MyVoucherCodes Launchpad (MVC) will place offers from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on its platform, allowing businesses to reach new and existing customers.

It will be free for businesses to be listed on the site, but MVC will take a commission on sales that go through them.

The service claims it will offer smaller independent merchants such features as a free sign-up, no commission taken for the first three months, and exposure to millions of active users in relevant categories.

Online vouchers have become ubiquitous and are a £90 million industry in the UK.

An Econsultancy survey of 1,000 consumers commissioned by Voucherbox.co.uk reveals that the number of people who frequently seek out discounts when making purchases online grew by almost half over a 12-month period (from 23 per cent in 2014 to 33 per cent in 2015).

The findings also show that those who ‘always’ use a voucher code when shopping jumped by 70 per cent, up to 17 per cent of all consumers, while ‘regular’ users grew 27 per cent, representing 1 per cent of UK shoppers.

Meanwhile, the number of people who say they have never used an online discount dropped by 15 per cent to just over a third (35 per cent).

Around 8 per cent of those surveyed don’t know what a voucher or discount code is; a slight decrease on 2014’s figure of 10 per cent.

Related: How to make a discount code worth more than just a discount

In today’s world of e-commerce, it is commonplace for search for voucher codes. However, until now, only big box merchants with large budgets could afford the time and resources that it normally takes to join an online voucher provider to be able to offer these deals to their customers, MyVoucherCodes says.

Founder of the company Mark Pearson adds, ‘As vouchers are responsible for billions of pounds of UK transactions every year, they are a critical piece of the e-commerce pie. Until now, the high barrier to entry meant vouchers were really only affordable for big box merchants.