Taking Advantage of the Group Buying and Daily Deal Space
September 15 2010 by Stephanie Ryska ~ 0 CommentsWhile social media has had a huge effect on how people interact today, it has influenced our society in many other ways too. One of the biggest is through group buying.
Due to the diversity of group buying sites now in existence, many offer slightly different deals in order to differentiate themselves. This article should help you not only understand why these group buying sites have become important, but also what your company can do to maximize the impact social media offers.
Group Buying Basics
Groupon (the progenitor) and LivingSocial offer a basic daily deal delivered through email, Facebook, Twitter, or mobile phone. The deal normally lasts 24 hours and there is no limit to how many people can buy the deal. Groupon recently offered a corporate deal with Gap Clothing store, which generated $11 million in revenue for Gap. While Groupon has seemingly gone corporate, LivingSocial has gone local, creating personalized deals, even localizing neighborhoods within cities.
Clones
Often called “Groupon Clones”, these websites try to offer something different from the basics. From letting businesses limit how many deals are sold or giving shorter or longer time periods for offering the deal to the deal options themselves, these sites attempt to reach groups of people that Groupon has overlooked. Some poplar clones are Trippr and Buy With Me. Many clones are localized and only reach a limited number of areas. A great resource for finding deals in your area is Yipit, a site that gathers and filters daily deals.
The Groupon Killers
Yelp, OpenTable, Zagat and White Pages
Because of high number of existing users on sites such as those listed above, they have been dubbed by some to be the daily deal killers. Their user bases are higher than the number of Groupon subscribers and LivingSocial by millions and they have most of the areas of the US covered, while other deal companies still have many areas to grow into. The nail is not in the coffin yet, because all four are still in the process of testing deals, but Yelp’s first test daily deal out-sold Groupon’s in San Francisco, so the end might be near. Or maybe there is enough demand for group-buying sites and daily deals that they all can coexist. What do you think?
Some Niche Markets
If you have items that appeal to the college crowd, Campus Dibs is your best bet. They only recently launched, but have big plans to reach all large college markets.
Daily deals for B2B are offered by OfficeArrow, where daily deals and discounts are given on office products and services.
GiltCity is offering deals for the ultra trendy and chic, high ends stores, salons, five course meals and VIP seats. On September 14, 2010, they entered six new markets and with a new influx of investment, have big plans to open to all major US markets.
Groupon for Celebrities
Currently there is a Groupon clone in the works called Goodypass. According to TechCrunch, its advantages are that it offers: “access to celebrities to promote the offers and the ‘brand values’ of each celebrity. And it will have a pre-existing audience for those celebs who will be almost certain to push the offers out through social media.”
Brands and businesses have a variety options when choosing how they want to advertise. Since group buying sites have begun to have a measurable influence on how people spend money, it means that companies not only need to do their homework to find the right fit; it also means that becoming involved in this growing area is becoming more and more important.
Related posts:
