Printable coupons and electronic coupons are both modern versions of the ever useful grocery coupons. Printable coupons are those that you download from websites like Groupon and RedPlum and then you print using your own printer at home. Electronic coupons are those non-physical coupons which are commonly supplied by specific apps on you BlackBerry, Android or iOS mobile device.
Printable coupons came before electronic coupons and so there are more people that are using the former than the latter. But between the two, electronic coupons are much better to use than printable coupons for the following reasons.
Electronic coupons are location based. This means you can only acquire coupons that can be used in any establishment near you. Your smartphone will alert you that a restaurant or a store has this promo and it will give you the coupon so that you can avail of that promo. You cannot do this, of course, with printable coupons.