At Savings.com, we celebrate coupons on a daily basis. But we were still stoked to hear that September is National Coupon Month. We're not surprised that an entire month had been dedicated to coupons--given the steady rise of usage we've witnessed over the last months.

The number of people looking for online discounts at sites like Savings.com has increased by nearly 50% between Feb and Aug of 2009--even as the total retail sales dropped 9% during the months of May - July 2009 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Even more disheartening is the expectation that online retail sales are expected to decrease for the first time in 2009, according to eMarketer's new report.

Despite all this dismal news, coupon sites like Savings.com are generating more sales for retailers than ever. Online coupons are now accounting for over 3% of all the coupons used, and their use has more than doubled since 2008.

The behavior of people searching for the right coupon or deal has remained relatively stable since the beginning of the year. But with increased traffic--i.e.; more people making the effort to find coupons--more people are finding deals that they feel compelled to use. The really interesting part about the whole thing is that, while the same percentage of people are finding deals and coupons interesting enough to click on has stayed the same, the percentage of people who actually purchase using that coupon has gone up dramatically. BrandWeek recently posted about how this new enthusiasm for coupons was leading to higher coupon redemption rates.

These were the top five retailers and the top five deals on Savings.com for August 2009:

So all hail the almighty coupon!