'Net Features : daily deals

Is Wishpond Group Offer App a Groupon Killer?

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:15:00 GMT

Social media marketing platform Wishpond recently released a Group Offer app, allowing retailers to create "group deals" without resorting to the use of third-party deal platforms like Groupon.

The app essentially provides group-buying functionality without the middleman. Existing customers are encouraged to invite their friends to purchase in order to reach the specificed number of participants necessary to unlock the offer/deal.

The Wishpond group-buying app has several important features. Users can purchase with their PayPal credentials on the website or in-store, coupon codes are available (almost necessary to cut down on fraud), built in share buttons to extend offer reach, and Facebook integration (users can even set up a “Like-gate” to grow their fans on Facebook).

Wishpond’s Social Marketing Suite also features several other marketing apps including contest apps for running sweepstakes, Pinterest contests and a whole lot more worth exploring. The product seems to be priced reasonably – the basic offering is $19/mo. And a more design-friendly (CSS customization) and socially-progressive (the Like Gating) version is $45/mo. Agencies looking to white label (no Wishpond branding) the Wishpond app will spend $96/mo.

What most enterprises (retailers, restaurantuers) quickly found about daily deal promotions through services like Groupon was that one of the big advantages of using Groupon was the exposure to a new audience - which is eliminated when you go it alone with an app like that of Wishpond. While the app isn’t right for digital enterprise that are just getting started, those with an large and active audience could stand to benefit greatly.

A More "Nimble" Deal Sharing Network

Administrator — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:15:00 GMT

Think the daily deal market jumped the shark? Perhaps it has but NimbleCommerce isn’t giving up that easy as it has recently launched a new model for daily offers and discount vouchers and is poised to shake up the space rather dramatically.

The company’s new NimbleNetwork, which launched in late September, is a marketplace for publishers, deal suppliers, and merchants to find or promote offers and distribute the revenue. Suppliers are able to add deals and choose the publishers (the networks and aggregators) that can re-sell their offers. As you might imagine, that democratizes the space quite a bit and changes the economics of the offer/voucher space entirely in the process.

"It's getting harder and more expensive for daily deal businesses to source good quality, local deals off the ground; our Network provides a full daily deal service by using partners' strengths, from deal sourcing to distribution," said Prashant Nedungadi, founder and CEO of NimbleCommerce. "The NimbleNetwork will transform their standalone efforts into a far-reaching and successful marketing collective in which everyone benefits."

Several companies, including Cumulus Media, Inc.'s SweetJack.com, Hearst Media's San Francisco Chronicle, Johnston Press' DealMonster.co.uk, and Trinity Mirror's Happli.co.uk, are already trading offers via the NimbleNetwork.

"The NimbleNetwork is an innovative approach that promises to move the offer and voucher space forward by encouraging collaboration that benefits publishers, partners, and merchants alike," said Daniel Caplin, vice president of social commerce at Cumulus Media, Inc.

So Long, Groupon?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Are we done with daily deals (yet)? According to data from competitive intelligence provider eDataSource, it certainly appears so, as they released a report which indicated a significant drop (20 percent) in sales and an increase in the rate of refunds.

The eDataSource report reveals that July sales declined in both monetary volume and number of units compared to May and June. The good news is that the average deal price held steady in a range of $30 to $32 during the May to July period. That's good for users of the site and Groupon itself.

"Groupon took the retail world by storm but has had a tough year as a public company," said John Latona, head of eDataSource's ecommerce intelligence service, “our report helps people who are following Groupon understand what is happening now."

It's important to note that that the eDataSource report focused exclusively on U.S. sales. Groupon however has a rather extensive International presence.

SaveLocal Now Open to All U.S. Merchants

Allison Howen — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:00:00 GMT

Small businesses can now leverage Constant Contact’s SaveLocal platform to run customizable local deals.

The platform, which is the company’s answer to the daily deals industry, originally launched in February, but was previously only available to Constant Contact customers. However, now SaveLocal is available to all U.S. businesses.

The platform addresses some of the problems with the current daily deals model by offering merchants complete control of their promotions, as well as allowing them to run deals that incentivize social sharing, attract new customers and drive repeat business.

According to Dave Gilbertson, the vice president and general manager of SaveLocal, merchants not only requested a deal tool that they could control, but that would also help them make a profit and acquire new customers.

“Those all seemed like pretty reasonable things to ask from a business owner trying to make a living, but unfortunately, the traditional deals model fell short on every one of these goals,” says Gilbertson. “SaveLocal flips that model on its head and gives the merchant complete control of the deal: they control the discount amount, the terms of the deal, timing, and how many coupons to sell. And we’ve already seen some truly amazing results. We couldn’t be more excited about making this product widely available.”

SaveLocal enables merchants to set deal parameters, including the discount amount, terms of the deal, timing and how many coupons will be sold. Additionally, merchants only pay a $1, $2 or $3 fee per coupon purchased, depending on the value of the deal. Interested merchants can learn more about the platform, or sign up for free here.

25 Percent of Daily Deal Buys on Mobile Devices

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT

The mobile market for daily deals is significant, according to information released today from market leader Groupon.

The daily deal powerhouse announced that one-quarter of all Groupon vouchers were purchased via a mobile device. Groupon also indicated that both consumer and merchant app usage was up significantly year-over-year – increasing by more than three times from the previous December to more than 9 million. What’s even more impressive is that more than 12,000 of its merchant partners used Groupon’s merchant mobile app to redeem vouchers and track purchases.

“Groupon continues to change the way people shop locally,” says Mihir Shah, VP of Mobile, Groupon. “As smartphone adoption increases and the capabilities of our mobile products evolve, we look forward to harnessing the power of mobile to make it even easier for merchants partners around the world to run and market their businesses effectively.”

ROI Transparency at Daily Deal Leader Groupon

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT

In an effort to counter some of the lingering questions about the efficacy of its program, daily deals powerhouse Groupon has released a new Online Merchant Center. The platform provides sellers access to a dashboard-style view of performance across feature deals running on Groupon Now! and Groupon Rewards.

The performance dashboard provides details on customer acquisition, incremental customer spending and ROI from Groupon marketing services. The Online Merchant Center also provides real-time customer feedback for tracking customer comments.

“Our merchants’ needs are evolving,” said Mihir Shah, Vice President of Product at Groupon. “More and more businesses are incorporating all three of Groupon’s core services – feature deals, Groupon Now! deals and Groupon Rewards – into their marketing mixes. Groupon’s new Merchant Center brings the ‘big picture’ to the forefront while delivering granular data for each Groupon service, as well as insight into how they’re performing with customers. It’s an easier way to evaluate the success of Groupon campaigns at multiple levels, which is critical for busy merchants.”

The Groupon Merchant Center is but one of several new product launched by Groupon including the free online scheduling tool Groupon Scheduler.

Best of 2011- Daily Deal Sites for Merchants

Allison Howen — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Everyone loves a deal.

But no consumer can sign up for the more than 600 daily deal sites that saturated the online deal market in 2011. That would be a lot of emails in the inbox.

So, with all of the daily deal sites available, how is a merchant to know the best ones to which they should offer promotions? Many aspects come into play; for instance, some daily deal sites have better concepts than others, while others have more traffic.

Let’s take a look at some of the best daily deal sites of 2011 so that merchants can decide which sites provide the best opportunities for their deals in 2012.

Groupon

Although Groupon’s traffic has recently been on a decline, there is no denying it still gets a lot of visitors -- more than 15 million unique visitors in November 2011, according to Compete.com. And if that is not a good enough reason for the company to be part of WM's Best of 2011, the fact that the company peaked at more than 33 million unique visitors in June 2011 definitely puts it on the list. There is no doubt that the future of Groupon is something for all Web workers to watch closely (and perhaps cautiously), but because it is the site that launched the category and because it is still the preeminent leader among daily deal sites, it is a more than viable option for merchants who want their deals to be seen. A close second, and an option that some believe will eventually overtake Groupon, is LivingSocial.

Gilt City

This site calls itself “an online lifestyle destination.” Currently, the site provides offers to more than 10 major U.S. cities, and received more than 335,000 unique visitors in November 2011, according to Compete. When a merchant decides to partner with Gilt City, the company helps brainstorm offer ideas, writes a feature that showcases the business, sends out emails and more. Notable statistics from the company include 90 percent of users share their experiences with two or more friends, 70 percent are likely to return to the business that they visited through Gilt City and 55 percent spend more than the offer that they are redeeming – which are all impressive statistics for merchants looking to get in the daily deal game.

Yipit

This site is a daily deal aggregator, meaning that it takes deals from sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and Yelp and recommends the best deals to its users based on their personalized preferences. Yipit provides deals in 118 cities, and its number of unique visitors continues to increase, reaching more than 157,000 in November 2011.

DailyDeals.com

This daily deal site makes the list because of its unique point of difference – it includes no local deals. DailyDeals.com is a deal website for national and online-only stores. By targeting ecommerce and national brands, DailyDeals.com hopes to gain much of its traffic through emails and social media. The reasoning behind this is because customers won’t be limited to only sharing great deals with people living in similar locations. Instead, customers can share a great deal on Facebook and share it with all of their friends -- no matter where they live. With more than 68,000 unique visitors in November, this site is a strong option for Web retailers.

Where You Shop

This startup site has a lot of promise because of its unique approach to finding deals that fit consumers' shopping habits and hot spots. Upon signup, users are shown a local map to pinpoint frequently visited areas such as their homes, schools and workplaces. Offers are emailed to members based on these pre-defined areas and, because of this location-based technology, users do not receive deals outside of their most frequently visited areas. Where You Shop has a unique visitor rate of more than 10,000 in November, which has been on the upswing since the website launched in April 2011.

Google Offers Aggregates to Offer More Deals

Allison Howen — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:35:00 GMT

An oversaturated daily deal market, combined with the difficulty that consumers continue to face in finding relevant deals, has led Google to turn its deal product – Google Offers – into an aggregator similar to the concept behind Yipit and Bing Deals.

To make these new deals happen, Google Offers teamed up with 14 daily deal sites including Dealfind, Gilt City, kgbdeals and TIPPR. The collaboration should prove to be beneficial for both sides because the smaller sites will gain exposure while Google Offers will obtain more deals.

To deliver these aggregated deals, Google is enlisting the help of its users, releasing the equivalent of a deal-filtering system in the form of a personalization quiz. Deal seekers are able to select from a pre-determined list of categories during sign-up including outdoor adventure, luxury experiences, family-friendly events and classes. The personalization quiz also inquires about the user’s interests and hang-out spots in order to find and send out offers that best match the type of deals that the user is looking for.

Currently, the personalization quiz is available in all cities but the new deals are only available to subscribers in the San Francisco Bay area, and will be rolling out to new cities in the coming months. Google Offers is currently available in 17 cities, with an additional 23 cities coming soon.

Personalization in Daily Deals & Flash Sales

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:30:00 GMT

Ecommerce personalization provider Baynote and marketing application provider Crowd Factory have joined forces to provide a solution that will allow marketers to develop and deploy contextual flash deals, referral offers and group deals.

What makes the announcement newsworthy is that instead od displaying offers and incentives in an arbitrary (non-targeted) way, Baynote allows Crowd Factory offers to be presented to individual visitors based on their interests and “frame of mind”.

"Flash deals and referral offers are an exciting area of innovation in e-commerce, but they often dismiss a crucial element: what a customer is actually interested in buying when they see an offer," said John Kelly, chief operating officer at Baynote. "If a visitor is interested in buying a fleece jacket but is offered a daily deal on a swimsuit, that deal will almost never convert. We're thrilled to be working with Crowd Factory to make social offers much more relevant to shoppers."

Google Introduces Wallet and More Deals

Michael Garrity — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Monday was a big day for Google, with the company purchasing the aptly named German daily deals site DailyDeal, as well as rolling out Google Wallet.

The purchase of DailyDeal marks their second big daily deal site buyout in the last two months, with the first being their acquisition of Dealmap.

DailyDeal was started in late 2009, but showed rapid growth with a reported 252,000 vouchers sold in the first quarter of 2011. They've also gone from just two employees to around 200 as of quarter two of this year.

A German newspaper is reporting that the purchase cost Google somewhere between $150 million and $200 million.

It's likely that Google procured DailyDeal as another method of kickstarting its slow-growing daily deal service Google Offers, which saw a steep revenue decline between the months of July and August.

Having more daily deals services in its back pocket should help Google to round out the launch of Google Wallet, the NFC-based mobile payment service. The application will be available to owners of the Sprint Nexus S Android phone and, with the initial rollout, will only be applicable for users who have PayPass-enabled Citi MasterCards.

Groupon Facing Stiff Competition

Michael Garrity — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:00:00 GMT

E-commerce is a rough game, and that is a lesson that the Chicago-based daily deals website Groupon is learning first hand. Over the last two days, they've seen two of their primary competitors in the daily deals business partner with Internet powerhouses Google and Amazon, respectively.

The first big bombshell dropped on August 1, when Google announced that they had acquired Dealmap, a site that compiles local offers and then displays them for users on a Google-powered map. It's safe to assume, then, that this agreement will lead to deals being blended with the traditional Google Maps site in the near future. As many have noted, Google have a number of location services at the moment, but none of them really sync up to create a cohesive experience for users. The acquisition of Dealmap should help to expand on Google Offers, the company's current daily deal site, as they continue to expand their mobile and social platforms.

Interestingly, just last year Groupon rejected a $6 billion acquisition deal from Google.

It is also important to note that Groupon offers are actually among the many deals displayed on Dealmap.

As if that wasn't enough, just one day later Amazon came out with an announcement about Amazon Local, their own venture into the world of daily deals. And to add insult to injury, Amazon Local's initial rollout will take place in Groupon's hometown of Chicago.

LivingSocial, Groupon's closest competitor, has signed on to be the sales force behind merchant partnerships with the service. Though Amazon plans to eventually hire its own sales force, at the beginning they will outsource sales to help quickly get the project off the ground.

In December 2010, Amazon invested $175 million into LivingSocial, so by enlisting them as its sales force, they will begin to see some of that investment come back to them.

While Groupon has thus far been successful in thwarting the attempts of smaller start ups like LivingSocial, Gilt City, and Zozi, they will likely have their hands full with the onslaught of these existing large companies with a huge Web presence. Companies like Google and Amazon (or AT&T and American Express, who also expressed interest in pursuing daily deals programs) will have to pay far less than start ups for user acquisition, as the users already exist; it just becomes a matter of extending an offers channel within the site's existing framework.

What does this mean for Groupon, or more importantly, for future retailers who use their service? Only time will really tell, but it's certainly something many people are going to want to keep an eye on in the near future.

This Deals Startup Actually Has Game

Linc Wonham — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:00:00 GMT

A new company called Squarz says its goal is to change the way merchants view retail marketing and the way consumers view daily deals sites. Sound familiar?

Probably, with a new twist to daily deals cropping up almost every day now, but this one is legitimately twisted – not to mention highly innovative and equally intriguing.

Chicago-based Squarz merges savings, sweepstakes and sports into an opportunity for merchants to drive new customers to retail through compelling offers and valuable prizes. The patented technology allows Squarz to cut through an increasingly cluttered online savings environment with perhaps a stronger marketing message than the typical savings and deal sites.

Because consumers are engaged at more than just price point (Squarz also offers links to sports and big prizes), Squarz can offer opportunities to merchants that are more profitable in both the short and long term. And unlike other sites, it’s a win for both consumers and merchants.

When Squarz members purchase a deal, they also receive a 1-in-100 chance of winning a grand prize, typically offered by the same merchant. The winner of the prize is determined by a sports event, like in the traditional game of office squares. The patented Squarz Board is unique because the winner of each board is determined by the final score (or other pre-designated statistic), and uses a random generator to determine each square’s corresponding number prior to game start.

Each day Squarz showcases a variety of active deals that correspond to upcoming sporting events — there are grand prizes associated with each game.

“Squarz is a new take on retail marketing,” explains Chris Foufas, who founded Squarz. “The business model works to not only engage, incentivize and drive new customers, but can also be used to improve performance of existing customer databases with low click-through rates due to email fatigue. We’re working with local, regional and national merchants to develop win-win programs. Promotions that are profitable for our merchant partners and offer great prizes and create a fun experience that will return customers both to the Squarz site and to the retailer.”

Squarz is an example of the growing technology innovation culture being cultivated in Chicago, the most famous of its startups being the daily deals originator itself, Groupon. Lifelong Chicagoan and Squarz CEO Foufas has assembled a highly skilled team of professionals from technology, marketing and retail sectors including Squarz’s newly appointed CMO Joe Sciara, who has more than 20 years of experience in retail and sports marketing on a variety of national consumer brands.

Squarz has been in development for 18 months and is nearing the end of Beta testing, working primarily with Abt Electronics as a testing partner. Squarz is currently available only in Chicago with plans to expand to other major markets nationally over the next year.

Booqoos Launches Online Deal Marketplace

Linc Wonham — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:00:00 GMT

A new company of interest launched in the competitive daily deals space last week. Called Booqoos, the Austin, Texas-based startup aims to offer a better way for merchants and consumers to manage online deals.

For merchants, Booqoos claims to provide a powerful platform with complete control and self-management of deals to suit individual business goals, and instant distribution through multiple channels. For consumers, Booqoos aggregates deals from other sites, as well its own, creating a one-stop shop with the ability to search by location, date and product/service category.

Booqoos’ do-it-yourself platform claims to be a smarter choice for local small and medium-sized businesses. Unlike other deal sites, Booqoos aims to be more than a discount solution for merchants: instead striving to be a full marketing platform that gives businesses unparalleled control over their deals.

With Booqoos, merchants have the power to:

• Self-manage deals— Create deals with no minimum required discount, place caps on the number of deals available, plan deals up to a year in advance, and distribute them to consumers via email, social media and/or Booqoos.com all in one click

• Feature multiple deals— Present multiple deals at once; package deals to upsell slow-moving items or excess inventory

• Optimize scheduling— Set up traditional open-ended coupons or offer deals available only for specific, scheduled time slots to increase business during slower times

• Avoid deep cuts into profit margins— Post a deal at half the cost of other deal sites and customize it to meet the business’ unique needs

“Booqoos is better for businesses, and better for buyers,” co-founder Tina Cannon says. “It gives merchants the flexibility to optimize deals to better suit their needs and gives shoppers an easy-to-use platform that cuts down on the clutter and confusion of countless deal emails.”

B2B Deals with RapidBuyr and BuyerZone

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Daily deals site RapidBuyr, which focuses on national and local deals for small and mid-size businesses) has partnered with business-to-business lead generation company BuyerZone (a division of Reed Business Information). Through the partnership, RapidBuyr expands its distribution network to 11 million more daily deal recipients.

RapidBuyr offers deals on products and services including hardware, software, web development, IT outsourcing, SaaS and cloud offerings, and more. RapidBuyr’s first deals were launched in April 2011 and currently distributes deals to more than 8 million small businesses through email. RapidBuyr is also partnered with American City Business Journals.

“BuyerZone’s qualified network of businesses paired with RapidBuyr’s deep discounts on business products and services makes this an ideal partnership,” said Tom Aley, chairman and CEO of RapidBuyr. “By continuing to expand our distribution network, we’re bringing an approach that has been extremely successful in the consumer marketplace to millions of small businesses – helping them lower costs without sacrificing on quality.”

Daily Deals Future is in Search

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:40:00 GMT

Despite many claiming that daily deal exhaustion has set in, there remains no shortage of sites arriving on the market - just look at recent WM coverage of daily deals for example. To date however, there have been few which really empower users to find exactly the kind of deal they want, when they want it.

Experian company PriceGrabber aims to capitalize on this opportunity with the launch of its local deal platform,which aggregates deals from more than 20 local deals websites including Groupon, HomeRun and Eversave, letting users sear

“The relationship with PriceGrabber enables Eversave to expand our customer base,” said Kim Hine, director of marketing at Eversave. “Both merchants and consumers have embraced the daily deal model, and leveraging the new relationship with PriceGrabber will help us continue our growth trajectory.”

Wether search will truly be one of the core aspects of the daily deals market in the future is anyone guess, but PriceGrabber's experience coupled with an obvious need positions it well to compete in the future.