**: Businesses can track customer behaviors by analyzing their social media activity. Likes, shares, comments, and follows can all show a customer's interest in specific products or types of products.

**7. Surveys and Feedback Forms**: Businesses can also gather information directly from the customer by conducting surveys or feedback forms.

All these methods help businesses gather data about their customers, which they can then analyze to understand customer behaviors, predict future purchasing patterns, and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.